Mole Almendrado

“I would come home and my mum would be there grinding the chillies in the metate and I new straight away she was going to make a mole and I would be looking forward to eat it with a smile on my face” – my dad’s comment about his mum’s mole.

For me I think that “Mole” is the most iconic, special & delicious Mexican dish. It is always prepared for celebrations and it takes time and a lot of effort to prepare, but when it’s done, it always puts a smile to everyone that eats it.

In my family we don’t have our own mole recipe, the person that used to do it from scratch was my dad’s mum, my abuela Maria and unfortunately she never shared her recipe with us, so when I was growing up we only used to eat proper mole at restaurants, because at home my mum used to use a branded mole from a jar.

So all my life I grew up thinking that making mole was a very difficult task that would take hours to prepare because of infinite ingredients. It wasn’t until quite recently that my friend Renata whom I met through Instagram, that also happen to be a food blogger as well, show on her Stories her own Mole recipe.

A mole that it was simple to prepare and did not have an extensive list of ingredients and at the end she invited us, her followers, to make our own recipe, so I did! And this is my Mole recipe.

So since then, I have made this mole recipe a few times and my family loves it. I feel very proud to say that now I owe a family mole recipe that hopefully my children will continue cooking and their children. Because I think mole is love and in each Mexican family should be at least one recipe.

With love,

Karla X

Mole Almendrado (Almond Mole)

Servings 6

Total Time 2 hours hrs

Ingredients

• 2 Ancho chillies
• 2 Guajillo chillies
• 4 on the bone & skin on chicken legs
• 1/2 cup blanched almonds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 2 onions
• 2 garlic cloves skin on
• 3 tomatoes
• 1 Mexican chocolate tablet
• 1/4 tbsp cumin
• 1 clove
• 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 2 peppercorns
• 1 1/2 tbsp salt flakes
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 L water

Instructions

• Place the chicken legs in a large sauce pan or dutch oven, add one onion cut in half, one tomato cut in half and one garlic. Add one tbsp of salt and the water. Bring it to a boil, remove the impurities and low the heat down. Slow cook for an hour or until the chicken is tender. Set aside.
• Clean your chillies, remove the stem and seed. Peel the onion.
• Heat an old frying pan and place the tomatoes, peeled onion, garlic clove. Char them all around and remove them. Set aside.
• Then on the same frying pan toast the almonds and then the sesame seeds. Set aside.
• After the nuts are done and the frying pan still hot, toast the chillies, making sure not to burn them. Once they are toasted, place them for 10 min in hot boiling water to soften the skin.
• When the vegetables charred and the chillies are soften, place them in a blender together with the almonds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, clove, peppercorns, cumin & salt. Use some of the stock from your chicken to blend. Make sure everything is blended very well, so you get a very smooth mole.
• Once the sauce is done, heat a saucepan to medium heat or a Dutch oven and heat two tbsp of vegetable oil, then add the sauce. Lower the heat. Cook for 5 min and then add a ladled of the chicken stock, then add the chocolate, which I suggest to break, so it is easier to dissolve. Mix from time to time and add more stock if it thickens.
• Taste it to see if it needs salt. Continue cooking until you see a bit of oil on the top. The flavour will change with time and you will notice that it will tastes even better the following day.
• When your Mole Almendrado is done, you can add the chicken legs. Serve it with a tomato rice and some delicious homemade corn tortillas 

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: mole, chillies, chicken

Remember to leave a comment if you like this article or tag me in social media #mexicanfoodmemories. If you fancy to become an expert in cooking Mexican food, don’t forget to visit my Mexican Cooking classes site!

Listo!

Provecho!

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