If you have ever ordered authentic mole sauce at a Mexican restaurant, you understand that this velvety sauce is typically served over burritos, enchiladas, and proteins like chicken and that it gives them all the appearance of having been smothered in melted milk chocolate.
Gather This
To achieve the complex flavor profile of mole sauce, you’ll need more than a few ingredients. But trust me — it’s worth it to create this incredible sauce. Plus, I’ve purposefully designed this recipe so that most of the ingredients are easy to grab at most grocery stores.
- Dried New Mexico Chiles – These chiles are fairly mild, clocking in at about half the Scoville units of a jalapeno, but you still may want to wear gloves when working with them. Be sure to remove the stem and seed the chiles before slicing.
- Dark Chocolate – Chocolate is a key ingredient in mole, giving the sauce its dark color and slight bitterness while also offsetting the heat of the peppers.
- Chicken broth
- White bread
- Tomatillos
- Beefsteak tomatoes
- Butter
- Vegetable oil
- White onion
- Garlic
- Peanuts
- Raisins
- Spices
- Sugar
- Kosher salt
- Fresh lime juice
Perfect Pairings
Mole sauce is a great way to liven up proteins like chicken thighs, pork, or turkey. It also adds depth to rice dishes and jazzes up veggies like broccolini and root vegetables. You can spoon it over beans, too — try it on pinto beans, black beans, kidney beans, or cannellini beans.
Mexican dishes are, of course, a perfect pairing as well. Try serving it with quesadillas, tamales, tacos, burritos, or enchiladas. Pair it with our Mexican Crema recipe– mole heats up while crema cools it down.
Let’s Make It
The phrase “good things come to those who wait” rings true when it comes to making this sauce. It’s not a speedy recipe but you’ll be grateful you invested the time once it all comes together.
- Toast chiles. Add the dried chiles to a large ungreased skillet and toast until fragrant.
- Blend chiles with broth. Place the toasted chiles in the bowl of a food processor or in a high-powered blender with warmed chicken broth.
- Add bread. Top the chiles with the torn bread.
- Brown tomatillos and tomatoes. Then, brown the tomatillos and tomatoes in the skillet. Once charred, place those into the blender or food processor as well.
- Sauté peanuts, raisins and spices. Add the butter and vegetable oil to the skillet and warm until the butter melts. Add the peanuts and raisins to the skillet along with all of the spices and aromatics. Sauté the mixture briefly before also transferring it to the blender.
- Pulse mixture in food processor. Pulse the mixture until it is smooth and thick. Pour the puree into a large saucepan and allow it to simmer.
- Heat in saucepan with chocolate, sugar and salt. Stir in the rest of the broth as well as the dark chocolate, sugar, and salt.
- Continue to heat on low. Once all of the chocolate has melted, allow the sauce to remain on the stove on low.
- Add lime and serve. Just before serving, add the lime juice. Serve or allow the sauce to come to room temperature before storing.
- Salt – We add coarse kosher salt to this mole sauce to bring out the other flavors. Feel free to omit it to keep the salt content down a bit.
- Seasonings – Transform the flavor profile with the addition of other spices that are sometimes used in mole like anise or oregano.
- Swaps – Instead of raisins use dried prunes instead. Also, for more flavor, you can soak the raisins in chile juice prior to adding them to the other ingredients. You can omit bread from the recipe if needed. To make it thicker, simmer it longer so that it reduces more, or use almonds, sunflower seeds, or more peanuts.
- Senses – Mole sauce is rich and velvety, with a deep, smoky aroma and layers of spice, chocolate, and chili. It’s smooth on the tongue, with a warm, complex flavor that lingers.
Storage and Freezing
You can make the whole sauce ahead of time and then refrigerate or freeze it until you need it.
Store mole sauce in the fridge for up to 1 week in an airtight container.
Yes, you can freeze mole sauce for up to 4 months in a freezer-safe container or resealable freezer bag.
Common Questions About Mole Sauce
Mole sauce is a complex blend of tomatoes and tomatillos with spices, aromatics, nuts, and chocolate. There are also lots of different types of mole — it can also contain other ingredients like bread, sugar, and raisins.
These two sauces are not alike. They may both contain tomatoes and peppers, but that’s where the similarity ends. Mole sauce has a much deeper flavor profile and a far more velvety texture thanks to its long list of ingredients that includes chocolate, nuts, and raisins.
Mole sauce owes its delicious flavor profile to the inclusion of ingredients that span so many of the tastes, from sweet and spicy to bitter and umami.
Other Savory Sauces
Sauces can elevate most any meal. Here are some of our favorite savory dipping sauces.
Simple Mole Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 dried New Mexico chiles stemmed and seeded, cut into thirds
- 3 cups low sodium chicken broth divided and warm
- 2 slices white bread torn into 1-inch pieces
- 1 1/2 cups tomatillos* cut in half
- 2 beefsteak tomatoes stemed and cut in half
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 white onion sliced
- 5 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 1/4 cup unsalted dry roasted peanuts
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon ground allspice
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ancho chile powder
- 1 teaspoon ground chipotle chile powder
- 3 ounces dark chocolate* finely chopped
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
Instructions
- In a dry large skillet, toast the dried chiles over medium heat, approximately 2 minutes on each side. They will be fragrant. Transfer them to a large, high-powered blender or food processor.
- Add 2 cups of the warmed chicken broth. The broth being warmed aids in reconstituting them and will speed up the process compared to cold broth.
- Place the torn bread on top of the chiles to help plunge them fully into the broth.
- Meanwhile, in the same dry skillet over medium heat, browned the tomatillos and tomatoes, cut side first and then flipping until nicely charred, approximately 3 minutes on each side. Transfer to the blender.
- If the skillet has some burned bits from the tomatoes, wipe them out carefully and then return to medium heat along with the butter and vegetable oil.
- When the butter has melted, add the onion, garlic, peanuts, raisins, cumin, thyme, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, ancho chile powder and chipotle chile powder. Saute until onions are soft and the whole mixture it very fragrant. Using a spatula, transfer this all to the blend. If the blend is too full, work in batches.
- Make sure the lid is securely on the blender and then blend for 60-90 seconds, or until the whole mixture is pureed and thick.
- Transfer to a large saucepan over medium heat, brining to a low simmer and then reducing the heat. Whisk in the remaining chicken broth.
- Whisk in the dark chocolate, sugar and salt, stirring continuously until fully melted. Continue to heat for 10-15 minutes.
- When ready to serve, whisk in the lime juice.
- Serve over your favorite burritos, stewed meats, enchiladas and more.
- If you’ve tried this recipe, come back and let us know how it was in the comments or star ratings.
Notes
Nutrition
I was looking for a recipe like this, thank you for sharing! I can’t wait to try it soon!
For once the title is correct — this is actually the best mole sauce I’ve ever made it had! Saving this one, thank you!
Love the flavor of this sauce! This reminds me of Mexico! Perfect on chicken or beef burritos.
I’ve always wanted to try making mole. This turned out delicious. The flavors were bold and the texture was silky. I will definitely make this recipe again.
OMG, this stuff is so amazing! I absolutely adore authentic mole sauce, and this hit the mark squarely. I used it to make mole chicken tacos, and it was fanatastic.
This is perfection in a sauce! Thank you so much!
I was wondering how they make this sauce. Now I know – thanks a lot for making it so detailed!
This sauce is unique and a burst of flavors. Thanks for the recipe and all the detailing to this delicious sauce. Will be my first attempt to trying this out