Mexican Mole Sauce Recipes

AUTHENTIC MOLE SAUCE

Steps:

• Toast guajillo chiles, ancho chiles, and chipotle chiles in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until warm and aromatic, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the blender with chicken broth.
• Heat 2 cups chicken broth in a saucepan until it begins to simmer, about 5 minutes. Pour broth into a blender.
• Toast dinner roll pieces and tortilla strips in a dry pan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Transfer to the blender with chicken broth and chiles
• Allow the chiles and toasted bread and tortillas to soak, fully submerged, in the chicken broth until softened, about 10 minutes. Blend the mixture until smooth.
• Cook tomatoes and tomatillos in a dry skillet on medium-high heat until soft and blackened, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Place tomatoes in the blender with the chile puree.
• Melt lard in a large skillet over medium heat. Stir in onion, garlic, peanuts, raisins, cumin seeds, thyme, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and allspice berries; cook and stir until onions are soft and golden, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove the cinnamon sticks and other whole spices; add onion mixture to the blender with the chile-tomato mixture and blend until smooth.
• Pour chile puree into a large saucepan over medium heat. Stir in chocolate chicken broth, sugar, and salt. Bring mixture to a simmer; stir until chocolate is melted and sauce is thickened and slightly reduced, 10 to 15 minutes.

MOLE (MO-LAY) SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat oil in a large saucepan over med.
• low heat.
• Add onion, garlic, oregano, cumin and cinnamon.
• Cover and cook until onion is almost tender, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
• Mix in chili powder and flour, stir for 3 minutes.
• Gradually whisk in chicken broth.
• Increase heat to med. high.
• Boil until reduced, about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Remove from heat.
• Whisk in chocolate; season with salt and pepper, if desired.

A SIMPLE MOLE ROJO RECIPE

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Heat the lard in a large skillet over medium-low to medium heat.
• Add the onion and garlic and cook until the onions become translucent, about 8 to 10 minutes. When the onion softens enough to drape over your spatula, set the skillet aside. Reserve.
• In a high-speed blender, puree the roasted tomatoes with the peanuts or peanut butter.
• Add the Mexican oregano, cinnamon, anise seeds, peppercorns, thyme, clove, and cocoa powder and blend at high speed to make a smooth paste.
• Add the reserved sautéed onions to the blender and puree again until the mixture becomes very smooth.
• Add the raisins and soaked chiles and blend into a smooth paste.
• Pour 4 cups of chicken broth in a medium pot, and reserve 1/4 for later use.
• Whisk the masa with the reserved 1/4 cup of chicken broth to create a roux.
• Stir the roux into the pot and whisk until smooth.
• Add the pureed ingredients to the pan. Cover and simmer for 1 hour until the mole turns thick and aromatic.
• Uncover, taste, and add salt, if needed.
• Use your homemade mole as a sauce over your preferred dishes. Enjoy!

MOLE SAUCE

Steps:

• Add chicken, garlic, onion, bay leaf, chicken bouillon, salt, oregano and water to pot. Bring to a low boil and cook over medium heat until chicken is just cooked through, about 30 minutes. Remove chicken to a plate, (reserving the broth) cover to keep it warm and set aside.
• Add the sesame seeds to a large dry skillet over medium heat and cook them, stirring constantly, until toasted. Be careful not to burn them. Set aside.
• Use scissors to cut a line down all the chilies to open them up flat. Remove veins and seeds.
• Add a few tablespoons of oil to the skillet over medium heat. In a separate large saucepan, add 2 cups of water and turn heat to medium-low.
• Once oil in the skillet is hot, add one layer of chilies at a time to the skillet, frying on both sides for just a few seconds, careful not to burn them, then transfer them to the saucepan of water.
• We will continue to fry most of the remaining ingredients, one at a time, so add a little oil between each batch, as needed, just to coat the bottom of the pan.
• Fry the peanuts stirring often so they toast but don't burn, about 45 seconds. Add to the pot. Repeat with almonds, then raisins, then animal crackers, then corn tortilla, and bread slices, adding each to the saucepan and pressing down as much as possible into the water.
• Turn skillet heat to medium-high and add more oil if needed to coat the bottom of the pan. Add onion and fry for 1-2 minutes. Add garlic and fry for just a few seconds before spooning the onion and garlic into the pot. Add sliced plantain to the hot oil and fry on both sides, then add to the pot.
• Reduce heat to medium and add peppercorns, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, anise, and crushed red pepper to hot oil and fry for a few seconds, stirring constantly, then add to the pot.
• To the saucepan with all of the ingredients, stir in 1 teaspoon oregano, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 ½ teaspoons chicken bouillon.
• Add the chopped chocolate to a bowl and pour some of the chicken broth into it, to help it melt. Set aside.
• Add 2 tablespoons lard or oil to a large saucepan. Once melted, remove from heat and set aside.
• Working in batches, add everything from the pot with the chilies to a blender and add enough of the reserved chicken broth to allow the mixture to blend. During one of the batches, add ¼ cup of reserved toasted sesame seeds. Blend each batch for several minutes, until completely smooth, adding more chicken broth if needed.
• Pour sauce through a fine mesh strainer (discarding what's leftover in the strainer) into the pot with the melted lard.
• After everything has been blended and strained to the pot, add the melted chocolate and broth mixture (you can blend it too, if the chocolate has not completely melted), to the pot. Add 1 Tablespoon of brown sugar, to start, then add more to taste, as needed.
• Cook the mole sauce over medium-low heat for 30 minutes to 1 hour, stirring often. If the mixture is too thick, add more chicken broth (I usually end up using all of the remaining chicken broth). Taste and add salt or sugar, as needed.
• Place chicken on a plate and ladle a big spoonful of sauce on top, then garnish with sesame seeds. Serve with Mexican rice and warm corn tortillas on the side.

