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AI-generated photograph: A chicken leg under a glossy near black mole sauce in a shallow black clay dish, scattered with toasted sesame seeds

Home · Recipes · Mole negro with chicken

Oaxacan · Dinner

Mole negro with chicken

three dried chillies · dark chocolate · chicken on the bone

AI-generated photograph

Mole negro is the darkest and richest of Oaxaca's seven moles: a silky sauce of toasted dried chillies, charred tomatoes, almonds, sesame, raisins, plantain, warm spices and dark chocolate, simmered slowly and poured over chicken poached on the bone. It takes an afternoon, it is worth every minute, and it tastes even better the next day.

Contains: sesame, tree nuts and sulphur dioxide and sulphites, as written. Sesame (sesame seeds), nuts (almonds) and sulphites (raisins and other dried fruit are often treated with sulphur dioxide). Corn tortillas sold in the UK often contain wheat flour, so buy one labelled gluten free. Dark chocolate can contain milk and soya lecithin, so check the label and choose one with neither. Chillies, avocado leaves and spices contain none of the 14.

Ingredients

  • 8 chicken thighs and drumsticks, bone in and skin on (about 1.2kg)
  • 1 onion, halved
  • 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • 1 teaspoon fine salt, plus more to taste
  • 4 dried mulato chillies (large, dark, sweet dried chillies)
  • 3 dried pasilla chillies (long, black and raisiny)
  • 2 dried chipotle chillies (smoked dried jalapeños)
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 35g sesame seeds (keep 1 teaspoon back to serve)
  • 30g whole almonds
  • 30g raisins
  • 1 corn tortilla, labelled gluten free, torn into pieces
  • Half a ripe plantain, peeled and sliced
  • 2 tomatoes
  • 150g tinned tomatillos (tart green husk tomatoes), drained
  • Half a teaspoon dried oregano
  • Half a teaspoon dried thyme
  • 4 whole cloves
  • Half a teaspoon black peppercorns
  • 1 cinnamon stick (about 5cm)
  • 2 dried avocado leaves (hoja de aguacate, with a gentle aniseed scent), optional
  • 50g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), with no milk or soya on the label
  • 1 tablespoon soft brown sugar

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Let's cook

  1. Poach the chicken. Put it in a large pan with one onion half, 2 of the garlic cloves, the teaspoon of salt and 1.5 litres cold water. Bring to the boil, skim off any froth, then simmer gently for 35 minutes. The chicken is cooked when the juices run clear and the thickest piece reads 75C next to the bone. Lift the chicken onto a plate and keep the broth.
  2. While it simmers, prepare the chillies. Wipe them, snip off the stalks and shake out the seeds. Toast them a few at a time in a dry frying pan on a medium heat for 20 to 30 seconds a side, pressing them flat, until they smell rich and soften. Do not let them blacken or the mole turns bitter. Put them in a bowl, cover with 500ml just boiled water and soak for 20 minutes.
  3. In the same pan heat 1 tablespoon of the oil on a medium heat. Fry each of these in turn and lift them into a blender jug as they are done: the sesame seeds for 1 to 2 minutes until golden (keep 1 teaspoon back), the almonds for 2 to 3 minutes, the raisins for 30 seconds until they puff, the tortilla pieces until crisp and dark brown, and the plantain for 2 minutes a side until well browned.
  4. Wipe the pan and put it back on a high heat with no oil. Char the tomatoes, tomatillos, the other onion half and the last 2 garlic cloves for 8 to 10 minutes, turning, until blackened in patches. Peel the garlic and add everything to the blender with the oregano, thyme, cloves, peppercorns and the cinnamon stick broken into pieces.
  5. Drain the chillies, throwing the soaking water away, and add them to the blender with 500ml of the chicken broth. Blend for 2 to 3 minutes until completely smooth, in two batches if your blender is small. For a silky mole, push it through a sieve with the back of a spoon.
  6. Heat the last 2 tablespoons of oil in a large heavy pan or casserole on a medium high heat. Pour in the paste, standing back as it spits, and fry it, stirring all the time, for 5 minutes until it darkens and thickens.
  7. Stir in 500ml more broth, the avocado leaves, chocolate and sugar. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring often and scraping the bottom so it does not catch. Add more broth a splash at a time until the mole thickly coats the back of a spoon. Season with salt.
  8. Put the chicken back in the mole and simmer for 10 minutes until it is steaming hot all the way through. Take out the avocado leaves.
  9. Serve the chicken in warm shallow bowls with plenty of mole spooned over, the kept sesame seeds scattered on top, and warm corn tortillas alongside.

Tips

  • In Oaxaca mole negro is made with chilhuacle negro, a rare and costly black chilli; mulato, pasilla and chipotle together give a close, dark, smoky result. Dried Mexican chillies are sold by online Mexican food shops and spice merchants in the UK, and some larger supermarkets stock chipotle and ancho.
  • Make a double batch of the sauce: mole keeps in a covered tub in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer for 3 months. Cool the chicken and mole within 2 hours, keep them in the fridge for up to 2 days, and reheat until steaming hot all the way through.
  • Keep any spare broth: it makes a good soup or rice the next day.

Swaps

  • Cheaper: use a whole chicken cut into 8 pieces, or all thighs.
  • No nuts: leave out the almonds and use 30g more sesame seeds, or pumpkin seeds.

Our own recipe. The photograph is AI-generated.

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