Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

Jim Vorheis 3 Whole allspice
2 lg Chickens (about 3 1/2 lbs 6 Fresh thyme sprigs, leaves
-each), cut into -only, or 1/4 tsp dried
Serving pieces, or 1 7-pound 2 tb Oaxacan or 1 Tbsp Mexican
-turkey -oregano
2 sm Heads of garlic, scored 3/4 c Melted lard or safflower oil
-around the middle 1/4 c Sesame seed
2 sm White onions, roughly sliced 1/4 c Shelled peanuts
6 Fresh mint sprigs 10 Unskinned almonds
Sea salt to taste 1/4 c Raisins
The sauce: 1 sm Onion, thickly sliced
1/4 lb Chilhuacles negros or 1 Ripe plantain, skinned and
-guajillos -cut into thick slices
2 oz Chilies pasillas (Mexican, 2 Crisp-fried corn tortillas
-not Oaxacan) 3 Thick slices dried French
2 oz Chilies mulatos -bread or semisweet roll
1/2 lb (about 1 large) tomatoes, 2 oz Tablet Mexican drinking
-broiled -chocolate
1 c Water Sea salt to taste
3 Whole cloves

The Chicken:

Put the chicken into a saucepan with the garlic, onions, and mint. Add
water to cover and salt to taste. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan, and
continue simmering until the chicken is just tender - about 35 minutes.
Strain, reserving the broth.

Remove stems from the dried chilies, if any, slit them open, and remove
seeds and veins, reserving the seeds. Toast the chilies for about 50
seconds on each side; if you're using guajillos, toast them longer, until
they are almost charred - about 2 minutes. Rinse the chilies in cold water,
cover with hot water, and leave to soak for about 30 minutes. Put the
reserved chile seeds into an ungreased frying pan and toast over fairly
high heat, shaking them around from time to time so that they brown evenly.
Then raise the heat and char until black. Cover with cold water and set
aside to soak for about 5 minutes. Strain and put into a blender jar.

Add the broiled tomatoes, unpeeled, to the blender jar along with the
water, cloves, allspice, thyme, marjoram, and oregano.

Heat some of the lard in a small frying pan and fry the sesame seed until a
deep golden color - a few seconds. Strain, putting the fat back into the
pan and the seeds into the blender jar, and blend as smooth as possible.

Fry the rest of the ingredients, except the chilies and chocolate, one by
one, strain, and put into the blender jar, blending after each addition and
adding water or broth as necessary to release the blades.

heat 1/4 cup of the lard in the heavy pan in which you are going to cook
the mole, add the blended mixture, and fry over medium heat, stirring and
scraping the bottom of the pan from time to time, for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, put a few of the chilies and about 2 cups of the water in which
they were soaking into the blender jar and blend until smooth. When you
have blended all the chilies, add them to the fried ingredients together
with the chocolate and cook for 5 minutes longer. Add about 4 cups of the
chicken broth and continue cooking for 35 minutes. (Skim the fat that forms
on the top if you are going to make tamales or mole. It is added to color
and flavor the masa.) Add more broth if necessary - the mole should just
coat the back of a wooden spoon - along with the chicken and salt to taste;
cook for 10 minutes longer.

The Art of Mexican Cooking From the collection of Jim Vorheis

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