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Pollo en Mole Poblano

EE worker-owners Sandy Davis, Kate Chess and Peter Buck teamed up to cook some mole in the kitchen at Equal Exchange’s Massachusetts headquarters. We used fairly traded Extreme Dark Chocolate, Natural Almonds and Palestinian Olive Oil. We referred to Peter’s much-used copy of Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz’s The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking, generously adapting Lambert’s delicious 50-year-old recipe to meet our needs.

Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Keyword Almonds, Chicken, Chili, Chocolate, Mole
Servings 8

Ingredients

  • 8 chicken breasts, or your favorite chicken pieces
  • 2 cups chicken stock, reserved from simmering
  • 3 Tbsp Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 14 dried chili peppers: 6 ancho, 4 pasilla, 4 mulata (or all ancho, if the others aren't available)
  • 2 medium onions
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1 pound tomatoes
  • 1 cup Organic Natural Almonds
  • 1/2 cup Organic Flame Raisins
  • 1/2 Tbsp cloves
  • 1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 Tbsp coriander seeds, ground
  • 1/2 tsp anise
  • 4 Tbsp sesame seeds
  • 2-3 sprigs coriander, fresh
  • 1 corn tortilla
  • 1.5 oz Organic Extreme Dark Chocolate

Instructions

  1. First, cover the chicken with water and bring to a boil. Simmer for an hour, drain and dry. Reserve two cups of the chicken stock. Heat Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a frying pan. Brown the chicken in the oil and put the pieces in a large casserole or dutch oven.

  2. While the chicken simmers, prepare and combine the ingredients for the sauce, starting with the dried chilies. Remove the stems and seeds, tear chilies into pieces and put them in a large bowl. Boil enough water to cover them. Pour the hot water over and soak them for about an hour.

  3. As the chilies soak, chop the onions and garlic. Peel, seed and chop the tomatoes. Blanch and peel the almonds. Combine the onions, garlic, tomatoes and almonds with half a cup of Equal Exchange Organic Flame Raisins (available in bulk at many natural food stores) and with the cloves, cinnamon, coriander seeds,  anise, and two tablespoons of the sesame seeds. Add the fresh coriander and the torn-up corn tortilla. Use an electric blender to grind all the ingredients into a coarse purée.

  4. Now, cook the purée. Heat the oil again in the frying pan. Saute the purée in the hot oil for five minutes, stirring constantly. Add the chicken stock you reserved when you cooked the chicken, along with the Organic Extreme Dark Chocolate (88% cacao). Stir the mixture until the chocolate has melted. The purée should now be thicker than heavy cream.

  5. Finally, pour the sauce over the chicken in the dutch oven and cook, covered, over the lowest possible heat, for 30 minutes. Sprinkle it with the remaining two tablespoons of sesame seeds and serve with tortillas and rice and beans.