Mole Rojo
Araceli is a family friend, she taught my father this recipe and I’m posting it here (so I don’t forget it) and for generations to come.
Ingredients
- 1 glass Mole Negro (“Rogelio el Bueno” o “Doña María” brands, Ara always had her own from Colima… but she didn’t get to keep the lovely glass that mole always comes in.)
- 1 kg can of whole pealed tomatoes, chopped. Whole canned tomatoes are always better quality than diced or chopped.
- 100 gm Mexican chocolate (with cinnamon)
- 1 large onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 350 ml chicken/turkey stock (cup and a half)
- Skinned, deboned chicken or turkey meat
- 50 gm toasted sesame seeds (ajonjolí)
- Oil or lard
Preparation
- Chop the onion medium fine and start sauteing it in 3 large spoonfuls of oil in a pot large enough for the whole sauce.
- Cut the garlic small enough so as not to strangle the guests and add to the oil when the onions are becoming transparent so as not to burn the garlic.
- Give the garlic a minute and add the mole… all of it. Cut and mash it with a spatula to break it up evenly.
- When the mole is hot, throw in the chicken and stir it around until it is all stained and firming up from the heat.
- Throw in the tomatoes with their juice and then stir in enough chicken broth until it’s slightly more liquid than what you want as an end result.
- Break up the chocolate and stir it into the sauce until it melts away.
- Let simmer for as long as you can stand it. Be careful, mole sticks and burns easily. If you’re using gas, then you’ll need a disperser like a Chilean bread toaster or a comal between the fire and the pot…. unless it’s a very heavy pot. Stir fairly often.
Serve with Mexican or Persian rice on the side. Sprinkle sesame seeds across the top of the mole for each individual plate. Maybe a bit of pico de gallo on the side for color.
Alternatives
- Lazy option: buy a roasted chicken at the supermarket, pull the meat off of it and then boil the bones and wings and skin to get the broth. Use about half the meat of a medium sized chicken for the mole and save the rest to make a chicken salad with celery, green onions, lemon and jalapeños for tomorrow…
- If you have any mole left over. Boil it once more and stick it in a tightly closing vessel (without the rice). When it has cooled, stick it in the back of the fridge for 2 or 3 weeks. Bacteria don’t like mole. It’s even better than the first time around. I obviously dicovered this by accident.