One day out of the blue, DJ remembered a time we had attempted making Mexican mole sauce (thick, chocolatey and spicy) at home. We couldn't find a blog entry about it with the original recipe we tried, and realized that it was definitely time to try it again. So a quick Google search led us to a Martha Stewart recipe. All her legal issues aside, her recipes are usually pretty easy to follow with ingredients you can actually find at a grocery store. Let the adventure begin!
You combine all the ingredients (we couldn't find dried ancho chiles, so we used 1 fresh poblano pepper instead)...
and blend until fully saucy.
Then you pour the sauce over the chicken in the slow-cooker, and let the slow-cooker do its slow cooking for about 4 hours. Having been around the block a few times with our Crock Pot by now, we knew to deduct the cooking time to account for its strength. So after about 2.5 hours we took one piece of chicken out to check for pinkness, and it was perfectly cooked through and still juicy. Hooray for not leaving it in too long and drying it out!
One reviewer on the recipe page did mention that it needed a bit more salt. So once everything was cooked, we added salt to taste. After a few dashes of the shaker, the deep mole flavor definitely came out a lot more. So we also recommend adding salt to your liking.
One reviewer on the recipe page did mention that it needed a bit more salt. So once everything was cooked, we added salt to taste. After a few dashes of the shaker, the deep mole flavor definitely came out a lot more. So we also recommend adding salt to your liking.
Served with sauteed spaghetti squash and swiss chard, this mole chicken knocked our socks off. We weren't sure if substituting the fresh poblano for the dried chile would make a huge difference, but the sauce had the perfect amount of heat and a hint of the chocolatey flavor that makes mole special. The mole we've had at restaurants is usually a bit darker, so we think next time we might add a bit more chocolate. But no matter what, we will definitely be making this again!
OH MAH GAHD!!! You have no idea how much I love mole. And it's so hard to find, even in Mexican-food-central San Francisco.
ReplyDeleteI will definitely be trying this out :-)
Oh boy! AWESOME!!! :) One thing I realized I forgot (and just added to the write-up): you may want to add salt once everything is cooked. The recipe itself doesn't call for it, but the flavor of the sauce definitely comes out much more if you add some. Dash, stir, and taste to your liking. :)
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