Go to the Recipe: 30-Minute Mole
I would love it if Chef’s Steps would start giving us normal measurements like other sites. For example “9 cinnamon sticks” is understandable, but how much is 15g of Pasilla chilis? 1? 2? 6? And converting to ounces doesn’t help - give us teaspoons and tablespoons. There are times when I’ve spent literally an hour on a complex recipe with conversion tables before I even headed out to the grocery store. So tired of having to get out 27 ramekins and measure everything on a metric scale. This recipe is a perfect example.
Seriously, though, you should have a pressure cooker.
Low and slow on the stove top for 2-3 hours. I would sweat the onions in butter before adding the rest. You may need to watch the water amount since you will have some evaporation.Be sure to stir. Or cook covered on lowest setting.
If I don't have a pressure cooker is there an alternative way to cook this recipe using these ingredients?
Most mole can be a touch broken. You could alternately hold the butter in the initial cooking and then stream in melted the butter while blending to help with this.
I saw the sauce is broken,, is it because of the butter or what?? So if we just replace the butter, can it solve the problem?
Sub the same weight.
If mace is not easy to get, how much nutmeg would you recommend instead (and any other tweaks to compensate?)
I'm going to make it as-written, but just with my own experience with mole, I anticipate making some adjustments to the second batch. I'll probably:
1. throw either some day-old bread or fried tortillas into the blender to help with breaking
2. add some raisins (or other dried fruit)
3. toast the spices
4. pull back on the cinnamon
5. use turkey stock in place of water (or be lazy and just add a spoon of better than boullion)
6. replace some/all of the butter with lard
Only toasting the spices will add some time to the recipe, but I think it's worth the extra 5-10 min.
It came out fabulous, with some tweaks. Tried this for the first time incorporating some changes from the comments plus some of my own. I cut down on the cinnamon sticks to two, used only ancho and pasilla chili’s that I had on hand and added a chipotle chili in adobo for smokiness. Toasted the dried peppers, nuts, seeds and dry spices briefly. I also used homemade chicken stock instead of water for the base. While I was blending I added a half cup of raisins. In the future I will cook the raisins in the instant pot with the rest of the ingredients. The mixture still tasted harsh almost unfinished, so I added lime juice and some brown sugar per some of the previous comments. It still wasn’t where I wanted it and I realized it needed more nutty flavor. I was simmering the sauce over the stove and decided to add some peanut butter and a little more chocolate. The sauce suddenly came together with all the complex layers of flavor I love in mole, and we ate it that night with chicken, frijoles and tortillas. I made mole enchiladas the next night and it was, of course, even better. I portioned most of the sauce into small containers and froze it for future meals. The sauce can be thinned with broth depending on how you are using it. I love how convenient and easy this recipe is and will continue to make it with a few more tweaks in the future. I think I will double the cinnamon sticks next time. Thank you for such a great shortcut version of Mole sauce.
Just made this tonight with a Sous vide chicken breast. 1kg of water worked well, where it just covered the other ingredients. I also toasted the peppers on the skillet as well as the peanuts and pumpkin seeds. Excellent recipe, and worth the time saved from the usual 6 hour prep for mole pablano.
Must mean 1kg
I can’t understand whether the amount of water is 1 kg or 2 times 1 kg or 2 kg? In your recipe the water has been named two times. It is quite confusing.
Is the cumin meant to be cumin seed or ground cumin?
I just wanna say I seriously love you guys. I’ve made this mole 6 times now. Thanks for the awesome recipes!
yeah raisins would round it off nicely and add some acid using lime. Worked for me. Next time I am going to add some garam masala!
Excatly my experience. I added some brown sugar and lime. After that it was nice. Also next time I would go a bit easy on the cinnamon.
I made this today omitting the MSG and adding a couple of slices of dried persimmon. I pureed it in my Braun food processor (speed 15 for 2 minutes). The result is a thick (unbroken) almost pudding like sauce which looks exactly like the mole in the video. The flavor is extraordinary. I just returned from Santa Fe, New Mexico where I dined at Sazon. I am going to keep this concept and try to recreate some of Chef Fernando Orlea's mole sauces.
