Mole Poblano with Chicken
Chile-chocolate-nut sauce, poached chicken and sesame seeds.
Maui's an app that plans a whole week of dinners like this one. See how it works ↓
Mole is an investment dish - but the sauce freezes beautifully. Make this once, portion the sauce, and you've got a 20-minute weeknight chicken-and-rice dinner for the next two months.
Ingredients
Everything below makes 6 servings.
- 3 lbbone-in chicken thighs
- 4dried ancho chilesstems and seeds removed
- 3dried mulato chilesstems and seeds removed
- 3dried pasilla chilesstems and seeds removed
- 2 ozMexican chocolate (or 70% dark)chopped
- ⅓ cupraw almonds
- ¼ cupraw peanuts (unsalted)
- 3 tbsptoasted sesame seedsplus extra for garnish
- ¼ cupraisins
- 2 mediumRoma tomatoeshalved
- 3 mediumtomatilloshusked and halved
- 1 mediumyellow onionquartered
- 6garlic clovessmashed
- 1cinnamon stick
- 3whole cloves
- ½ tspground cumin
- 1 tspdried oregano (Mexican preferred)
- 3 tbspolive oil
- 2½ tspkosher salt
- 1½ cupswhite rice (uncooked)
- 2½ cupswater
In the app these rescale to however many people you're feeding.
Nutrition
Per serving, as written.
- 580calories
- 38gprotein
- 42gcarbs
- 26gfat
Swaps move these numbers. A different protein or base changes them.
Instructions
Knife work first, then the stove. Nothing below asks you to chop while something burns.
- Stem and seed ancho, mulato, pasilla chiles.
- Halve tomatoes. Husk and halve tomatillos. Quarter onion. Smash garlic.
- Chop chocolate.
Poach chicken
In large dutch oven, cover chicken with water, add salt and half the smashed garlic. Bring to bare simmer, cover, poach 35 min until cooked through. Reserve 4 cups poaching broth. Set chicken aside.
35 min · hands offToast nuts and seeds
In dry skillet over medium, toast almonds 3 min, then peanuts 2 min, then toasted sesame seeds 1 min - each until fragrant. Transfer to blender.
6 min · hands onToast chiles and soak
In same skillet, toast chiles 30-60 sec per side. Transfer to bowl, cover with 2 cups hot poaching broth. Soak 15 min.
17 min · hands offChar tomato and onion
In same skillet, char tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and remaining garlic 5-6 min total. Add to blender with nuts.
6 min · hands onBlend and strain
Add soaked chiles and 1.5 cups soaking liquid and raisins and cinnamon (broken) and cloves and cumin and oregano to the blender. Blend 2-3 min until very smooth. Strain through fine-mesh sieve.
7 min · hands onFry the mole
Heat olive oil in dutch oven over medium-high. Pour in strained mole carefully (it spatters), stir constantly 8-10 min until it darkens. Add chopped chocolate and 2-3 cups reserved poaching broth and salt. Simmer 20 min, stirring, until silky and coats a spoon.
30 min · hands offRice
While mole simmers: cook rice with water and salt. Boil, cover, simmer 18 min. Off heat, rest 5 min.
23 min · hands offPlate
Return chicken to mole, warm 5 min. Plate rice, top with chicken and a generous ladle of mole, scatter toasted sesame seeds.
6 min · hands onMake it yours
Every swap here is one Maui already knows how to make, including what it does to the timing.
Poach 25 min instead of 35. Saves about 10 minutes.
Roast cubed tofu at 425°F for 20 min while mole simmers. Saves about 15 minutes.
Warm tortillas 30 sec per side; pile chicken and mole on top.
Cube and roast before adding to the mole.
What keeps
Mole is the ultimate batch dish - make a huge pot, freeze in 2-cup portions, reheat over chicken or enchiladas for months. Sauce keeps 5 days fridge, 3 months frozen.
Meet Maui,
the three-legged cat
who plans your dinner.
Think of her as a sous chef for your whole table. She plans dinner everyone will look forward to - built around your schedule and working in everyone's taste and dietary restrictions. That's the mental load of dinner, off your plate.
Join The WaitlistCurrently in closed beta on iPhone.