EASY MOLE RECIPE

Steps:

• In a large skillet, roast the tomatoes.
• Add the dried ancho chile.
• Toast for 1 minute on each side.
• Remove immediately.
• If the chile burns, the sauce will be bitter.
• Continue roasting the tomatoes while you boil 4 cups of water.
• Remove the stems and open up the anchos to remove the seeds.
• Discard the stems and the seeds.
• Place the anchos inside the boiling water.
• Turn the heat off and let them sit in the hot water for 5 minutes, or until pliable.
• Roast the tomatoes on all sides.
• Add the onion, garlic, and bread to the skillet.
• Char all the sides of the onions as well.
• Remove the garlic and bread once toasted.
• Remove the onions and tomatoes once they are ready.
• Discard the water from the dried chiles.
• Place the rehydrated dried chiles, tomatoes, onion, garlic, and bread into a blender.
• Add 1 cup of water.
• Blend until smooth.
• Heat the olive oil in a stock pot.
• Place a strainer over the top of the stock pot.
• Carefully and slowly strain the mole sauce into the stock pot.
• Remove strainer.
• Add the chicken broth and Mexican chocolate tablet.
• Stir until the chocolate has melted.
• Taste it. If you want it sweeter, add 1 tbsp sugar.
• Add the sauce, 2 cups chicken broth, and cooked chicken to a stock pot.
• Once the chicken is fully heated, it's ready!
• Serve with rice and tortillas. Enjoy!

CHICKEN WITH QUICK MOLE SAUCE

Steps:

• Season chicken with 1/8 teaspoon salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and cook, turning once, until browned on both sides, about 4 minutes total. Transfer to a plate.
• Reduce heat to medium. Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, garlic, chile powder, cumin, cinnamon and the remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt to the pan. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add tomato sauce, broth, chocolate chips and almond (or peanut) butter; stir to combine. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low, return the chicken (and any accumulated juice) to the pan and turn to coat with the sauce. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes more. Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds.

MOLE COLORADITO RECIPE

Steps:

• Wipe off any dusty crevasses on the dried chiles. De-stem and de-seed the chiles, but don't worry about getting rid of every last seed.
• Roast the chile pieces for 1-2 minutes in a 400F oven. Alternatively, you can flash roast them in a skillet on the stovetop for 15-30 seconds per side. Once roasted, add them to a bowl and cover with hot tap water. Let the chiles reconstitute for 20-30 minutes. If they float to the surface you can use a small bowl or plate to keep them submerged.
• Rinse and de-stem 7-8 Roma tomatoes. Roast the tomatoes in a 400F oven for 20-30 minutes.
• Roughly chop an onion and peel 8 garlic cloves. Add a glug of oil to a skillet over medium heat and saute the onions and whole garlic cloves until lightly browned. Once cooked, add the onion-garlic mixture to the blender.
• Preheat a dry skillet over medium heat. Add 2/3 cup sesame seeds, 8 whole cloves, and 12 black peppercorns to the skillet. Toast until the sesame seeds are turning golden brown, stirring occasionally. Towards the end, add the powdered spices to the skillet (2 tablespoons cinnamon, 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano) and cook briefly. Add the mixture to a food processor or spice grinder and grind into a fine powder, setting it aside until you need it.
• By now the chiles are reconstituted. Take a taste of the chiles' soaking liquid. If you like it then you can use it to liquefy the sauce. If it tastes bitter to you then use stock to liquefy the sauce -- I used stock for this batch.
• Drain the dried chiles and add them to the blender along with a cup of stock (or soaking liquid). The onion-garlic mixture should already be in the blender. Combine well. It's worth it to take a taste at every step along the way, starting now!
• Add the roasted tomatoes to the blender and combine well. This should all fit in a single blender jar, but you may have to blend the tomatoes in batches.
• Add the finely ground spice mixture to the blender and combine well. I also added another cup of stock at this point. You'll need 3-4 cups total for the recipe -- I usually just keep track of what I add when blending and then add the rest for the simmer.
• Add 2 tablespoons raisins, 1/2 cup almonds and 1 teaspoon salt. Combine well.
• Add 2 tablespoons lard (or oil) to a large saucepan. Once heated, add the Coloradito sauce from the blender to the saucepan and simmer until heated through. Use a splatter screen if you have one, otherwise a layer of parchment paper or foil will do the job.
• Once heated through add 2 oz. chocolate (optional). I used 1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, but you can use Mexican chocolate if you want.
• Once the chocolate is incorporated into the sauce take a final taste for seasoning. I added another generous pinch of salt to this batch. (So that is about 1.5 teaspoons salt total but keep in mind this will depend on which stock you use.)
• You can optionally strain the Coloradito sauce at this point. Place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and use a spatula to force the sauce through the strainer. Be sure to wipe the bottom of the strainer as the sauce tends to cling to it.
• Optional serving style: warm 10-12 corn tortillas in the oven (or flash fry them). Use tongs to dredge them in the Coloradito sauce. Add Queso Fresco and finely chopped raw onion to the tortillas, then fold in half and drench them with more of the Coloradito sauce. Serve immediately with optional garnishes: toasted sesame seeds, Mexican Crema, more Queso Fresco, and freshly chopped cilantro.
• Store leftover Coloradito sauce in an airtight container in the fridge.

MEXICAN MOLE SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, and cook the onion until tender. Mix in cocoa powder, cumin, cilantro, and garlic. Stir in the tomato soup and green chile peppers. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 10 minutes. Transfer to a gravy boat or pour directly over food to serve.