A traditional Mexican sauce made with dried chillies, toasted spices, nuts, seeds, tomatoes, tomatillos, and a bit of chocolate. Thick, rich, and complex, mole’s often served with chicken or poured over enchiladas.
Category
Dinner
Servings
1 Litre
Prep time
30 minutes
Cook time
1 hour
A traditional Mexican sauce made with dried chillies, toasted spices, nuts, seeds, tomatoes, tomatillos, and a bit of chocolate. Thick, rich, and complex, mole’s often served with chicken or poured over enchiladas.
Ingredients
- 5 dried ancho chilies, stems and seeds removed
- 5 dried guajillo chilies, stems and seeds removed
- 5 dried pasilla chiles, stems and seeds removed
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 4 cloves
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ½ tsp aniseeds
- 2 tsp cumin seeds
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp whole peppercorns
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ cup (180g) raisins
- 1/4 cup pepitas
- 1/4 cup raw peanuts
- 1/4 cup natural almonds
- 2 corn tortillas, torn into small pieces
- 250g roma tomatoes (approx 4), quartered
- 1 large brown onion, cut into wedges
- 8 cloves garlic, smashed
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried oregano
- 2 dried bay leaves, crumbled
- 250g tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed, quartered (or canned tomatillos, drained)
- 60g Mexican chocolate, chopped
- 1 piece jaggery (or 1 tbsp brown sugar)
- sea salt
Directions
Tear the chillies apart, setting seeds aside, discard stems.
- Fry chilli seeds and sesame seeds in a frying pan over medium heat until they begin to release their oils, 3-4 minutes.
- Transfer to a spice grinder.
Fry remaining spices for 1-2 minutes, until fragrant. Transfer to spice grinder or pound together in a mortar and pestle. Grind to a powder and set aside.
- Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium high to 170°C.
- Working in batches, fry the chillies until slightly darkened, about 30 seconds, turning.
Transfer chillies to a large heatproof bowl with raisins and cover with boiling water. Press chillies down and cover with a plate to submerge. Soak for 30 minutes.
- Strain chillies, reserving soaking liquid.
Toast all nuts and seeds in the same pan until golden. Set aside. Toast the two tortillas. Set aside.
- Sear Roma tomatoes in a pan until starting to blacken. Set aside.
- Saute the onions and garlic in oil, medium heat, deep golden, 10 minutes.
- Add dried herbs and bay leaves and cook for a further minute.
Stir in tomatillos, return roma tomatoes and torn tortillas to the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes until softened.
- In a blender and in batches, puree chillies, onion and tomato mix, nuts and spice mix, using 2 cups of the soaking liquid.
- Strain through fine sieve into a wide saucepan. Discard any solids.
- Heat over low, covered, for 30 minutes.
Stir in chocolate and sugar. Season with salt. *Stir in additional soaking liquid if the mixture is too thick.
Serve over chicken and rice.
