Easy Mexican Mole Sauce Recipe

By Chelsie Kenyon

Updated 09/22/18

Easy Homemade Mole Sauce

The Spruce

Ratings (33)
  • Total: 70 mins
  • Prep: 10 mins
  • Cook: 60 mins
  • Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Nutritional Guidelines (per serving)
525 Calories
21g Fat
74g Carbs
16g Protein
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Mole (pronounced in two syllables, moe-leh) is a classic Mexican chile sauce with origins in pre-Hispanic times.

It exists in countless versions throughout the country, varying in color, consistency, ingredients and use according to geographical location, family tradition, and local preference.

Mole is most often used as a sauce for chicken, but pork or turkey are also commonly used. Leftover mole sauce is excellent for making enchiladas or using as a condiment for rice, eggs, and other foods.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup pork lard
  • 1 onion (peeled and sliced)
  • 8 cloves garlic
  • 3 tomatoes (roasted and peeled)
  • 1/4 cup peanuts (unsalted, or unsweetened peanut butter)
  • 1 tablespoon oregano (dried, Mexican)
  • 1 stick cinnamon (broken into small pieces)
  • 1/4 teaspoon anise seeds
  • 3 peppercorns (whole)
  • 1/4 teaspoon thyme
  • 1 clove (whole)
  • 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
  • 12 guajillo chiles (soaked in hot water, skinned, stemmed and seeded)
  • 1/4 cup raisins (soaked in water to soften)
  • 1/4 cup prepared masa (raw corn tortilla dough)
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • Garnish: toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Steps to Make It

Note: Traditional cooking methods call for grinding each ingredient by itself in a molcajete (mortar and pestle), but a blender will do the job just fine.

  1. Gather the ingredients.

    Easy Mexican mole Sauce ingredients
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  2. Heat the lard in a large saucepan.

    Heat lard in saucepan for mole
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  3. Add the onions and garlic and cook until onions are translucent. Set aside.

    Add onions and garlic to lard
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  4. In a blender, purée the roasted tomatoes with the peanuts or peanut butter.

    Puree tomatoes and peanuts
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  5. Add the oregano, cinnamon, anise, peppercorns, thyme, clove, and cocoa powder and blend to make a smooth paste.

    Add dry ingredients to make a paste
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  6. Add the sautéed onions and garlic to the blender container and purée again.

    Add onions and garlic to blender
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  7. Add the chiles and raisins and blend into a smooth paste.

    Add chiles and raisins to blender
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  8. Pour all the chicken broth except for 1/4 cup into a large cooking pot.

    Pour chicken broth in cooking pot
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  9. In a separate small bowl, make a roux by mixing the masa with the reserved 1/4 cup chicken broth.

    Make roux with masa and chicken broth
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  10. Stir the roux into the broth and whisk until smooth.

    Stir roux in broth
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  11. Add the puréed ingredients to the pot. Simmer covered for 1 hour.

    Add pureed ingredients and simmer
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  12. Uncover and continue cooking until mole has thickened to your liking.

    Uncover and cook mole until thickened
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  13. Use your homemade mole as a sauce for boiled chicken or turkey pieces, or cooked chunks of pork, sprinkling toasted sesame seeds over each portion as it is served if desired. Any leftover mole will be delicious poured over rice or fried eggs or used as an enchilada sauce.

    Use your homemade mole sauce for dinner
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  14. Serve and enjoy!

Traditional Mole

Traditional moles often contain 40 or so different ingredients and take multiple days to prepare.

Fortunately, prepared mole paste—ready to eat after diluting and heating—are easy to find in supermarkets nowadays in and outside of Mexico.

If you're feeling a bit more ambitious, try the greatly simplified (though still tasty) made-from-scratch recipe provided above.