For a very long time now I’ve had it on my list to try to make my own Homemade Mole Sauce recipe.
The traditional Mexican sauce is known for taking a long time to make and it turns out all the rumors are true! It really does take a while to make and is pretty complicated.
But you know what? I did it and you can too.
While it took me a day to make, the sauce ended up being very delicious. A perfect mix of savory and sweet. If you’ve ever had a desire to make it, here’s a walkthrough for you!
Traditional Mole Sauce
Equipment
- 1 blender
Ingredients
Veggie Base:
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 medium onion
- 3 small tomatoes
Spice Blend:
- 8 black peppercorns
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
Peppers:
- 6 dried ancho peppers
- 3 dried pasilla peppers
- 2 cups hot water
Nut Mixture:
- 2 tablespoons almonds
- ¼ cup peanuts
- ¼ cup pecans
- ¼ cup raisins
Other Ingredients:
- 6 cups chicken stock, recipe below
- 1 plantain or unripe banana
- 4 corn tortillas
- 3 ounces Mexican Chocolate, Ibarra is good
- ¼ cup lard
Chicken Stock:
- 1 whole chicken
- 10 cups water
- 1 onion, quartered
- 2 stalks celery
- 2 carrots, chopped
- 10 black peppercorns
- 2 dried ancho peppers
Instructions
- Add all the stock ingredients to a large stock pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer, partially covered, for 2-3 hours. Strain stock and set aside. Discard veggies. Let chicken cool for later.
- For sauce, roast dried peppers at 350 degrees for 8-10 minutes until fragrant. Then add peppers to a bowl with 2 cups boiling water. Let side for 30 minutes.
- Toast spices in a large skillet over medium heat for a few minutes until fragrant. Then grind spices into a powder and set aside.
- Roughly chop veggies for base and roast for 15 minutes at 350 degrees.
- Add roasted veggies to a blender with 1 cup chicken stock and blend until smooth. Strain and add veggie base to a large pot.
- Cook nuts in melted lard over medium heat until they are lightly browned. Then add raisins and cook for another minute until they are soft. Be careful not to burn raisins.
- Add nuts and raisins to blender with 1 cup stock and puree. Once smooth, add to veggie base.
- Sautee diced banana (or plantain) in lard along with corn tortillas until lightly browned. Then add to blender with 1-2 cups stock and blend until smooth. Add mixture to sauce pot.
- Add another two cups of chicken stock to sauce pot along with ground spices and chocolate.
- Bring sauce to a simmer and simmer, on medium-low heat for 90-120 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Season sauce with salt and pepper and serve over enchiladas or chicken or turkey.
- Extra sauce will keep in the fridge for two weeks or you can also freeze it for later.
Notes
Nutrition
Did you make this recipe?
Homemade Mole Sauce: It’s Takes a Day
Between shopping for all the ingredients, prepping the ingredients, and cooking everything, this Homemade Mole Sauce sauce will no doubt take you an entire day to make. There are no short cuts.
The flavors are so good and complicated because it has a lot of different things going on and also simmers for so long.
If you want to try it, just be sure to block off enough time so you don’t feel rushed.
While there are around twenty ingredients in this bad boy, I tried to break them up into groups so you an more easily see how they fit into the recipe.
Making Stock
The base of mole sauce is actually chicken stock. I wouldn’t recommend using store-bought stock for this, but I guess you could. Since I was making chicken enchiladas to serve with my sauce, it was easy to just cook the chicken while making the stock.
I just tossed all the stock ingredients above in a large pot and let it simmer for around three hours.
The finished stock was a dark color and had a great flavor.
The basics behind this sauce are preparing a few different groups of ingredients by either roasting them or cooking them in lard and then blending everything together and simmering it for a really long time.
As long as you keep that in mind, the recipe isn’t really hard. It just takes some time.
Dried Peppers
A lot of the savory flavors in the sauce comes from dried peppers. Two kinds of peppers regularly popped up in the recipes that I researched and I was lucky enough to find both of them.
Roast these guys on a baking sheet for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees so they are fragrant. Then add them to a bowl with about 2 cups of boiling water so the peppers reconstitute.
They will need to sit for about 30 minutes in the water.
Once the peppers are reconstituted, remove the stems from the peppers and slice them open. Scrape out all the seeds and add the peppers and steeping liquid to a blender. Blend them until they are smooth and set the pepper paste aside for later.