Happy to find this recipe. I have yet to try it but it is very similar to what I have done in the past which is to add all the mole ingredients to a chicken in a clay pot or Dutch oven and bake. At the end you take out chicken and the rest goes into the blender. I have never added butter but I guess it could be a nice option. I do like to roast nuts, seeds and chiles first and I also add one small flour tortilla torn in strips which help make the sauce thicken when blended. If I do try the presure cooker I would add chicken stock for richness and a small flour tortilla to help thicken. Thanks
This recipe is too cinnamon heavy. I suspected as much, so used six instead instead of nine, and it was still too heavy on the cinnamon.
The super secret ingredient for the classic Mexican Mole Negro is Burnt Corn Tortillas. Literally just burn those tortillas crack them up and add that to the mole. Obviously its a whole new recipe but thats the main deal. Play with this recipe and I'm sure you'll come up with something cool.
Pretty dang good for a mole with 30 min cook time. Taking into account the ease, amount of time, and price its seriously pretty good! Of course you can do more to add flavor but then it wouldn't be a 30 min mole anymore. I followed the advice of previous comments and toasted the spices, garlic, and chiles in a pan. I didn't have a problem with splitting, although I was fully anticipating it. Maybe the quality of the blender matters? I obliterated mine well past 2 minutes.
I'm not surewhat you mean by the "I-blender's cup" however, if you do blend smaller batches from the while pot, and don't mix them altogether with the blender afterwards, you stand there's of not incorporating all the ingredients, and getting some batches that taste different with different textures than others.
In Mexico, they grow the cassia. It's more authentic to use the cassia.
Can I finish it with an immersion blender either in the P-cooker or in batches with the I-blender's cup?
Any adjustment required if using powdered peppers?
Made this for a dinner party recently and everyone loved it! However, there would be a few changes I would make in the future. I toasted the seeds and chiles beforehand to amp up the flavor, which I think made a difference. Unfortunately, like another commenter I had problems with the sauce breaking (see the photo). I didn't have xanthan on hand otherwise I would have added some. I originally put in half the butter, and it was fine, but I wanted more richness so I added the rest, and it started breaking. I also thought it was way too liquidy overall, to the point where I might reduce the water by half next time. But everyone was so impressed vs. how easy it was that it's hard to complain too much.
Any suggestions for getting a darker mole? More in the style of mole negro with lots of burnt notes?
How long do you think this will keep when refrigerated? Do you think making this in advance with enhance the flavors at all?
Just made this - turned out great! I prefer a little more sweetness and a liiiiittle bit more acid, so i blended in a teaspoon or so of agave at the end + a little bit of extra tomato paste and it was PERFECT! my advice: don't be afraid to taste and make a few changes at the end while blending everything together in order to meet your preferences. i used Chilhuacle chiles too because i had them on hand.
I had the same issue the first time I made this. When using ceylon (true) cinnamon, you only need one or two
Let us know how it goes!
I noticed you dont toast any of the ingredients listed which fro me is integral to mole and i think you would usually use abuelita chocolate which can be found at any latin american grocer also the addition of stale bread and tortillas. i also thought maybe after you cook it in the pressure cooker you could pour that into a hot pan and reduce it a little while stirring. i will try today
So reheating it to sterilize in the jars won't be a large negative for the flavor? I take it that vitamixing it before cooking really is a bad idea? Thanks for the answers!
Hi Dan, because you're cooking it all together and then blending, doing it in jars (while technically possible), you may run into problems distributing all the ingredients evenly throughout each jar. If you'd like to store it in jars though, you could first make the sauce and then store it in jars afterward.
Hi Pilo, you are correct! We do use cassia in this recipe but you are more than welcome to try using true cinnamon. We haven't done trials with this, but please let us know how it turns out if you do try it!
