Recipe for Mole

After receiving a couple of requests for the mole recipe, I am most happy to share. I certainly wish I could say it was wholly made from scratch, but it's not. It's simply made from a jar. I do know a few women (not too many) from the old country who make it from scratch, which means grinding every ingredient necessary, such as the pumpkin and/or sesame seeds, the red chile peppers, as well as the addition of Mexican chocolate. Their mole recipes are very time consuming and are made with a long list of other ingredients as well. Of course they are worth the extra effort, but why not make use of convenience when possible. I use chicken breasts, but you can certainly use dark meat as well. In fact, traditional mole is made with turkey meat. I just happen to prefer white chicken meat.

NOTE: The ingredients in the mole list are for the most part added to taste. As you add them, if you feel it needs more of this or a little less of that, do it your way. It's not a cut in stone type of recipe. I have found that the jars of mole don't always taste the same. Sometimes they are sweeter than other times. I like my mole a little sweet, so if need be, I add semi-sweet chocolate.

Ingredients:

STOCK
3-5 lb split chicken
1 whole garlic head
1 whole onion cut in half
4 carrots
3 celery ribs
4 peppercorns (make sure you remove them when stock is ready)
Salt- to taste (about 1-2 tbs)
Water- enough to cover chicken

MOLE
2 jars of mole of choice
1/2 tsp whole cumin
3 peppercorns
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 bar of bakers chocolate or any brand of Mexican chocolate
1 tbs peanut butter

After cooking chicken, remove from pot to cool, discard vegetables, set broth aside. While chicken is cooling, you can cook your rice (you can use some of your chicken broth for the rice). When cool enough to handle, debone and shred chicken.

Grind peppercorns, cumin, and garlic using your method of choice. I use a mortar and pestle for small amounts of spice such as this. Set aside for now.
Over medium heat, using only enough broth to dissolve one jar of mole, (about 5 cups of broth)stir with a whisk, until mole is well dissolved. Add the ground spices, peanut butter and chocolate, and stir. As it heats up it will begin to thicken. Add more broth until you have a silky smooth sauce. At this point if you find that your sauce is too thin, then you add more mole from the second jar, carefully gauging the amount to add, for the thickness desired. Do not walk away from it, you have to stand and keep stirring, making sure there are no chunks of mole or chocolate undissolved. It also has a tendency to stick at the bottom, so stirring must be continuous. Mole should have the consistency of a good sauce, thick, but not too thick. Add your shredded chicken, and continue to stir, until thoroughly heated through. Serve with either Mexican or white rice and corn tortillas. Enjoy!

Makes about 8 servings