Hot chiles and rich chocolate make this authentic mole sauce perfect for topping stewed meats or enchiladas.
I have always loved moles but have never found a recipe that matches the ones I have had at my fav Mexican restaurants.....until now. I think the recipe video is what really inspired me and helped me through the steps. That being said, this is EXCELLENT. Only two things to add to this.....time.....I made this one day and I didn't think it had the flavor I was looking for. After a day in the frig. this sauce developed into a delicious and rich mole. The only other problem that I had was in step 6. The mole in the blender was too thick to blend the added vegetables. So I added the final cup of chicken stock to the blender and it blended easily. I then poured the blended mixture into the pan and added the rest of the ingredients. I was just a bit puzzled by the description of dark chocolate so I added 5 oz. of 80% chocolate with chilis in it. I do think this would work with any good dark (sweetened) chocolate though.The plus is that this makes alot so I am freezing pints of the stuff to pull out when we have a craving for mole. This is fabulous Allrecipes! Thanks for sharing.
Read MoreI did not care for this recipe. I LOVE mole and there are ZERO high-quality Mexican food restaurants in Maine; thus, I can't get my mole chicken enchiladas. Therefore, I tried making my own mole and since this recipe was so highly rated, I thought I'd give it a try. Nope. I'm from California--where Mexican food grows on trees as often as avocados do--so I know how delicious mole is supposed to taste and feel and this was not it.
Read More I have always loved moles but have never found a recipe that matches the ones I have had at my fav Mexican restaurants.....until now. I think the recipe video is what really inspired me and helped me through the steps. That being said, this is EXCELLENT. Only two things to add to this.....time.....I made this one day and I didn't think it had the flavor I was looking for. After a day in the frig. this sauce developed into a delicious and rich mole. The only other problem that I had was in step 6. The mole in the blender was too thick to blend the added vegetables. So I added the final cup of chicken stock to the blender and it blended easily. I then poured the blended mixture into the pan and added the rest of the ingredients. I was just a bit puzzled by the description of dark chocolate so I added 5 oz. of 80% chocolate with chilis in it. I do think this would work with any good dark (sweetened) chocolate though.The plus is that this makes alot so I am freezing pints of the stuff to pull out when we have a craving for mole. This is fabulous Allrecipes! Thanks for sharing.
This recipe is fantastic! It makes a mole sauce that competes with the best authentic resturants or cooks. My suggestions: I think too much chicken broth was called for as it is named three times in the recipe but only two cups are actually used? I just used according to the directions and also actually cut down a bit on the chicken broth at the end to get a thicker sauce. Otherwise this was absolutely excellent. It even beats a brown mole recipe I tried from a professional food site/network (hint, hint). This makes a LOT of sauce, so be prepared to either feed a herd or freeze some. Which is fine; freezing has no negative effect at all. Also, I used half semi-sweet chocolate and half straight powdered cocoa to make sure I didn't get too much sweet. Doing so made it perfect as the more bitter chocolate I think blended better with the savory tone of the sauce. Highly recommend!
I loved the mole recipe! I made a few tweaks, but it was still delicious! I substituted lard with olive oil, replaced the dinner roll with another corn tortilla, used vegetable broth instead of chicken broth, and omitted the ancho chiles only because I couldn't find any! I served the mole in a fondue dish with a plate full of cubed grilled tofu, sweet potatoes, zucchini, and yellow bottleneck squash for skewing and dipping!
This was our first time making molé so our only comparisons are from restaurants but this is a truly amazing recipe. Incredibly delicious. The ingredients are available at any larger chain grocery store. This recipe is worth every second it takes to make. We also made "the real mojitos" from this site and our evening was perfection.
I did not care for this recipe. I LOVE mole and there are ZERO high-quality Mexican food restaurants in Maine; thus, I can't get my mole chicken enchiladas. Therefore, I tried making my own mole and since this recipe was so highly rated, I thought I'd give it a try. Nope. I'm from California--where Mexican food grows on trees as often as avocados do--so I know how delicious mole is supposed to taste and feel and this was not it.
