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Mole Poblano

Name: Mole Poblano
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 60 min
Total time: 90 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients: 900 g Chicken thighs; 80 g Dried ancho chillies; 800 ml Chicken stock; 150 g Onion; 4 cloves Garlic cloves; 250 g Ripe tomatoes; 40 g Whole almonds; 30 g Raisins; 30 g Sesame seeds; 1 piece Stale white bread; 3 g Ground cinnamon; 3 piece Whole cloves; 40 g Dark chocolate (70%); 40 ml Sunflower oil; 15 g Caster sugar; 10 g Fine sea salt

Chicken simmered in a deep, dark sauce of dried chillies, toasted nuts, tomato, spice and a hint of dark chocolate — savoury and only faintly sweet, built from more than twenty ingredients that no single one of them dominates.

Prep: 30 min
Cook: 60 min
Difficulty: Advanced

About this dish

Mole poblano's most-told origin story credits 17th-century nuns at a convent in Puebla, improvising a grand dish for a visiting archbishop from whatever the pantry held; historians treat this as legend more than fact, but it captures something true — mole grew out of colonial Mexico blending indigenous chillies and chocolate with Old World spices, nuts and bread as a thickener. Chocolate is a seasoning here, not a dessert flavour: it rounds off the chilli's heat and deepens the colour, and a well-made mole should taste of chilli and spice first, chocolate a distant, unplaceable note underneath.

Lactose-free
Not vegetarian because of Chicken thighs, Chicken stock
Contains gluten because of Stale white bread

Ingredients

4servings

900gChicken thighs
80gDried ancho chillies
800mlChicken stock
150gOnion
4clovesGarlic cloves
250gRipe tomatoes
40gWhole almonds
30gRaisins
30gSesame seeds
1pieceStale white bread
3gGround cinnamon
3piecesWhole cloves
40gDark chocolate (70%)
40mlSunflower oil
15gCaster sugar
10gFine sea salt

Instructions

Toast the dried chillies in a dry pan for a minute until fragrant, then soak in warm chicken stock for 20 minutes until soft.
10 min
Tip: Toast just until you can smell them, not until they blacken — scorched chilli turns the whole mole bitter, and there's no fixing it later.
Fry the onion and garlic in the oil until soft, add the tomatoes, almonds, raisins, sesame seeds and torn bread, and cook 10 minutes until everything softens.
15 min
Tip: The bread and nuts aren't background — they're what thickens the sauce to a coating consistency without flour, the traditional way mole gets its body.
Blend the softened chillies with their soaking liquid, the fried vegetable mixture, cinnamon and cloves until completely smooth, then simmer the sauce 15 minutes, stirring in the dark chocolate until melted.
20 min
Tip: Blend longer than feels necessary — any texture left in a mole reads as unfinished; it should coat the back of a spoon in one even layer.
Add the chicken to the sauce, season with sugar and salt, and simmer 20–25 minutes until cooked through and the sauce clings thickly. Scatter with extra sesame seeds to serve.
25 min
Tip: Taste and adjust right at the end — the balance between chilli heat, the nuts' richness and the chocolate's edge is what separates a good mole from a flat one, and every batch of dried chillies varies.