Mole sauce with chicken or tofu

I kick my self in the butt every time I think about all the times I dismissed my grandma when she was cooking. To this day, I still have a rough time making tortillas from scratch. So it seems only natural that I should try my hand at making mole (moll-lay). Grandma did it. I should be able to do it. This is not a sweet dish. I know it has chocolate in it, but this is a savory dish.

I used the crock pot to cook the chicken in. It just seemed easier. I used 3 pounds of chicken thighs, added a bay leaf, salt and garlic. Cook it on high for about 4-5 hours. It will take some time if you want to make a good mole. I once again did not measure things, just do it until it looks & tastes right. And I always run in to the problem of not finding exactly the right ingredients that I need. So here is the list of ingredients that I used:

• ground cumin
• ground coriander
  
• pumpkin spice--it has both cinnamon & clove in it so it works out
• red pepper flakes
  
• salt
• canola oil
• toasted pine nuts--not needed, I just used what I had
  
• toasted almonds
• tahini paste (I am lucky that Ann sent this to me, b/c there is no finding this here)
  
• unsweetened bakers chocolate
• sugar
• 1 can of green chilies--diced
  
• ranchero salsa (I needed Ancho chilies, but there was no getting those here)
• 2 cans of tomatoes--crushed or what ever you have on hand
  
• 1 jar or roasted red peppers--diced
• 1 medium onion-small diced
• 2-4 cloves of garlic (or if you have any of that roasted garlic left you could use that)
  
• Raisins (I didn't use any, I have no excuse other than I just forgot)
• vegetable bouillon base
• water
  

This is going to take some time. This is not a 30 minute meal! Not at all. If you haven't roasted or toasted your pine nuts & almonds do this first. Just a simple toasting in a dry pan over medium high heat. Do not over toast, meaning don't burn them. Keep moving the pan around to keep them from lingering in one spot for too long. Once, they are toasted, pulse in a food processor or blender until it is powdery...if you do it too long, it will turn to paste. This does not ruin anything so just go with it.

In a dutch oven or large heavy sauce pan, add about 2-3 tablespoons of oil on turn it to medium heat (use can use lard, my grandma would have used lard, but the vegetarians would not have eaten it) . Next add the cumin, coriander, red pepper flakes, and pumpkin spice. Add enough to make a bubbling, liquid goo, but not a thick paste. Let this cook for about 10 minutes stirring constantly. It will get darker, let it get dark, but don't let the spices burn. Next add the onion and garlic. Let those get coated in the spices and get tender. Next add the roasted red peppers, tomatoes with juice, chilies, ancho peppers (if you have them--if not add the rancho salsa) and raisins. Let this simmer so all the flavors can combine, about 10-15 minutes.

Next, if you have an immersion blender, you can use that. I have the old style blender, so I had to do a few batches and dirty up another bowl, then transfer it back to the pot. With everything blended, start adding the almond & pine nut crumbs/paste. Next add a couple tablespoons of tahini paste and the veggie bouillon and about 2 cups of water. Now, coarsely chop the chocolate bars and add them to the pot. I used all 8 squares. Keep stirring the pot, you don't want the chocolate to settle on the bottom and burn. Keep stirring. Look at the bubbling goo and keep stirring. This will take about 15 minutes. It will turn from a red-ish orange color to a dark brown color. It will also thicken up as you go. Taste the sauce, it will need salt. It might need a bit of sugar. I added about 2 tablespoons of sugar and you know, enough salt to make it not taste like it need salt. Let this simmer for a few minutes more and you are done with the sauce.

(I know what you are thinking, but this really is good. Even if it is dark brown...just keep thinking about the chocolate in it)

Now assuming you had the chicken in the crock pot, you can take it out (de-skin and de-bone it if you used bone in chicken) and shred it a bit. Mix the shredded chicken with the sauce. Serve this with rice and tortillas.



I had enough sauce to give Erin some for her tofu, some for the chicken and about a quart to freeze for later. THIS WAS FREAKING AWESOME! I realized about 1/2 way through with this, you can't really screw this up too bad. You can add anything you like. You blend everything. And the chocolate makes it all better. I realized that this dish is not for everyone. It's a spicy, savory, chocolate sauce. Aaron even ate seconds. I was impressed.

Erin made her's with tofu. I went home with my sauce before she made her tofu, so I have no idea how it went.

This is Erin:

The mole sauce was awesome! Anthony doesn't even like tofu and he ate a bunch of it. Tofu is pretty much a blank slate, so it soaked up a bit of the sauce and was so tasty. All I did was fry the tofu until it was a little browned with some red pepper. This took about five minutes (a perk to vegetarian cooking!). Then I put some mole sauce in the pan and heated it up with the tofu. We ate this over rice. It was so good! Like Samara said, probably not for everyone (it has a unique flavor), but we really enjoyed it.