This weekend, along with the thing we aren’t talking about anymore and the epic-ness that is pan sauces…
I have made molé! Olé for molé!
Honestly, I didn’t make the molé. I don’t particularly like molé but I know someone who does. In fact I’m pretty sure he LOVES it! So I thought, I’ll be a good friend and let him make it. Aren’t I so nice?!
So… I didn’t cook molé. But I did watch the video, supervise the cooking process and taste it.
It was molé bomb, yo! And I don’t even like molé.
On Sunday afternoon I did a bunch of blog designing. So my friend made ‘thrown together margaritas’ while he cooked.
I heart him!
Holy Chicken Molé
Spike teaches this recipe. It makes 4-6 servings and takes about an hour.
Ingredients
- 5 ancho chiles (dried) split and seeds removed
- 1/2 cup golden raisins 3 tablespoons vegetable or olive oil
- 8 chicken breasts
- 1 tablespoon whole, toasted fennel
- 1/2 tablespoon whole, toasted coriander
- 1/2 teaspoon ground all-spice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and pasted
- 1 onion, peeled and diced
- 1/2 cup toasted pumpkin seeds
- 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
- 2 ounce piece dark chocolate, rough chopped
Directions
Soak the chiles and the raisins overnight in water. You can also do 4-5 hours in the afternoon.
Heat a large Dutch oven and add oil. Season the chicken well with salt and pepper. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and sear on both sides. Remove the chicken and set aside.
Add the fennel, coriander, all spice and cinnamon into a spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Add the spice mixture to the pot with the chicken while it is searing so the spices toast at the same time. Remove the chicken and set aside. Add cinnamon sticks to the pot at this time to toast a little too — these will stay whole in the braise to infuse the liquid.
To the pot, add the onion and garlic, and cook until translucent, and fragrant about 5 minutes. Take the re-hydrated chiles and remove excess seeds and then roughly chop them up. Add to the pan with the onion and garlic. Add pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds and continue to stir and cook for a minute or two. Now add the re-hydrated raisins and the soaking liquid of both the raisins and chiles. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Remove the cinnamon sticks then blend the sauce until smooth. Add about a quarter of the chocolate. Add the chicken back to the pot (and cinnamon sticks) and cook until tender — about 45 minutes. Fold in the grated chocolate and you can serve with rice, fresh lime wedges and warm tortillas.
I really recommend making this with a margarita (or two) in hand. So much more fun.
Is it weird that I made the margarita an ingredient in my mis en place???
This recipe calls for a Dutch oven, I used my large sauce pot. And we used the immersion blender for the blending. FUN!!
I promise there will be some plate licking.