The Spices
There are some great spices in this recipe and all of them really come through in the final sauce. The key is to toast the spices well in a dry pan over medium heat for a few minutes until they are fragrant and lightly browned. This will really bring out their flavors.
Then just give them a whirl in a spice grinder and you’re all set in the spices department.
Just set this spice mixture aside for later.
The Vegetable Base
Besides the chicken stock, a lot of the body in the sauce comes from a few simple vegetables that are roasted and then blended down.
Just roughly chop all the veggies and add them to a baking sheet. Bake them at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.
Again, once the veggies are roasted, add them to your blender along with 1.5 cups of the chicken stock and blend until they are smooth.
Then strain the veggie mixture to remove any seeds.
Add the veggie base to a large pot where you can start building your mole sauce.
The Nuts
This recipe has a few different kinds of nuts in them. I think the almonds and peanuts are pretty important but I think you could also use walnuts instead of pecans or just leave them out.
Anyway, cook the nuts over medium heat for a few minutes in LARD.
Yep. That’s right. Lard. Can you use veggie oil or something? Sure. But I was going for a traditional sauce here so lard is the only way to go. You don’t need a lot of it.
Once your nuts are lightly browned, add your raisins to the pan also and cook them until they are soft. The raisins will only take about a minute to cook while the nuts will need 5-6 minutes so don’t add them at the same time.
As you might guess, once the nuts are done, add them and the raisins to the blender along with 1 cup of chicken stock. Blend it up!
Add the blended nuts to your master sauce pot where your veggie base is. You can also add the blended pepper paste to the pot and the spice mixture as well.
Final Ingredients
There are a few finishing ingredients that go in the sauce now.
Traditionally, a plantain is cooked in the leftover lard from the nuts and added to the sauce. The plantain was the only ingredient I couldn’t find so I just used a slightly unripe banana and it worked great.
Also, cook a few corn tortillas in the lard as well.
When the banana and tortillas are lightly browned from the lard, guess what you do?!
Add them to a blender with 1-2 cups of chicken stock and blend them up. Then into the sauce pot they go!
Finally, there is the most famed ingredient of the mole sauce: CHOCOLATE.
Not just any chocolate, but Mexican chocolate.
This chocolate is very different than what you might think of as chocolate. It’s really hard and very sweet. I’m not sure if I would recommend substituting it with normal chocolate.
You should be able to find this stuff at any Mexican market anywhere though.
The Long Simmer
You now should have a big pot of simmering sauce with all of your ingredients in. It will be pretty thick though so add 2-3 cups of chicken stock to it to thin it out a bit and then bring it to a simmer.
I recommend tasting the sauce now although it won’t be very good at this point. It’s just fun to see how the flavors change as it simmers.
Simmer this bad boy over low heat for 90-120 minutes. You need to stir it pretty consistently or it will stick and burn to the bottom of the pan. If it ever gets really thick, add more stock.
When the sauce is done simmering, season it well with salt and you should be good to go. This was my finished sauce which was done about 7 hours after I put my chicken stock on to boil.
What to do with the sauce?
You can put this stuff on tons of things, but it goes particularly well with poultry.
I made some really quick chicken enchiladas for my sauce by shredding the chicken from my stock and rolling it in some corn tortillas with cheese. Then I smothered the whole thing in sauce and baked it until the cheese was melted.
You can get creative with this Homemade Mole Sauce though. It would go great on grilled poultry or any sort of Tex-Mex dish really.
It’s really good stuff even if it is a bit of a pain in the butt to make.
While this Homemade Mole Sauce was completely delicious, there’s just no way that I will make it regularly. It’s just too much work!
That said, if you are up for a challenge or have a special occasion that calls for really authentic Mexican food, it’s pretty hard to beat this sauce!
Has anyone else tried to make mole before? If you have any tips to make it easier, leave a comment!
Neal
I always add coffee notes to my mole. Either with espresso or by substituting mexican instant espresso powder. It doesn’t take much but it does add an excellent wrinkle of complexity!
Now that spring is here, I think it’s time to make mole!
Carolyn DeVries
You say that it doesnt take much. How much coffee do you add? What is coffee notes?
