Description
This remarkable sauce incorporates pineapple, green apple and plantain. The chiles for this one are anchos and pasillas. A lot of molé recipes start with breaking down a whole chicken so we did that for this one and then made chicken broth and shredded the meat. Delicious!
Ingredients
Units
Scale
For the Chicken-
- 1 whole chicken
- 2 carrots
- 2 pieces celery
- 1/2 Onion
- 1 Head Garlic
- 1 Tbls Pepperrcorns
- 4 Bay Leaves
- 3 Chile de Arbol
- Water
For the Molé-
- 6 Ancho Chiles
- 3 Pasilla Chiles
- 1/2 Onion
- 6 Cloves Garlic
- 2 Jalapeños
- 1 Green Plantain
- 1/8 cup Almonds
- 1 1/2 Tsp Cumin Seeds
- 2 Tsp Mexican Oregano
- 1/4 Tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/4 Tsp Cinnamon
- 28 oz Whole Tomatoes, peeled
- 4 cups Chicken Stock
- 1 cup Pineapple
- 1/3 cup Green Apple
- 1/3 cup Dried Apricots
- 1/3 cup Raisins
Instructions
- Cut the chicken into pieces. Roughly chop the carrots, celery, onion and garlic. Put the chicken and vegetables into a large stock pot. Add the peppercorns, bay leaves and chile de arbol. Add water to fill the pot, put on high heat and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 50 minutes. Remove the chicken pieces to a plate and strain off the broth, discarding the vegetables.
- Remove the seeds from the chiles and tear into strips. Put four tablespoons of oil in a skillet on medium heat. When the oil is hot add the chiles and sweat about 30 seconds, turning them over once or twice. Remove the chiles to a small saucepan. It is best to do this in small batches. Be careful not to let the chiles burn. Add enough water to the saucepan to cover the sweated chiles and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and strain the chiles, reserving the water. Put the chiles in the blender with 1 1/2 cups chicken stock and blend until smooth. If you need more liquid for the blender add some of the chile water. Push the chile sauce through a fine mesh strainer and reserve.
- Chop the remaining 1/2 onion, garlic, jalapeño and plantain. You can remove the seeds from the jalapeño for a milder molé. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan and add the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and cook for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the almonds, cumin, oregano, cloves, cinnamon, tomatoes and 1 cup of chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Allow to cool a bit and then transfer to the blender. Blend until smooth.
- Dice the pineapple and green apple. Chop the dried apricots and raisins.
- In a large stockpot add the blended tomato mixture, the chile sauce and the remaining 1 1/2 cups chicken broth. Cook at a low simmer for 15 minutes. Add in the pineapple, green apple, raisins and dried apricots and cook for another 30 minutes.
- Here you have options for serving. You can shred the whole chicken and add it to the molé to serve as a stew. You can brown the chicken pieces in a little oil, add them to the pot or plate them and ladle the sauce over them. Whichever you choose it will be very flavorful! This is good served with Tostones or rice. Garnish with toasted sesame seeds and diced pineapple.