I am a frequent 'tester' of several of the recipes on this website. I typically enjoy what I try out but nothing has ever blown me away like this recipe. It was so delicious that I decided to create an account and write a review. The flavors are amazing and blend so well together, something I have found difficult with other mole recipes I have tried out. I used dried anaheim peppers and jalapenos with the guajillo peppers because I could not find the others listed in the recipe. I also used the mini semi-sweet morsals for the dark chocolate requested. Having a good blender is important because the mixture is quite thick. I agree with the others that the sauce really develops well after a few hours or so of sitting in the refrigerator prior to using. I re-heated it on the stove when ready to use. I used it over pulled pork that was smoked, absolutely delicious! My guests all asked for the recipe.
Made it the way posted it was great , made it again used a fried banana in place of the sugar and WOW it was GREAT
I had never tried mole until I made this recipe today. The first taste was strange. I didn't really like it, but for some reason I couldn't stop dipping my spoon in. After letting it sit for about 30 minutes, I tried a second taste and WOW, this stuff is amazing! It has really complex flavors: bitter, sweet, nutty, savory. I plan to use it on some cheese enchiladas tonight.
!Santo moly! this is a GREAT recipe. Didn't change a thing for ingredients, except using olive oil in place of lard, as someone suggested. I'm glad I went with dark chocolate, instead of semi-sweet-two very different flavors. Only prep I changed up was using my hand held immersion blender, gradually adding anything cooked in the skillet, into the pot and blending in each addition. We love authentic Mexican food, which is hard to find in Ohio. Just another reason to vacation in Mexico:)
I loved this recipe! It was very close to my grandmother's recipe except for two things that I did change. Instead of a dinner roll and tortilla strips, my grandmother would brown 2 cups of all purpose flour to make her rue and instead of whole peanuts, she'd use 3 tablespoons of peanut butter.
This recipe was exactly what i was looking for my mom and i loved it. This was the very first mole i had ever made the video helped big time. i finally got my mole fix.
I can't get over how GREAT this recipe is!! The changes I did were: olive oil instead of lard, no cloves (don't like them) and 2 Ibarra Mexican chocolate discs. And das it! It DOES make a big batch...I didn't think it was all gonna fit in my blender but it did. WELL worth the time & effort for sure...and it was easy. We couldn't stop dipping the extra dinner rolls in it as I let it set for about an hour. One reviewer stated that it got better as it sat...and it's true. DEFINITELY making this again! Boyfriend and I loved it...thanks Allrecipes!
FABULOUS recipe! Sauce was truly authentic with just the right amount of heat and SO much incredible flavor. It only needed a few improvements. One, I cut down on the cumin seeds. I reduced it to 1 1/2 tbsp and will reduce even further to 1 tbsp the next time I make this as it was too dominant a flavor. I also doubled the amount of chocolate to make sure that flavor really came through...it was still just a rich undertone - not too overpowering at all for my tastes. But overall a real gem of a recipe!
It's cooking now over chicken breasts in the crock pot. I had to go with what I had on hand, so mine probably does not taste exactly like the one here. However, so far, it has a really great flavor. I did get confused about the chicken broth, though, because it is listed in the ingredients three times, but I think it will be okay. Also, I had Mexican chocolate (Ibarra) bars in the pantry, so I had to go with that. My market does not carry all the dried chiles, so I used dried habaneros. You have to be very careful with those, they are killer-hot. I probably used 1/3 what was called for, and I could not have used a single bite more. Serving tonight with beans & rice on corn tortillas. Going to put a dish of cold sour cream out, too, just in case it is too spicy for some. We shall see!
Great recipe! I had SO much trouble finding dried peppers so I had to use chipotle peppers from a can, and I subbed fresh jalapeno and poblano pepper for the other two. I don't know how much of a difference that made but boy did it add some HEAT! I was so excited to see that dark rich color for the finished product. I cooked some pork chops in the sauce for my husband and topped with caramelized peaches to help balance the heat. It makes a lot so I froze the rest. Thanks so much!
It's good. I used bittersweet baking chocolate. My family enjoyed it. But, I think I would prefer unsweetened chocolate. I would suggest that the recipe be modified to be more descriptive about the chocolate.
Wow! Let me tell you if you don't think this recipe is good you just didn't cook it right! I usually add more ingredients to recipes because I feel like it just isn't enough, but the only thing that I did different was put a couple more chiles which gave it more of a kick so I added extra chicken broth to offset the kick! Sooooooo good see when you add different types of chiles it gives the dish a bunch of different flavor! I do the same thing with my posole I add like 3 different types of chiles. Anyway this was a real hit with not only my family but the neighbor as well I made it while watching exactly how she made it in the video step by step which made it so simple! This is such an easy recipe it's like making chile just adding a couple other ingredients. Made this exactly as the recipe states and is the best mole I ever had in my life!