JW
In straining the vegetables to get rid of the seeds. Do you keep the liquid and ingredients that are strained in the bowl or the remainder that’s in the strainer? I’m hoping the former? JW
Nick
Hey JW, you want to keep the juices that gets strained. You can discard the seeds and stuff that you strain out! All the flavor is in the liquid. ;)
JW
Thanks so much! I will try your recipe and can’t wait to taste….JW
Andy M.
I’ve never tried to make actual mole sauce, but I have made this pulled pork recipe and the sauce created taste a lot like mole sauce to me.
http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/pulled-pork-tacos-10000001873141/
Mia J
Oh wow.. This made me immediately drool when I saw the front page.
Jen
I make mole at least once a year, but I make a mole paste instead of sauce. It’s the same process and takes the same amount of time (maybe a bit longer to cook it down to a proper paste), but you use about 4-5 times the ingredients, except for the stock, which you use about half or one quarter of. At the last stage, before adding the chocolate, cook it down to a very thick paste, then add the chocolate and cook over very low heat until it’s all melted. I then wait for it to cool and freeze it in portions. To make up, thaw (or not) and add to the appropriate amount of stock. Cook until it’s the right consistency.
So… yeah, not really any EASIER, but it lasts a lot longer. :)
Marie
I actually was going to say the same thing. Make a bunch at once. Transfer your time!
Frugal Portland
Holy smokes that looks good but I’m not sure I could do it! Maybe the way Jen said, and still use the good ol’ slow cooker!
Dana
I’m working on finding a good mole that’s nut free, because there are nut allergies in my house. Do you think your recipe would work out if you replaced the nuts with maybe sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds?
Nick
I think it would be different, but still very good. I’ve definitely seen recipes with pumpkin seeds before.
Craig
These nut allergic people need to release the thought that all our awesome recipes are not made for them and stop asking us to make one for them! Rude! The recipe is a classic timeless recipe that was made only to have it the way it was made! I just spent all night making it and also pressure cooked some pork shanks! I’m tired!Leave it up to them to make it without hassling the rest of us!
Sylvia
Pumpkin seeds are called for in pipian a similar sauce as mole. Different taste but delicious as well
Elle
Just scrolling through the comments looking for tips and ideas and saw that Craig had a little meltdown and should have gone to bed instead of commenting. My mother in law was from Mexico. She used all kinds of seeds in her sauce and no nuts. It was delicious. This recipe is the closest I’ve found to the way she prepared it.
El Rose
Um. I must make this ASAP. What a great recipe. Love the grouping. Cant wait to try this. Thanks, Nick.
Chris
Still on my “food bucket list”, I haven’t made an authentic mole yet.
Kris
This was one of my vacation projects a couple of weeks ago – I had to stop at two stores to get both kinds of peppers (and the first store has since started stocking pasillas – go figure!) – it did, indeed, take the better part of the day! We sauced some of my husband’s applewood-smoked pork, and it was fanTAStic! The best part, though, was tacos for breakfast the rest of the week!
And I’ve stashed the rest of the sauce in 1/2 cups in the freezer for later enjoyment – thanks so much for the recipe!
Scribalicious
Your recipe for mole has too much garlic. We do not use that much garlic in Mexican cuisine.
nick
but does it make it better or worse? That’s the real question.. who cares what is done traditionally. Traditional biltong does not use apple cider vinegar, but ACV makes it taste better so we use it
Nick
I thought the extra garlic was great. :)
Pk
Who cares about tradition? You’re trying to replicate a mole sauce which has traditional conotations does it not? Why not put a good old Snickers bar in there…
MexiChef
“who cares what is done traditionally”? People of Color. White people don’t, apparently.
Nathan
Scribalicious,
I am half Mexican and have had my fair share of all kinds of mole and am a home cook and blogger myself. Typically 2-3 cloves of garlic are used BUT it really is all up to personal taste of the cook, the recipes are NOT set in stone and something as complex as mole sauce with many varieties (red, green,, poblano, oaxacan, almendrado, etc) varies from region, family, and creativity of the cook.
In my opinion the basics of most mole sauces are simply onion, garlic, tomato, dried peppers, some kind of nut/ seed and spices with cinnamon being a must. A touch of sugar or chocolate or other dried or fresh fruit is often used depending and something to thicken it could be tortillas, bread, masa, etc. some people choose to grill all ingredients, fry all of them, etc. it leaves A LOT of room for creativity, and adjustment (types of peppers used, meat used, combination of spices, sweetner, chocolate no chocolate, etc.)
