Mole is a family of rich Mexican sauces of dried chillies ground with nuts, seeds, spices, fruit and often chocolate. Mole poblano from Puebla and the moles of Oaxaca are the best known.
What it is¶
Mole comes from the Nahuatl mōlli, "sauce", and in Mexico it covers a wide family of thick sauces built on dried chillies. The best-known, mole poblano from Puebla, is dark reddish-brown and combines several kinds of dried chilli with nuts, seeds, dried fruit, tortilla and bread, tomato, onion, garlic, spices and a little chocolate, all toasted or fried, ground and cooked together in lard and stock for hours. Oaxaca, sometimes called "the land of seven moles", has negro, rojo, coloradito, amarillo, verde, chichilo and manchamanteles — and many more besides.
Mole is a celebration dish, made for weddings, baptisms and festivals, traditionally with turkey. Contrary to its reputation, not all moles contain chocolate, and even in mole poblano it is a background note.
Origins¶
Chilli sauces thickened with seeds and served with turkey were part of Mexican cooking before the Spanish conquest; Bernardino de Sahagún's sixteenth-century accounts of Aztec food describe several. What made the colonial moles distinctive was the addition of Old World ingredients — almonds, sesame, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, raisins, lard, wheat bread — to the native chillies, tomatoes, squash seeds and chocolate.
A popular legend credits Sor Andrea de la Asunción, a nun at the convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla, with inventing mole poblano in the late seventeenth century to honour a visiting viceroy or bishop. Neither is documented, and food historians regard them as folklore; the sauce more likely developed gradually in convent and household kitchens.
What goes in it¶
| Component | Role |
|---|---|
| Dried chillies (ancho, mulato, pasilla, chipotle) | Body, colour, fruity and smoky depth |
| Nuts and seeds (almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame) | Richness and thickening |
| Tortilla and bread | Thickening, a toasty note |
| Raisins and plantain | Sweetness |
| Tomato, tomatillo, onion, garlic | Acidity and savoury base |
| Cinnamon (Mexican canela), cloves, black pepper, allspice, aniseed | Warm spice |
| Mexican chocolate | Bitterness and roundness |
| Lard and chicken or turkey stock | Frying medium and body |
📌 Not vegetarian
Traditional mole is fried in lard and thinned with chicken or turkey stock. Vegetable oil and vegetable stock work well for a vegetarian version.
Flavour¶
Mole poblano is deep, savoury, bittersweet and gently hot, with layers of dried-fruit chilli, toasted nuts, warm spice and a faint cocoa bitterness. No single ingredient should stand out. It tastes better the day after it is made, once the flavours have settled.
How to use it¶
- Mole poblano con guajolote: turkey pieces simmered in the sauce and scattered with toasted sesame — the classic.
- With chicken: the everyday version.
- Enmoladas: tortillas dipped in mole, rolled around chicken or cheese and topped with onion and crema.
- Tamales: Oaxacan tamales are filled with mole negro and wrapped in banana leaves.
Making it at home¶
Serves 8 · 2½–3 hours
You need
- 6 ancho chillies, 5 mulato chillies, 4 pasilla chillies and 1–2 chipotle (mora) chillies
- 120 g lard or vegetable oil
- 50 g almonds (skin on)
- 40 g peanuts
- 30 g pumpkin seeds
- 50 g sesame seeds, plus extra to serve
- 40 g raisins
- 1 ripe plantain, peeled and sliced
- 1 stale corn tortilla, torn, and 1 slice stale white bread
- 2 tomatoes and 3 tomatillos, halved
- ½ onion and 5 garlic cloves
- 5 cm Mexican cinnamon (canela), 4 cloves, 8 black peppercorns, 4 allspice berries, ½ tsp aniseed, ½ tsp coriander seed
- 60 g Mexican chocolate (or dark chocolate plus 1 tbsp sugar)
- 1.5 litres chicken or turkey stock
- Salt and sugar to taste
- 1.5 kg cooked turkey or chicken pieces, to serve
Method
- Wipe, stem and deseed the chillies (keep a spoonful of seeds). Toast briefly on a dry pan until fragrant — seconds, not minutes, or they turn bitter. Soak in hot stock or water for 20 minutes.
- Heat a little lard and fry separately, removing each when golden: almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame, raisins (until puffed), plantain, tortilla and bread. Toast the whole spices in a dry pan.
- Char the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion and garlic in a dry pan or under a grill until blistered.
- Blend the drained chillies with some stock until very smooth; blend the fried nuts, fruit, bread, spices and charred vegetables with more stock in batches. Sieve for a smooth sauce.
- Heat 3 tbsp lard in a heavy pot until very hot and fry the chilli purée, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes until it darkens and thickens. Add the nut purée and cook 10 minutes more.
- Stir in the chocolate and enough stock to make a sauce that coats a spoon. Simmer gently for 45–60 minutes, stirring often. Season with salt and a little sugar.
- Add the cooked turkey or chicken and heat through. Serve with toasted sesame, rice and tortillas.
Variations¶
- Mole negro (Oaxaca): very dark, with chilhuacle negro chillies and chilli seeds charred black, plus chocolate; the most complex.
- Mole coloradito and mole rojo: red, lighter, with guajillo and ancho chillies.
- Mole amarillo: yellow, with chilcostle or guajillo chillies, corn masa and the herb hoja santa.
- Mole verde: green, fresh, with pumpkin seeds, tomatillo and herbs such as epazote.
- Pipián: a pumpkin-seed-thickened sauce, red or green, closely related.
- Ready-made paste: jars of concentrated mole paste are thinned with stock at home and are a respectable shortcut.
Buying and storing¶
Mole keeps a week in the fridge and freezes well for up to 6 months, so it is sensible to make a big batch. Concentrated mole paste (before thinning with stock) keeps for weeks in the fridge and months in the freezer. Reheat gently, adding stock as it thickens.