How To Make Molé Amarillo With Chicken and Vegetables

Molé Amarillo is a yellow molé that comes from Oaxaca. It has a bright vibrant color and flavor with a good amount of spicy heat. This molé goes well with chicken, turkey, duck and wild fowl. It can also work well as a vegetarian dish. The addition of Chayote and Masa keep the color light and help give this sauce it’s unique flavor. This is a pre-Columbian recipe and as such it uses ingredients that were available before the arrival of the Spanish such as Tomatillos, Chayote and Hoja Santa.

This dish is naturally Gluten-Free. You can make a vegetarian version with some easy substitutions.

The Chiles

The chiles used in this recipe are Chilhuacle Amarillo or Costeño Amarillo. As these chiles can be difficult to find, they are often substituted with Guajillo Chiles. I was able to find Chilhuacle Amarillo at Spice Trekkers here, and the Costeño Amarillo at Spice Trekkers here. They may not always be available. The Chilhuacle Amarillo is one of the rarest chiles in Mexico.

Read More About Molé

Read our brief article on the history of molé.

Watch a Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Molé Amarillo With Chicken and Vegetables:

The Ingredients For Molé Amarillo

• 4 Chilhuacle Amarillo Chiles
• 8 Costeño Amarillo Chiles
• 5 Chicken Thighs (omit for vegetarian)
• 3 1/2 Cups Broth (Chicken, Duck or Vegetable)
• 1/4 of an Onion
• 3/4 lb Tomatoes
• 3/4 lb Tomatillos
• 5 Cloves Garlic
• 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp Black Pepper
• 1/4 tsp Cumin
• 1/8 tsp Cloves
• 1/2 tsp Mexican Oregano
• 1 Hoja Santa Leaf
• 1 Chayote
• 1 lb Potatoes
• 1 lb Green Beans
• 1 1/2 Cups Masa
• 1 1/2 Cups Warm Water
• 2 Tbls Oil
• Lime wedges for serving

Cut the Potato and Chayote

Start by cutting the potato into chunks, peel and cut the chayote into chunks and cut the green beans into 1″ chunks. Chayote is a squash commonly used in Mexico and Asia. We have found it in our local supermarket as well as Asian food stores. It can be found here on Amazon.com.

Cook the Vegetables

The vegetables all have different cooking times so we will start with potatoes in a pot, covered with water. Bring the water to a boil and cook for 10 minutes. Add the Chayote and cook for 5 more minutes and then add the green beans and cook for another 3 minutes or so. Drain and reserve the vegetables. If you are making a vegetarian version of this recipe, reserve the cooking water.

Make Chochoyotes

The next task at hand is to prepare the masa dough. Combine equal parts Masa Harina with warm water. The masa incorporates best with water at 100 degrees. Mix until it can form a ball and separate it into halves. One half we will make into chochoyotes, which are a kind of corn dumpling. Take 1 teaspoon of the dough, roll it into a ball and make an indentation with your thumb. Repeat until half the dough is used up. Set aside to add to the molé later.

Blend the Rest Of the Masa Dough

The other half of the masa goes into a blender with 3/4 cup of chicken stock. Use the reserved vegetable cooking water for a vegetarian version. Blend until very smooth. Reserve.

Cut and Cook the Chicken

We want to cut the chicken into bite size chunks. We like to be able to get a fairly good bite of chicken so we cut them big. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet and add the chicken. Cook the first side for three minutes and then turn the pieces over and cook the other side about two minutes. The chicken will cook a bit more in the molé so it doesn’t need to be all the way cooked at this point.

Remove Seeds and Stems From the Chiles

Remove the seeds and stems from the chiles and tear them into small pieces. Put them in a saucepan.

Prepare the Tomatoes

With a sharp knife, lightly score the top and bottom of the tomatoes with an ‘X’. If you use yellow tomatoes it helps contribute to an amarillo color in the end result.

Cook Chiles, Tomatoes and Tomatillos In Chicken Stock

Add the tomatillos and tomatoes and 1 to 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth to the saucepan with the chiles. You want enough broth to cover all the peppers plus a bit more. The tomatoes and tomatillos can steam in a covered pot but we need to make sure the chiles are immersed. Bring this to a boil and cook, covered, for 8 to10 minutes. The tomatillos will turn bright green and the tomato skins will start to detach. That’s when you know it’s ready.

Peel the Tomatoes

Take the tomatoes out to cool a bit before taking the peels off of them.

Blend the Sauce With Onion, Garlic and Spices

Now we add the peeled tomatoes and the other contents of the saucepan to a blender. We also want to add 1/4 of an onion, chopped, 5 garlic cloves, cinnamon, cumin, Mexican oregano, cloves and black pepper. Then add another half cup of chicken stock and blend thoroughly. At this point you have the option to push the sauce through a fine mesh strainer to make it really smooth. Since I am adding meat and vegetables directly to this I’m not going to bother, but it can be worth the effort.

Cook the Sauce

Put 2 tablespoons of oil in a large stock pot. When the oil is hot add the contents of the blender. This will spatter as it heats up so be sure to cover it. Add the remaining chicken stock to the blender, give it a quick blitz and then add it to the pot. That will get any remaining sauce out of the blender. Cook for 10 minutes stirring frequently.

Add the Masa Slurry

Add the masa slurry to the pot and then keep stirring as it thickens. Cook for another 10 minutes and you will really see the sauce thickening.

Add the Chicken and Vegetables

Add the chicken and cook for 2 minutes and then add the vegetables. Then we’ll cook this all together for about 10 minutes to get all the flavors married. The molé should be getting quite thick so continue stirring to keep it from sticking to the bottom.

Add the Hoja Santa Leaf

Add the hoja santa leaf, or 1 tsp of yerba santa powder, stir that in thoroughly.

Gently Fold In the Chochoyotes

Add the chochoyotes. Then fold these into the stew gently so they don’t just break up. Cook this for another 5 to 10 minutes and then the molé is ready to serve.

The Amarillo In Molé Amarillo

One final note about the chiles and the amarillo color. This molé is often made with some guajillo chiles, or even just all guajillo chiles, which makes the color tend a bit more naranja (orange) than amarillo (yellow). Regardless of the color it is still a fantastic molé, but we can make an effort to make it more amarillo. Using yellow tomatoes and the yellowest chiles you can find helps a lot.

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Here are some more molé recipes you can make:

• Molé Colorado
• Molé Verde
• Classic Molé Rojo
• Easy Molé Rojo
• Molé Coloradito
• Molé Chuchilo Negro
• Molé Manchamanteles
• Molé Poblano
• Oaxacan Molé Negro

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