I have never made this sauce before and despite the fact that the recipe had SO MANY ingredients, I followed everything perfectly and this sauce came out beautifully. I am so proud of myself for how well I did with this :D All thanks to your guidance! I didn't include onions because I hate them so I did away with that, and instead of following the correct amount of chocolate, I decided to just throw in 3 discs since for me, the sweeter the better. Great recipe, seriously, thanks for sharing!
I followed Guy's recipe here for the brine (I brined for about 6 hours even though the recipe says only 1 hour is necessary) and dry rub on my chicken thighs: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/guy-fieri/grilled-chicken-mole-2314135 but used this recipe for the sauce instead of the one he listed. I had 3 people at the party tell me it was "the best piece of chicken" they'd ever eaten. It was perfect. I used the dual grilling zone method to cook the thighs. After brining I trimmed off the excess skin just leaving the skin covering the top of the thigh. 5 minutes per side on the high heat side of the grill until the skin is crispy and there's a nice sear on the underside, then move them to the other side of the grill, which you leave either unlit or on low, for a total of 20 to 25 minutes to finish cooking, flipping half way through. Just like Guy does in his video, I brushed some of the mole sauce on when there was just a few minutes left in cooking, like you would with BBQ sauce, then poured a spoonful over top before serving it with tortillas, rice, etc. Absolute perfection.
I made this recipe over the weekend. It is SUPER delicious and makes a good amount of sauce. I've made two meals with it so far and still have a large jar full. I'm keeping this one for sure and hope to make it many more times in the future!
Fantastic! Silky, just the right amount of heat, savory, hints of sweetness. I used olive oil, 7-grain bread instead of dinner role. Dried cherries instead of raisins. All the usual spices and chocolate. Loved it. Takes all the “mystery” out of a great mole!
Boy, did I bite off more than I could chew on this one. I didn't know how many ingredients, nor how many steps it took to make an authentic mole. I could have gone with an easier recipe; but since I had tons of time on my hands, I was committed to see this to the end. Since this was my first time making mole, I followed all the steps. Stopping and tasting throughout the process, I adjusted the spices accordingly. Since I live in the Philippines and not all the ingredients are available here, I had to improvise: green tomatoes for tomatillos, cinnamon and nutmeg for allspice. I only had Thai and finger pepper chilis to work with; to make things more interesting, I dried a few peppers, roasted others, then mixed them in with some fresh ones. The resulting sauce had a very earthy taste to it: interesting, but nothing that really appealed to me. I read that it's much better to let the dish sit to allow the flavors to meld. After I let it sit in the refrigerator for half the day, I couldn't believe how complex the flavors were! I served it with braised pork over white rice with a squeeze of lime MUY DELICIOSO! Because of the time-consuming process of making mole, I'll only be making this for special occasions, or if I have friends or family over to help. Mole is definitely a taste experience that everyone should experience.
I think this is a great mole recipe and it turned out delicious! But the time estimation is way off! There is no way you can make this mole properly in 1 hour. I've made lots of mole in my life and it always takes at least two to three hours this recipe included. So keep that in mind when you make this recipe.
Great recipe! We added jalapeños cause we couldn't find 2 of the peppers it called for. It was one of the best moles I have ever had. We doubled the recipe so we could freeze some of it for future meals. Thanks for a great dish!
I've used this recipe many times to get feel of mole. It is almost as good as my aunties I never have raisins on hand l, but dont need the extra sweetness from them. I also never have peanuts so I sub a whole handful of almonds or peanut butter to taste.
Delicious! I can see why it is called "authentic". Tastes just like the best moles should. Yum!
OMG - This was so delicious! I made this for a shared Mexican dinner with another couple. Everyone loved it. some meat eaters and some Pescatarian so we had it over sauteed cut up chicken, shrimp, and sweet potatoes, a suggestion of another reviewer. That was a great option. Only changes I made was to skip the dinner roll in favor of two more tortillas due to a gluten issue with one of our friends. I could not find dried Ancho or Chipotle Peppers but I found them dried and ground so used the equivalent. For the chocolate I used Trader Joe's 85% cacao bars, which were perfectly chocolatey and not sweet. It took a bit of time but worth every minute.
