Chicken Enchiladas with Easy Homemade Mole Sauce

January 4, 2018

Servings: 4

Prep: 20 min

Cook: 25 min

Total: 45 min

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Our take on the traditional negro mole sauce, using ancho chiles and chocolate. You be the judge, but we think these flavors are on point!

By: A Wholesome New World

Ingredients

• Mole sauce:
• 4 dried Ancho chile peppers, stems and seeds removed
• 2 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 TBSP tomato paste
• 1⁄2 tsp red pepper flakes
• 1⁄8 cup tomato ketchup
• 1 TBSP peanut butter
• 1⁄2 oz unsweetened chocolate
• 1⁄2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 corn tortillas (enchilada size) - do not use flour tortillas!
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 4 ounces queso fresco, shredded (+ extra for garnish)
• 1/2 lb pre-cooked, shredded chicken

Directions

• Step 1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large saucepan, over high heat, toast the ancho peppers 2 minutes until warm and fragrant. Add the water and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 10 minutes until peppers are soft and plump.
• Step 2 Add the peppers, garlic, cumin, and 1 cup of the cooking liquid to a blender or small food processor. Cover and blend on high until smooth.
• Step 3 Return the chile puree to the pan and add tomato paste, red pepper flakes, ketchup and cinnamon. Stir in peanut butter and chocolate until smooth. Add more water, if the sauce seems too thick.
• Step 4 Before stuffing your enchiladas, fry your corn tortillas gently to crisp them up and enhance the flavor. In a large skillet over medium-high heat add a tablespoon of oil. When the oil is shimmering and hot (not quite smoking), add a corn tortilla to the pan. Cook it for 2-3 seconds, use a metal spatula to turn it over, and cook it for 2 to 3 seconds more. Repeat the process with all the tortillas, adding more oil as needed.
• Step 5 Now prep your enchiladas. Grease the bottom of a glass baking dish. Layer each tortilla with a small mound of chicken and the shredded cheese. Roll up each tortilla and place them seam-side down in the glass dish. Spoon the mole sauce over the top of the enchiladas, and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with additional queso fresco cheese. Put the dish back in the oven for 5 more minutes, until the cheese is gooey and melted.
• Step 6 Garnish each enchilada with avocado, cilantro and green cabbage, drizzle with lime juice and serve!

We are big believers in using up whatever’s in our kitchen and this particular week we had to use up those giant dried ancho chile peppers that were left over from our Chicken Tortilla Soup. I got in my head that I wanted to try a mole sauce ( don’t ask me why!) but much to my surprise, this was such an overwhelming recipe to research! I never expected there to be so many different iterations of mole sauces (I thought it was essentially one type of sauce, mole sauce), with such a wide range of ingredients no less, until I learned that traditionally there are many different type of moles. Oaxaca (a city in Mexico) is actually known as the Land of the Seven Moles, of which there are plenty of variants on each (case in point), so I think that puts into perspective how overwhelming my google searches were.

I decided that I wanted to go as traditional as possible and make a “negro” mole. There are many variations of this mole too, but from what I found the basic ingredients include plenty of chiles and nuts along with a touch of chocolate to tame the heat of the chiles. Traditional recipes can sometimes take several hours to prepare, but since I was planning a weeknight dinner, I decided to take some shortcuts. This recipe uses red chili flakes, peanut butter and chocolate. You might be scratching your head and saying chocolate? Really? If it’s not you cup of tea, that’s perfectly okay! From what I found, mole doesn’t always require chocolate, a similar flavor can be achieved by including the ancho chiles — here we are, back to why I pursued this recipe in the fist place! These large, wrinkled, dried poblanos add the body and essentially the same chocolate-y flavor to many moles. That said, I figured what the heck, I wanted to add chocolate anyways! But, I knew a little would go a long way so you’ll see my recipe doesn’t call for much.

Just have to make an important note here on the enchilada prep. Soggy enchiladas will pretty much doom this dish no matter how killer your mole turns out, so you must, I repeat MUST, quickly flash fry your corn tortillas before you build your enchilada. This doesn’t require much extra time, but it’s such an essential step. You really just want to crisp them to the point they turn slightly golden. Only then are they filled and rolled into enchiladas. I tried this one technique I found online of frying the tortillas in a stack of sorts but I couldn’t really get the hang of it, you can see in the second photo they didn’t fry up that evenly, so in my opinion, you are really better off just frying them individually.

At the end of the day, I’ll let you be the judge of whether this mole lives up to your expectations, but I’m pretty confident (even with the shortcuts we took) that this tastes pretty darn authentic. My Dad on the other hand, who is a pretty big fan of Mexican food, responded to my final photo with “What’s the black stuff?” so TBD on whether he’ll be a fan or not… 😉