I still didn't tried yet, but as far as I can see is veeeeeery unbalanced to the cinnamon side. For this amount of water, I would never use more than 1-2 sticks (2 when thinking on the spiced side), or it risks to kill any other flavor. Are you sure about the number nine???
Even more, when watching the video, it seems to me that those aren't cinamon sticks, but cassia ones.Here in Spain, we call cassia "false cinnamon", maybe it's why you use so many sticks?
Since it is a pressure cooker recipe anyway, could I do it jars in a pressure canner for long term storage? It would awesome to have it on the shelf in half pints.
Hi Andrea, you could definitely substitute with either of those. We haven't tried cooking it in a pot, but Chef Nick's guess would be 2-4 hours in a covered pot. You will also need to mix every so often so the bottom does not scorch and add a little moisture throughout the cooking process to make up for what you lose in evaporation.
Hi Guys,
how long if cooking in a pot? Also, need for it to be dairy-free, so EVOO or macadamia oil???
tia.
Andrea
While I think for a quick mole, the flavors are pretty well developed, as others have mentioned, this mole has some problems with breaking. I fixed this using an old trick to save a breaking bearnaise, adding a little bit of hot water while whisking furiously. I also added a tiny bit of xanthan in hopes that it wont break later.
Technically, whenever you cook something in a pot, not a pressure cooker, you're already cooking at 1 bar of pressure. That is earth's regular atmospheric pressure, with subtle variations depending on your elevation. When you use a pressure cooker, what the food is experiencing inside the pressure cooker is 2 bars of pressure: the first is the regular old atmospheric pressure, and the second is the added pressure the you get by using the pressure cooker. You can find pressure canners which have a pressure guage on top, so you can try to over pressurize if you want to, however, this is extremely dangerous, which can destroy your stove, kitchen, and lead to serious bodily injury, including death. Using your regular pressure cooker, which will bump it up to 15 psi extra, and you should be good to go. Good luck.
A different way to cook mole, I have never though about to use the pressure cooker, Great idea!!! In mine I will probably remove the cumin (very weird coming as a mexican been alergic to that spice), you can have better flavor if you change sugared peanuts, an slice of bread and a corn tortilla if this is the Queretaro version (part of my grandma version).
If you are curious about the different varieties of it you can check https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_sauce#Varieties .
Btw awesome site I love it
I have been looking at pressure cookers most seem to cook at 1 bar when at high, your recipe states 2 bars I believe. How much longer would I need to cook it?
Never mind... I found it already on your site.
Any class in the works for pressure cookers? This is an excellent example and I would love to have a few more ideas as a springboard for more recipes. Thanks! You guys kick ass!
I am actually quite disappointed with this mole - far too much spice and you cannot taste other flavors over that. Thoughts on how to balance this out? I was thinking some stock and maybe raisins and more nuts? It was an expensive undertaking and I do not want it to go to waste!!
Do you use whole or ground cloves? If whole do you remove before blending? Could you provide a weight for cinnamon next time you make it? Any recommendation on type of cinnamon?
As a Mexican. The recipe was short by a few ingredients. And we will never rush when we make mole sauce. Low and slow. That is the way. And never ever use ground peppers.
The mole is not a sauce is a principal ingredient, almost the ingredients like chiken o turkey (pavito) are garnitures. we dont use butter, tomato paste and valrhona chocolate :P we use tomato guajillo, pork fat (manteca) and fatless chocolate ( chocolate de mesa molido a metate marca abuelita ! ) try this recipe please,100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back !!!
4 piezas Chile mulato
100 gr Almendra
1/2 Plátano macho
60 gr Cacahuate crudo limpio
60 gr Pasas
300 gr Jitomate guajillo
Anís entero
Canela en raja
Clavo entero de olor
Semillas de cilantro
1 Tortilla de maíz quemada
50 gr Chocolate de mesa
1 p Cebolla blanca
1 diente de Ajo
Manteca de cerdo
30 gr Ajonjolí
10 gr Sal
10 gr Azúcar blanca
Fondo de pollo
4 piezas Chile pasilla
4 piezas Chile ancho