Ok so I made some major tweaks to this recipe by the time I was done. In my opinion it calls for wayyy too much thyme. It might have been ok with a teaspoon but it tasted too strong to me. I ended up adding 3 extra cups of broth to offset. Plus about 2-3 extra ounces of chocolate(I used 3 oz unsweeted cooking chocolate and then the rest abuelitas.) I added 3 tablespoons brown sugar and half a fried banana as well. The end result is a sweet mole with a very slight spiciness. Not exactly what I was going for but still good none the less. I think next time I would add 2 more spicy chiles.
Great recipe. I have made it as is and sometimes with my own adjustments. It’s always good
The final result was delicious. The written recipe omits when to add the tomatillos, I needed to switch to video to find this out. I recommend watching the video and not relying on the written instructions.
I Love it but had to use ingredients I had. Thick with a beautiful bitter after taste. I didn't have tomatillos so I used extra tomatoes, blackening really did make it great. I used duck fat instead of lard. I am definitely making this again.
I'm going to make this again sometime & tweak it a little. When I've done that I'll come back & post the changes.
My first time making mole. It was very delicious. I personally would put just a little less chocolate, put more raisins, and more red tomato and add chile de arbol but i add that to everything.
I made a couple changes: +2 Tbsp Brown Sugar (to soften the spicy chilies), +1/2 C Chicken broth to thin it out a little.
We didn't have lard so we made it with coconut oil which is solid at room temp. It came out great. It seems to taste better with the dried chiles from our local food co-op. They smelled way better than the mail order chiles we tried.
We haven't eaten a dark mole like this one before a few weeks ago in Mexico. Found this recipe that is very much like we had! It's very good, and fairly easy to make!
Really tasty recipe that developed even more flavor when it sat in the fridge. Doesn’t taste like Doña Maria if that’s what you’re looking for, but it is delicious all the same.
Didn't use lard, made for chicken drumsticks. Soaking the chiles and toast in the broth before blending was genius. Husband is a picky Mexican and ate it up.
Love it, love it, love it,We don’t eat pork, thence I have substituted Lard by olive oil. Also, instead of the bread I have used yellow corn tortillas. Also, I have used chiles from New Mexico. organic with unique flavor. This recipe is absolutely marvelous. Use the best ingredients you can. I am planing to freeze some glass containers, for the days I don’t feel like. Thank you, thank you, thank you????
This is excellent!! Rich, flavorful and spicy. Worked well with pork chops & polenta slices. BEWARE though, this made much more than 1 quart yield; it made 2+quarts. Will definitely make it again.
This recipe has some vagueness that I think lead to a sauce that is too sweet for me. “5 ounces of chocolate” does not specify whether it is sweetened or unsweetened. I went with 85% cocoa sweetened and ended up with a very sweet sauce. It is also quite spicy which is fine. It is labor-intensive so you must commit a good bit of time to creating the sauce. The servings are very generous and quantity.
I followed the recipe almost exactly except I used 2 chipotle peppers from a can since I couldn't find any dried ones. I also used Abuelita chocolate... I think that was the problem, the Abuelita hot chocolate mix is already sweetened so adding sugar, cinnamon, cloves, etc. made it too sweet. I don't really like the taste but I'm seeing a few reviews saying to wait a while after cooking to achieve the desired taste. Hopefully the taste will improve by dinner time, or perhaps tomorrow when eating leftovers. Will update...
Excellent. I used a natural peanut butter instead of peanuts. Based on other reviews, I am going to let this sit for a day before using (refrigerated, of course). Also used an immersion blender to adjust the consistency. Mine turned out pretty thick, so will plan to thin with chicken broth before using.
I loved this recipe. It has the perfect amount of heat and a great complexity of flavours. I changed 1 thing...instead of 3 Tbsp of sugar, I used 3 sugar cubes. (3 Tbsp just seemed like a lot).
