Mole poblano is a thick, smooth chili sauce used in Mexican cuisine, typically made with dried chiles, peanuts or seeds, Mexican chocolate, and other ingredients. It is often served with chicken, beef, or pork, and is a popular dish for special occasions.
Mole poblano is a popular chili sauce used in Mexican cuisine. While there’s no hard and fast recipe for it, it’s commonly a combination of as few as three dried chiles, peanuts or seeds, and Mexican chocolate. Salt, oregano, chicken broth, and charred onions, garlic, and avocado leaves are mixed with these ingredients, and crushed crackers or breadcrumbs are usually added to thicken the mixture.
Mole is a Mexican Spanish word which literally translated means sauce or concoction: it can refer to several Mexican sauces and dishes made from these sauces. Outside of Mexico, it usually refers to mole poblano sauce. Mole is also recognized as part of the word guacamole, which is a popular Mexican dip, made with avocados, tomatoes, and seasonings.
The chiles chosen for the mole recipe depend on personal taste and availability, but common types include chipotle, mulato, ancho, and pasilla. For peanuts or seeds, peanuts, almonds and sesame seeds are popular choices. The required Mexican chocolate is a special blend of ground cocoa, cinnamon and sugar. Peanuts are also sometimes part of the Mexican chocolate mixture.
Mole poblano is different from most Mexican salsas in several ways. It is very thick, whereas many Mexican sauces, most commonly salsa, are thin. Mole is also cooked to a smooth texture, and the sauce is often made from fresh, raw ingredients. Most other salsas with origins in Mexico contain easily identifiable pieces of food, namely tomato, onion, garlic, tomatillo, and a wide variety of chiles.
Various preparation methods are used to make mole. Most recipes commonly call for whole garlic cloves, sliced onion and dried peppers to be lightly fried in oil. These cooked components, along with the rest of the ingredients, are placed in a blender and processed until smooth. The liquid is cooked slowly and continuously stirred over medium-low heat until the flavors meld completely. Thickening agents are added and the liquid is cooked until the desired consistency is reached.
Chicken mole may be the most universal way to serve this sauce. The sauce, however, can also be a nice complement to beef and pork. Restaurants often include mole enchiladas on their menus, which are corn tortillas filled with chicken and covered in mole.
The poblano mole requires a lot of time and patience to prepare. For this reason, it is usually prepared in very large batches and frozen for future use. It is a popular dish at dinner parties celebrating special occasions, such as baptisms, quinceaneras, weddings, birthdays, first communions and baptisms.
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