mole recipe

Happy Cinco de Mayo, all. Yes, we celebrate it here on the border but no, no where near as much as in the rest of the country. Mexico has a bigger celebration for it's independence day which is September 16th. My theory is that Cinco de Mayo is celebrated more here in the U.S. because it is easier to pronounce.
Anyway, I thought I'd share one of my grandma's recipes with you. I know I've written this before but I very, very rarely go out to a Mexican restaurant because nothing compares to my grandma's cooking. Yum. Of course, she doesn't use any sort of measurements so a few months ago, I went over armed with measuring cups, measuring spoons, the ingredients, my camera and a notebook. She is pretty excited about passing her recipes on to me so she was very happy to be forced into measuring for once. I'm keeping all the other recipies for myself but here is the one for mole.
First of all, mole is a dish consisting of chicken covered in a chile and chocolate sauce. Making it from scratch takes hours and hours of preparation. Ever since my grandma was a young girl, they've been using a brand of sauce called Dona Maria which is now available in the U.S. She, of course, adds stuff to the sauce and it is DELICIOUS! For those of you who make it, enjoy!

Ingredients

- chicken (I used 6 full size breasts)
- salt to taste
- 2 cloves of garlic
- one regular sized onion
- two slices of bread
- jar of mole “Doña Maria”
- 4 tablespoons sugar
- 4 tablespoons chocolate (We used Hershey’s syrup but you can use any kind)
- water
- vegetable oil

Boil chicken with salt, two cloves of garlic, and one onion. Save broth and shred chicken to desired size. Set aside.


Fry two slices of bread in a little bit of vegetable oil. Crumble. Set aside.


Blend jar of mole, fried bread crumbs, 3 cups of chicken broth, and 4 tablespoons sugar on high speed for about 30 seconds. Set aside.
Fry 4 tablespoons of chocolate in 1 tablespoon vegetable oil for a few seconds.


Add mole mix and 2 ½ cups of water.


Stir occasionally and bring to a boil.
Add chicken. Bring to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes

You can serve it straight on a plate with rice and beans or . . . (this is my favorite way to eat it!) make "Enmoladas". To do this fry a corn tortilla in a little bit of oil (just like making enchiladas) for just a little while so that the tortilla is not hard. Place the tortilla on a plate, fill it with mole, wrap it up. Repeat with as many tortillas you'd like and serve mole over the top and sprinkle some grated cheese.


Yum. . . . . makes me hungry! Oh, by the way, if in case you can't get a hold of a mole jar where you live, let me know and I'll send you some. Also, you need a bottle cap remover to open that thing (I learned the hard way).

feeling: hungry
watching: nothing
what I should be doing instead of blogging: sleeping