Puebla · 3 h · Meat · Main course · For experienced cooks
Mole poblano
In German: Mole aus Puebla · In English: Puebla-style mole
For 8 servings · US units
Puebla's dark chile-and-chocolate sauce over tender chicken
Mole poblano is Puebla's great celebration dish: a deep, dark sauce built from mulato, ancho and pasilla chiles, fried nuts, toasted spices and dark chocolate, simmered down for hours until it turns glossy and velvety. Chicken pieces go in to soak up all that flavor, and the table gets red rice, beans and warm tortillas alongside. Make the sauce a day ahead if you can — it only gets rounder overnight.
Ingredients
- 3⅓ lbchickenturkey works too; boiled or browned
- 7 ozdried, seeded and deveinedA dried pod from a poblano type that ripens to a deep brown, broad and leathery, with a dark, sweetish flavour and mild heat.Substitute: The closest substitute is the ancho, which comes from the same plant type; it is a little fruitier and lighter, so the sauce turns out less dark and less bittersweet. Adding a pasilla chile partly makes up for the missing depth, though it does not fully reproduce the mulato's own chocolate-like character.Read more
- 6⅓ ozdried, seeded and deveinedA dried ripe poblano pepper, broad, wrinkled and nearly black-red, with mild heat and a sweet flavour of raisins and cocoa.Substitute: The closest match is mulato, a darker, more chocolatey dried form of the same poblano; pasilla or guajillo also work, pasilla being more bitter, guajillo brighter, tangier and a little hotter. Ground ancho powder gives the flavour but not the smooth body of a puréed pod. Sweet paprika with a little mild chili powder is only a stopgap: the colour and warmth are roughly right, but the raisin sweetness and body are missing.Read more
- 2¾ ozdried, seeded and deveinedA dried chilaca pepper, long, narrow, almost black and wrinkled, with mild to medium heat and a flavour of raisins, cocoa and herbs.Substitute: The closest are ancho (dried poblano) or mulato; both are similarly mild and dark but sweeter and less bitter, so the slightly bitter, herbal note of pasilla is missing. Chili powder or paprika are not a useful substitute, as they lack the body and depth.Read more
- 2soaked, for heat and smokinessA smoked, dried jalapeño, smoky and assertively hot.Substitute: Hot smoked paprika topped up with a little cayenne matches the smoke and heat, but not the fruity, raisin-like depth or the body a whole pod gives a sauce.Read more
- 14⅛ oztomatoesroasted or fried
- 2onionquartered, charred
- 4 clovesgarlicroasted
- 1¾ ozsesame seedstoasted, some reserved for garnish
- 2½ ozpeanutsfried until golden
- 2¾ ozalmondsskin on, fried until golden
- 2½ ozraisinssoaked or briefly fried
- 1stale, fried; thickens the sauceA flat, oval Mexican white roll with two lengthwise grooves across the top, a soft crumb and a thin, tender crust.Substitute: The closest match is a soft, flat white roll or a ciabatta roll that is not too crusty, split horizontally; soft milk rolls or burger buns also work but are sweeter and airier. Crusty rolls with a hard shell are a poor fit, because they shatter when filled and toasted and push the filling out.Read more
- 2dry, torn and friedThin flatbreads made from nixtamalized corn dough, with a gently earthy corn flavour.Substitute: Homemade ones from masa harina are just as good, whereas ordinary cornmeal or polenta won't bind into a dough. Wheat tortillas work for filling but taste blander, are softer and don't crisp the same way when fried.Read more
- 4¼ ozdark chocolateMexican table chocolate or bittersweet
- 1Cinnamontoasted with the spices
- 4Clovestoasted
- 1 tspanise seedtoasted on a griddle
- 1 tspblack pepperpartly allspice berries
- 5¼ ozlardfor frying chiles and other ingredients; oil as substitute
- 6⅓ cupschicken brothfor blending and thinning the sauce
- 1ripe, sliced and fried (optional)A large, starchy banana that is only eaten cooked; firm and potato-like when green, soft and sweetish once the skin turns black.Substitute: There is no good substitute, because dessert bananas fall apart when fried and are much sweeter. For dishes using ripe plantain, very firm, slightly underripe bananas will do at a pinch, though they turn softer and taste more of banana.Read more
- 1 ozpumpkin seedshulled, fried until puffed (optional)
- sugarto balance the bitterness
- saltto taste
Method
- Simmer the chicken pieces in water with onion, garlic and salt until the meat is tender. Strain the broth and keep it warm — you'll need it for blending and for thinning the sauce later.
- Stem the mulato, ancho and pasilla chiles, shake out the seeds and pull away the veins. Fry them in batches in hot lard for just a few seconds so they don't turn bitter, then soak them with the chipotles in hot broth, or simmer them until soft.
- Toast the sesame seeds and anise seed in a dry pan until fragrant, setting aside some of the sesame for sprinkling at the end.
- Fry the almonds, peanuts, raisins, the stale bread roll, the torn corn tortillas and the cinnamon stick, cloves, peppercorns and allspice in lard, one batch at a time, until golden. If you like, fry slices of ripe plantain now too, and fry the pumpkin seeds until they puff.
- Roast or fry the tomatoes, quartered onions and garlic cloves until soft and lightly charred.
- Blend the soaked chiles with a little broth until very smooth and push the purée through a sieve. Then blend the nuts, raisins, bread, tortilla, spices, sesame and the tomato mixture with broth until fine, and strain that too.
- Fry the chile purée in hot lard until it thickens and darkens. Combine both purées in a large pot and let them reduce over gentle heat, stirring constantly — it takes time, but that's where the flavor comes from.
- Stir in the chocolate, season with salt and sugar, and keep simmering until the sauce is thick and the fat rises to the surface. Loosen it with broth to the consistency you want.
- Slip the meat into the sauce and let it warm through, or arrange it on plates and spoon the sauce over. Serve hot, scattered with the reserved toasted sesame, with red rice, beans and warm tortillas.
Tips and variations
Instead of chicken pieces you can use legs, a whole bird cut up, turkey or sliced turkey breast; the meat can simply be boiled in broth, or browned in lard and braised in a tomato-chipotle mixture. In a hurry, there's a much simplified version that skips the mulato, ancho and pasilla chiles altogether: chipotle only, plus fried plantain and plenty of dark chocolate, with the sauce cooking for just about 10 minutes. At the other end, you can prepare the components separately — chiles, nuts and seeds, tomatoes with plantain, spices, bread and tortilla — blending each one into the sauce in turn, ideally the day before. Olive oil or a neutral oil stands in for lard, and pecans, pumpkin seeds, tomatillos, cumin, thyme and oregano add further depth. Control the heat through the number of chiles you use. Handy when you're feeding a crowd: cook the sauce a day ahead and cook the meat on the day itself — then bring everything to the table with rice, beans and tortillas.
Allergens
Contains: Peanuts, Cereals containing gluten, Tree nuts, Sesame, Sulphur dioxide and sulphites
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
