Huge Chicken Mole
Prep
30m
Cook
75m
Total
105m
Bigly says
Folks. FOLKS. We're doing mole. Mole poblano. The HUGEST mole you've ever seen in your life and probably the lives of everyone in your family going back four generations. Mole is the greatest sauce in the history of sauces — and I've eaten more sauces than anyone alive, I've had bechamel, I've had bolognese, I've had a thing called 'romesco' that frankly nobody can pronounce — and mole beats every single one of them. Hands down. Game over.
Many people don't know this — and the food media won't say it because it makes their three-ingredient skillet recipes look like the weak little nonsense they are — but mole has like thirty ingredients. THIRTY. Chiles, nuts, seeds, spices, chocolate — yes, CHOCOLATE, in a sauce, with chicken, and it WORKS, it works tremendously. Scientists — and I've talked to scientists, very smart people, food chemists, the smartest — they will tell you the chocolate balances the chile capsaicin and the toasted nuts add a fat profile that carries the heat across your palate. I sat through 90 minutes of this from a guy with a PhD. Worth it. The Aztecs figured this out without the PhD. They were on to something HUGE.
The story goes most chefs will tell you mole is hard. They'll tell you it takes a week. They'll scare you, because if you're scared you keep them in business. Not here. Not Bigly. We're making a real, honest, gigantic chicken mole and we're doing it in an afternoon. One afternoon. Your kitchen will smell like a temple. People three houses down will smell it and weep. Tough guys, with the tears in the eyes. It's going to be tremendous.
Ingredients
- 3 lbbone-in, skin-on chicken thighs(thighs, not breasts, breasts are sad here)
- 2 tsp, dividedkosher salt
- 3 tbspneutral oil
- 3dried ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
- 3dried guajillo chiles, stemmed and seeded
- 2dried pasilla chiles, stemmed and seeded
- 1 largewhite onion, roughly chopped
- 5 clovesgarlic, peeled
- 2roma tomatoes
- 1/4 cupraw almonds
- 2 tbsp, plus extra for garnishraw sesame seeds
- 1/4 cupraisins
- 1/2 tspground cinnamon
- 1/8 tspground cloves
- 1 tspground cumin
- 1 tspMexican oregano, dried
- 1corn tortilla, torn into pieces
- 1.5 ozdark chocolate (70%), chopped(yes chocolate, trust the process)
- 4 cupslow-sodium chicken broth
- 1/4 cup, choppedfresh cilantro (for serving)
- 12warm corn tortillas (for serving)
Steps
- 1
Pat chicken thighs dry and season all over with 1 tsp salt. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Sear chicken skin-side down 5-6 minutes until deeply golden, flip and sear another 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.
- 2
Reduce heat to medium. In the same pot, toast the chiles 20-30 seconds per side until fragrant and pliable. Do not burn them — burnt chiles turn the whole mole bitter. Transfer to a bowl and cover with hot water for 15 minutes to rehydrate.
- 3
In the same pot, add the remaining 1 tbsp oil. Add onion and garlic, cook 5 minutes until softened. Add tomatoes, almonds, sesame seeds, and raisins. Cook another 5 minutes, stirring, until everything is lightly toasted.
- 4
Stir in cinnamon, cloves, cumin, oregano, and the torn tortilla piece. Cook 1 minute until fragrant.
- 5
Drain the chiles (reserve 1 cup of the soaking liquid). Add the rehydrated chiles and the reserved liquid to a blender along with the onion-spice mixture from the pot and 2 cups of chicken broth. Blend on high until completely smooth, 2-3 minutes. Work in batches if needed.
- 6
Pass the mole through a fine-mesh strainer back into the Dutch oven, pressing on the solids. Discard the solids.
- 7
Bring the strained mole to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the chocolate and remaining 1 tsp salt. Cook 10 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce thickens slightly and turns glossy. Thin with more broth if too thick.
- 8
Nestle the seared chicken thighs back into the sauce, skin-side up. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 35-40 minutes, until the chicken is fork-tender and pulls easily from the bone.
- 9
Taste and adjust salt. Garnish with sesame seeds and chopped cilantro. Serve with warm corn tortillas.
One more thing
Mole is supposed to make you feel something. Real mole. Bigly mole. When this hits the table the room goes quiet — and not because everyone's checking their phones, no, they're QUIET because they're chewing, because they cannot believe what's happening in their mouths. Spoon it generously. Spoon it like you mean it. And if there's leftover mole? Tomorrow it's better. The day after that, it's the best thing you've ever eaten in your life. Mole gets HUGER with time. Tremendous.
★ QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS ONE? ★
Ask Bigly about Huge Chicken Mole.
Substitutions, what to serve it with, why other chefs are wrong about it. He's got opinions.
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