Traditional I guess would be outdoors, clay pot, open fire, grinding everything in a stone metate, using pestle and mortar, etc. but things evolve with time, especially the modern kitchen.
Nick,
Good job :) I myself make mole, but with experience can be whipped up pretty fast (about 1-2 hrs depending), I tend to boil the meat with aromatics to make the stock, and while that’s going I de-vein and clean all chilies, set all my ingredients lined up, and shallow fry them (no more than 30 seconds or they become bitter), setting them aside in a large bowl, the ingredients I fry last are the bread if using because it absorbed most oil, and lastly I fry the onions, garlic and tomato then blend everything in a strong blender with spices, stock, empty it into a hot oiled pan (careful it will bubble and just quickly cover, and let it simmer on low stirring occasionally. Meat can be stewed in sauce for last 15 minutes, or served on plate with sauce over.
Nick
THanks for the awesome comment and feedback Nathan. :)
Cheers,
Nick
Mateo
There are dozens of “mole” recipes; Mole Chichilo, Mole Blanco, Mole Verde, Mole Manchamantel, Mole Amarillo and on and on. This is a Mole Negro from the State of Oaxaca. In English, Mole means “Mixture.” It also refers to most sauces made in mexican cuisine. Mole Negro alone has dozens of variations. Legend has it that the original recipe had 100 ingredients! Even today recipes for Mole Negro have anywhere from 20 to 34 ingredients. Turkey is the traditional protein served in Mole Negro. Hope this confuses the matter, as no one person can define what make Mexcian cuisine, “Mexican.”
Sparkle Shiner
Thanks for this kind tip
cheddar
“tradition” has little to do with contemporary cooking, especially at home
WillD
We’re talking about cooking, aren’t we? Mole recioes are NOT carved in stone! Sure it’s a traditional dish but travel to Oaxaca or any other place in Mexico and try some “traditional” mole then go next door and try some more, they won’t be the same.
Mrsh
I love MOLE! I have love it from the very first time I tasted it.
While I was physically unable to take care of my family there was a wonderful woman from Mexico who stayed with us and took care of everything. When I was finally able to make it to the kitchen she taught me a very easy and quick way to make mole. She
showed me a jar of mole paste and how to add the chicken stock and cook, blend and serve over rice. When ever I have a taste for Mole it only takes about an hour and my taste buds are satisfied. Sorry it isn’t from scratch but you said you wanted easy.
Lulu 57
Followed your recipe with a couple of changes…… Used different chillies as the ones required are not available here. Added star anise to the spices, did not use all the nuts either just sesame seed, almonds and raisins. Added crumbed fresh bread instead of tortillas.
Have never tasted this sause before I made it but my son has and he said it tasted very much like what he had had in Acapulco. So cheers …. Thank you
… Loved it.
Foodcrafters
Wow! This looks absolutely delicious! We had yellow, green, and coloradito mole for dinner on Friday and we still wonder which one was the best! We’ll try your recipe next weekend and keep it in the freezer!
Shirley B
I learned to make mole from two little Oaxacan ladies who liked it hot and spicy! They used special dried chili amarillo from their hometown village outside the city. The chili’s are a beautiful yellow orange color. I’ve never seen them except at their home. Your recipe and cooking methods sound very similar to the ladies. To add more heat I plan to toast the chili seeds with the dry spices. I can’t wait to make a batch for my upcoming Mexican Christmas. I plan to use the mole in my tamales! Thanks for the recipe and the inspiration to make mole again.
Fat Dad
Wow! Fantastic. Yeah, it takes a while, but you end up with a lot of great mole! I froze 3/4 of what I made for other days. This is wonderful. Big thanks for the Recipe!
Patrick Reed
I’m a little worried, I followed the directions exactly and mine doesn’t seem dark enough.???
Mary Rippstine
Thanks for the recipe i have been looking for one for a while but now i fond it thanks again
H. Roberts
This is my 3rd mole recipe, and I have to say I appreciated how you broke the recipe into parts. My past two moles tasted great but were off on texture. Hoping this one nails it. I just finished getting everything in the pot and I wondered why you went to all that trouble (even making the stock) and then used store bought tortillas. And flour ones, too. Especially when making homemade ones are so easy.