So delicious!! The only thing I changed was adding about 9 Cascabel Chiles for spice, otherwise it was worth the effort. Since it just my husband and myself, I am able to freeze the enough for 3 more meals!! Or share
Fantastic! Depth of flavors is without peer. I made it almost exactly as listed with some minor changes based on what I had in my cabinet. I used olive oil instead of lard. I suggest saving the cinnamon sticks and using a half teaspoon of ground cinnamon. The same goes for cloves and peanuts. I just used a little ground cloves and 3 teaspoons of peanut butter. Hunting around for the allspice berries was no fun. Next time around, I'm going to grind up 2-3 berries in the pestle. Right now, it's in the fridge chillin' and I can't wait to try it tomorrow when the flavors have had a chance to join forces. So far, I'm very happy with the outcome.
One of the best tasting mole sauce I have eaten. Makes Iall food I put it on wonderful.
I added 1 cup of olive oil because the cumin was to the taste of people who acquire it to be over powering, so one cup of olive oil did wonders...and I will keep the same cumin proportion for the next time. Instead of fresh tomatoes used tomato marinara sauce 360gms or half a can. And instead of fresh yellow tomatillos, I used about 360gms of a bottle of tomatillos. By hand, I cut up the chilis and then grounded them up into the food processor, and then put the raisins and the cumin seeds, and the thyme. I used peanut butter instead of fresh peanuts. I used 1 ts. ground cinnamon, 1/4 ts. ground allspice, 1/4 ts. ground ground cloves. I cooked the onions in the lard because raw onions grounded up in the blender changes their taste to a bad bitterness. I used 75% percent cacoa-dark chocolate bar. Then, before serving brown the sauce to give it a nutty taste. For the corn tacos, I substituted instead for, 2 Tb corn meal with 2Tb masa flower, (Masaca brand.) I cooked these two indredients with the bread pouring in vegetable oil to make a nutty texture with toasting them together. It took me 2 hours to make. It would have taken longer if, I used fresh red and yellow tomatoes because they would have to be blended down to liquid while they are being combined with the other ingredients that is already filling up the blender almost near the top. I have 1 quart of extra sauce and its in the freezer for next time. No ingredients were changed except for instead of fresh us
I'm giving this 4 stars but I can't give this recipe an honest rating because I made so many changes. Where I live, it isn't easy to find authentic Mexican ingredients, so I had to improvise. I couldn't find ANY dried chiles, so I dried some jalapeno, pablano and anaheim peppers in my oven and also added a can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I also couldn't find whole cumin or allspice, so I used ground cumin (half the amount called for) and ground allspice (3 shakes). I don't know how much these changes impacted the overall taste, but the finished product was disappointing. My husband liked it, but it just wasn't the taste I was hoping for. This took SO much work so I had high expectations. I made some chicken tacos for dinner using this sauce, but they needed sour cream and cilantro to make it palatable. I see some reviewers say the taste is much better the next day, so I will give it another chance tomorrow. But as is, I definitely would not make this again.
Last summer I had a mole sauce at a Mexican restaurant that was downright addictive. I think this matches it!!! I pretty much followed the recipe exactly except for substituting ground cumin for the cumin seeds and using minced garlic. The results far exceeded my expectations. I cannot get enough of this sauce, I am so happy with how it turned out!!!!
This was A LOT of work! After ordering and receiving all the things I didn't have in my cupboard I spent yesterday afternoon making this sauce.....I followed the recipe EXACTLY....I would do so many things differently if I make this recipe again....I ended up having to strain through a micro strainer with a pestle to get all the graininess out.....And I have a great blender! After all that work I have it in a container.....I tasted it and my husband also tasted it and it was OK but we both tasted a little "bitter" so I dissolved some brown sugar in water and added a teaspoon to mixture and it helped.....
Big flavor using suggestions here and makes enough to save! Make this a day in advance. Use only 2 cups broth and don't add the 3rd later on. I used 2 dried black chilies in place of chipotle. 3 corn tortillas and no dinner roll. Added 2-3 tbsp peanut butter (instead of toasting peanuts) with chocolate at the end. Double the chocolate and use quality dark (I used 70%). Didn't add sugar and salt add the end. Was fabulous and so rich in flavor!
I’m not sure why there are several bad reviews. I’ve been eating mole for 40 years, and this is one of the best. Period. It takes a powerful blender, and that might be some people’s problem. I removed the cinnamon sticks but left in the other whole spices, and they blended into the paste. I took the advice of others and made it a day ahead, along with my tortilla dough. The next day, I gently reheated the mole, the leftover Thanksgiving Turkey, and cooked the tortillas. Leftovers never tasted this good.
