Wayne wrote:

> Could you post your molé sauce recipe? I haven't made molé in a long time
> and never did have a really good recipe.

Sure, I got the recipe from a post here, but I tinkered with it. (By the
way, I'm pretty sure the accent isn't supposed to be there. If the word had
an accent, it would be móle, but that isn't how it's spelled.):

Chicken with Chocolate Sauce (Chicken Mole)

Enough chicken pieces for 6 people (I use 12 chicken thighs)
1 Ancho chile pepper, stemmed, seeded, and torn into pieces
2 dried New Mexico chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn into pieces
2 1/2 c Chicken broth
4 Tb Olive oil
2 Cloves garlic, minced
1 Onion, chopped
1 Green pepper, chopped
3 Slices canned pimiento, chopped
2 Large tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/4 c Slivered almonds
1/4 c Raisins
1/2 ts Cumin
1/4 ts Nutmeg
1/4 ts Ground cloves
1/4 ts Cinnamon
1/2 ts Salt
1/4 ts Pepper
1 ts Sugar
Grated rind of 1 orange
2 Tb rum
2 Squares bitter chocolate, chopped
Salt, pepper, sugar, and cayenne pepper to adjust as needed

Instructions

Salt and pepper the chicken pieces.

Toast the chile pieces in a dry ovenproof pan until they just begin to color
and turn fragrant. Heat the chicken broth until it's steaming. (I do that in
the microwave.) Put the chiles along with the chicken broth in a blender
and blend until the chiles are pulverized.

Add oil to the pan and cook garlic over medium-high heat for a few moments
to flavor oil; add chicken and brown. Remove chicken and lower heat.

In remaining fat, cook onion, green pepper, pimiento, and tomatoes over
gentle heat for 10 minutes. To onion mixture, add chicken broth mixture,
almonds, raisins, seasonings, orange rind, and rum; simmer, covered, 30
minutes longer. Add chocolate, stirring until melted. Taste and adjust with
salt, pepper, sugar, and/or cayenne. Replace chicken, spooning sauce over.
Bake, covered, at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until chicken is tender.

Serves 6

NOTES:

1. The hardest part of this recipe is choosing the pan. You want a lidded
pan big enough to hold everything, which can go from the stovetop to the
oven, and which is shallow enough to see what you're doing as you toast the
chiles.

2. Sometimes rather than toasting the chiles in a pan, I roast them in the
oven. When I do that, I also roast the tomatoes; it's a good way to
concentrate the tomato flavor in the off-season.


Bob