Helen
Having a Mexican night with friends tomorrow and decided to give this a try – struggled to get Ancho Chilis but found the powder – so have used 1tbsp per Chili ( google helped!) I have also added a couple of de-seeded Jalapenos – roasted these with the veg. ( didnt bother to sieve the veg puree as my blendtex got rid of them …and ive been at work all day!! It is currently in the slow cooker on low as i didnt want to burn it on the stove after all my hard work…my fingers are crossed…ps..neither me or any of my friends have tasted Mole before so we wont actually know if its authentic buit we are all looking forward to it. Loved making this – especially pouring all of the different blends into one pot…very satisfying!! Thank you :-)
Tureezu
I’ve been looking around at mole recipes. I’m going to try yours. I appreciate 2 of the ingredients being listed here. One is the good ol banana, and the other are the corn tortillas.
Chris
Great recipe. Loved your breakdown. Gonna def try this for myself. The layout of the ingredients feels like a symphony. I was wondering if you could simmer the sauce in a covered pot in the oven for the last 2 hours to avoid the babysitting and burnt bottom. Just a thought
Suseth
I made this and it turned out great! I misread unripe banana because I couldn’t find a plantain and accidentally got a very ripe banana. It still turned out great! Thank you!
Raquel
Whenever I have extra sauce leftover, I use it on my over-medium eggs the next morning. It goes very well with both corn or flour tortillas. Sometimes I make chilaquiles using the sauce. It’s a delicious way to start my day.
Michael Foster
Wonderful recipe! Always wanted to make my own! Does this freeze well?
Nick
Hey Michael, generally sauces like this freeze fantastically, but I’ve never had enough left over to freeze. :)
Michelle
I am in ❤️ With this recipe. Makes a lot -put half in freezer for another day
Sparkle Shiner
OK so to fast track the process I dry roasted all the spices then ground them, stock powder then added butter to a pan, spices and sugar and Almond nuts, added grated onion, tomato paste, roasted this well over a low heat in butter half a semi ripe banana. I added vinegar and salt to taste. Then the tortilla and mashed it, simmered done.
Brian Reichlin
I hate to be THAT person but I need to be conscious of how spicy the sauce is or I am eating it alone as the rest of the family has a pretty low tolerance for hot stuff. Where does this sauce sit on the scale of mild to hot?
Nick
Hey Brian, normally moles aren’t super spicy. They are more mild and savory. This one isn’t particularly spicy and should be fine for non-spicy lovers. :) Good luck!
jason
You could use Tahini for the nut blend some recipes just use sesame seeds.
Powdered chili works fine, just make a rue after your onions and garlic are golden. If you use a dutch oven you can bake it. Way easier.
Jason
I would just ad that if you add flour initially to the sautéed onions (rue) you don’t have to grind up store bought tortillas to the sauce which would eliminate the soggy bread texture, unless you like that. I made this basically with a common style of cooking for any type gravy sauce. It did not take more than 3 hours, the tahini gave it that nutty flavor, I used Abuelitas chocolate same as yours roughly.
Jason
Also I blended after everything baked together for a little over an hour. It was nice smoother texture, no clumps, I used more cayenne than the dark red chilis. Your spice blend works really well for this. I just added it after the flour. I used 6 cup of chicken broth. I just used the Caldo de Res Chicken broth. It’s as Mexican as it gets. They use it in everything. Overall this was a much easier way. And it only took 3 hours because I was waiting on instacart to bring me a banana. Otherwise, this is a 2 hour sauce.
Nick
Thanks for all the feedback and ideas on this recipe Jason. Happy cooking sir!
Jason
I would just ad that if you add flour initially to the sautéed onions (rue) you don’t have to grind up store bought tortillas to the sauce which would eliminate the soggy bread texture, unless you like that. I made this basically with a common style of cooking for any type gravy sauce. It did not take more than 3 hours, the tahini gave it that nutty flavor, I used Abuelitas chocolate same as yours roughly.
ERIK Eduardo CASTILLO
Hi guys made this is really awesome!.my dad is from Puebla Mexico where the famous mole poblano is made.I’ve seen how they make it as a kid And yes there’s no really short cuts. It’s a long process but it’s worth it. They add guayaba, pumpkin seeds,piloncillo, seasame seeds, a bolillo bread, and the spice aniz. I’m glad people love mole.