How to Make an Easy Mexican Mole Sauce

Traditional recipes of Mole are often tedious and require many ingredients. This easy Mexican Mole sauce created by my loving and hardworking grandmother who didn’t have time for complications will have you wondering why I didn’t post it sooner. For those of you who don’t know what mole sauce is; it is a traditional sweet and spicy sauce made from dried peppers and Mexican chocolate. The instructions provided in the following sections should have you preparing homemade mole in no time.

Helpful Tips Before you begin:

• Make sure to have all ingredients at the start because it is a simple and fast process.
• Most of the ingredients can be purchased in the Mexican food isle of any supermarket.
• If you can’t find all the ingredients at local supermarkets, go to a Mexican Market because they carry more Mexican products than other grocers.
• Any ingredient with an * has been translated to English but the original Spanish name can be found in parenthesis after the translated English version.
• If you prefer a mild sauce, please omit the chipotle in adobo sauce.
• There are many brands of Mexican chocolate any one is fine. Mexican chocolate comes in individually wrapped tablets.
• This recipe only covers how to make the Mole sauce that will be poured over the chicken or rice which traditionally accompanies the sauce.
• In the demonstration I did not wear gloves while removing the seeds and the veins from the peppers, but I would advise you to wear gloves because the peppers’ seeds and veins are spicy and will spice up your hands.

Tools:

Saucepans, a blender, a large spoon, a strainer, a large bowl, a knife, and a food scale that can measure grams

• Before we begin with the preparation of the mole sauce, you will have to remove the seeds and the veins from all of the peppers.
• Removing the veins and the seeds can quickly be done by removing the stem and inserting a knife through the top portion of the pepper.
• Run the knife through the side of the pepper and when you get to the end open the pepper to expose the seeds and the veins.
• Remember you must do this to all of the peppers. Remove all seeds and veins and proceed to the next step.

Ingredients:

Dry Peppers

15g whole dry pasilla pepper*(chile pasilla)

25g whole dry black peppers* (chile negro)

25g hole dry mulato peppers* (chile mulato)

50g whole dry guajillo peppers* (chile guajillo)

2-3 tablespoons Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce—optional

Spices

¼ tsp whole black pepper

¼ tsp whole allspice

1 tsp sesame seed3-4 whole cloves

2g Cinnamon

¼ tsp Cumin

Miscellaneous

One tablet Mexican chocolate

One slice of bread (any kind/can be stale)

Two tortillas

5g Raw garlic

40g Raw onion

6 cups of water

3 TBLS grapeseed oil (or any other oil you usually use)

Salt to taste

• Once all ingredients are together, you will need to place them (except for the onion and garlic) into a saucepan with 6 cups of water.
• Place the saucepan with the ingredients and the water on the stove on high heat and let it boil. From start to finish this part should take approximately 15 minutes.

• After the ingredients have been boiling for 20 minutes remove the saucepan from the heat and set it aside to cool.
• Do not attempt to blend the ingredients when they are still hot.

• After the ingredients and the water in the saucepan have cooled down completely, (usually 20 minutes but could be more depending on the temperature of your home) you can proceed to transfer them to the blender
• Add the raw onion and garlic and Start blending on low and work your way up until you get to high.
• Once you’ve reached the high setting on your blender, let the sauce puree on high for approximately two minutes then turn it off.

• Now that the sauce is liquefied we can proceed to filter and remove any remaining chunks from the Mole to achieve a smooth consistency.
• Place the strainer over a bowl and begin pouring the blended sauce into the strainer little by little.
• If the colander gets full, use a spoon, to move the sauce around until there is no visible liquid remaining.
• There will be pieces of the peppers after all the liquid has gone through the colander, so tap it in the sink and disregard. Continue the process until no sauce is remaining.

• At this point, your sauce should have a smooth but thick consistency.
• Place a saucepan on the stove at low heat and add the oil. When the oil gets hot, pour the sauce into the pan with the oil.
• It might sizzle, this is normal continue pouring until all the sauce is in the pan.

• Once the sauce has been poured in and fried, stir three times and reduce the heat to low or simmer.
• Allow the sauce to simmer for 15-20 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and serve over chicken, rice, or both.