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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