Mole Sauce

Name: Mole Sauce
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 20 min
Yield: 8 cups
Ingredients: 8 dried mulato chiles; 8 dried pasilla chiles; 1 to 3 dried chiles de arbol; ⅓ cup raisins; 1 corn tortilla; 1 packet or tube of Ritz crackers; 2 slices white bread; 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano; ¼ teaspoon cinnamon; ⅛ teaspoon dried cloves; 2 tomatillos; 2 roma tomatoes; ½ of a medium white onion; 3 whole cloves garlic; ½ cup pumpkin seeds; 3 to 4 cups chicken broth; one 3-ounce tablet Abuelita chocolate; ½ cup creamy peanut butter

User Reviews

4.4

15 reviews

Good

Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
3 hrs
Total Time
3 hrs 20 mins
Servings
8 cups
Calories
71 kcal
Course
Condiments
Cuisine
Mexican

Mole Sauce

Jade Rice

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Mole Sauce - Making homemade mole is an act of love but worth every second because of the incredible depth of flavor! The combination of dried chiles, tomatoes, spices, cinnamon, chocolate, and peanut butter is absolute savory-sweet-smoky-slightly spicy perfection! Learn how to make traditional mole sauce that's so authentic tasting!

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Ingredients

Servings

8 dried mulato chiles deseeded
8 dried pasilla chiles deseeded
1 to 3 dried chiles de arbol , deseeded; optional but at least 1 is recommended
⅓ cup raisins
1 corn tortilla toasted
1 packet or tube of Ritz crackers about 24 crackers, toasted
2 slices white bread toasted
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano regular oregano may be substituted
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
⅛ teaspoon dried cloves
2 tomatillos husked removed and quartered
2 roma tomatoes quartered
½ of a medium white onion peeled and sliced into 2 large pieces
3 whole cloves garlic peeled
½ cup pumpkin seeds
3 to 4 cups chicken broth divided (I use reduced sodium)
one 3-ounce tablet Abuelita chocolate
½ cup creamy peanut butter

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Instructions

To a small sauce pan, add the deseeded mulato chiles, pasilla chiles, optional chiles de arbol (these are spicy so add as desired), cover with water, bring to a boil, and cook for 3 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the chiles sit in the water to soak for 15 minutes; set aside.* (See Notes)
To a small bowl, add the raisins, cover with very hot tap water, and let them soak for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, to a small skillet add the tortilla and toast it until very dry and lightly browned, flip once. Add it to the canister of a high-speed blender; set aside.
Toast the Ritz Crackers in the same dry skillet until they are lightly browned, flip each cracker once. Add them to the blender; set aside.
Toast the white bread in a toaster, add it to the blender; set aside.
To the same dry skillet, add the Mexican oregano, cinnamon, cloves, and toast for about 30 seconds to bring out the flavor; add the mixture to the blender; set aside.
Preheat your broiler to 500F or high, add the tomatillos, tomatoes, onions, and garlic to a sheet pan, and broil for about 3 to 5 minutes, or until slightly blackened. Tip - Since all broilers vary vastly in their intensity, keep a very close eye on your food and don't get distracted. Add the blackened vegetables to the blender; set aside.
Place the pumpkin seeds on the same sheet pan and broil for 1 to 2 minutes and then add them to the blender.
Add 1 to 2 cups of chicken broth, and blend on high until very smooth.
Transfer this smooth mixture to a medium saucepan and cook over medium-low heat; set aside to simmer. No need to wash our your blender, just set it aside.
Meanwhile remove the chiles and raisins from the soaking water (if they soaked a bit longer than called for, that is fine), add them to the blender, add the Abuelita chocolate tablet, and blend all ingredients on high for 4 minutes. Note - The residual hot soaking water inside the chiles and raisins is all you need to blend and soften the chiles and chocolate; you don't need to add broth during this step.
Transfer this chile and chocolate mixture to the saucepan, add the peanut butter, add 2 cups broth, salt, pepper, stir to combine, and allow the mole to simmer over low for about 2 hours**(See Notes); stir intermittently. Note - It's okay to let the mole simmer for many more hours, simply keep an eye on it and stir it intermittently so it doesn't stick, and make sure to add additional broth or water as necessary if it's becoming too thick. Finished mole should have the consistency of gravy.
Extra mole will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Tip - You can freeze it in smaller freezer-safe containers or smaller ziplocks rather than in one big block to make it faster to thaw and easier to only thaw what you will use for a particular dish or meal.

Notes

*Make sure to read over the recipe at least once before you begin! This should be obvious but you’d be surprised.
For the chiles, you need to remove the seeds. I find it easiest to use a kitchen scissors, cut them open vertically, scape out the seeds, and plop them in water.
You will have various things soaking. Namely the chiles and raisins.
And various things toasted like the tortilla, crackers, and bread.
Plus ingredients to broil such as the tomatoes, tomatillos, onions, garlic, and later the pumpkin seeds.
Ultimately it all gets blended and then simmered.
**Mole needs to simmer for awhile to really get the flavor you want. I like to prepare mine hours in advance and keep it simmering on the back of the stove over very low heat.
Make sure to stir it from time to time and add broth or water as needed.
To take the guesswork out of it, as well as for getting great prices, I order all my dried chiles on Amazon and I linked to all of them above as well as in the recipe card.

Nutrition Information

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Serving 1 Calories 71kcal (4%) Carbohydrates 9g (3%) Protein 3g (6%) Fat 3g (5%) Saturated Fat 1g (5%) Polyunsaturated Fat 2g Cholesterol 3mg (1%) Sodium 382mg (16%) Fiber 1g (4%) Sugar 5g (10%)