Mole Negro Oaxaqueño con Guajolote

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large 12-quart stockpot for the turkey broth
• •Wide heavy cazuela or 8-quart Dutch oven for the mole
• •Cast iron comal for toasting and charring
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Wooden spoon long enough to reach the bottom of the cazuela

Instructions

1. 1

   Poach the turkey

   Place the turkey pieces in a large stockpot. Cover with cold water by two inches. Add the halved onion, halved garlic head, bay leaves, and salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and skim the gray foam that rises in the first fifteen minutes. Lower the heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for one and a half to two hours, until the meat is tender but not falling apart. Lift the turkey out and reserve. Strain the broth and keep it warm. You will need every drop. Cold water draws the flavor out slowly. A rolling boil clouds the broth and toughens the meat.

   If you cannot get a whole guajolote, bone-in turkey legs and thighs are the better choice. They hold up to the long cook and they have the dark meat the mole needs to anchor itself to.
2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal or heavy cast iron skillet over medium. Toast the chilhuacle negro, mulato, pasilla, and chilhuacle rojo separately, about 30 seconds per side. They should puff and turn fragrant, never blacken. The chilhuacle negro is the most expensive chile in Mexico and it grows almost nowhere outside Oaxaca's Cañada region. Treat each one like the inheritance it is. Transfer the toasted chiles to a heatproof bowl. Reserve the chiles. The seeds are about to do their own work.

   If your chile vendor does not know what a chilhuacle is, you are at the wrong stand. Mulato is sweeter and rounder than ancho. Pasilla mexicano is the long thin one, not pasilla de Oaxaca. These distinctions matter. Asi se hace y punto.
3. 3

   Burn the seeds

   This is the step that makes mole negro black. In a dry skillet over medium-high heat, toast the reserved chile seeds until they are completely black and smoking. Open the windows. Your kitchen will smell like a fire because it is one. The bitter char is what gives mole negro its near-black color and the deep burnt note that nothing else can replicate. Transfer the burned seeds to a separate bowl. Char the stale corn tortilla directly on the comal until it is fully black on both sides. Add it to the seeds. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo.

4. 4

   Soak the chiles

   Cover the toasted chiles with hot tap water, not boiling. Hot water softens the flesh and lets the flavor come through clean. Boiling water cooks the skin and turns the mole bitter on top of the bitterness it is supposed to have. Let them soak for 30 minutes while you work on the rest.

5. 5

   Char the vegetables

   On the same comal, char the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion slices, and the whole head of garlic. Turn them with tongs until the skins are blistered and blackened in patches and the flesh underneath is soft. The tomatoes take about 10 minutes, the garlic head about 15. Peel the garlic when it cools enough to handle. Charred vegetables give the mole its smoky base. Raw vegetables would make a sauce that tastes like soup.

6. 6

   Fry the nuts and aromatics

   In a heavy skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the lard over medium heat. Add the almonds and fry, stirring, until golden, about 4 minutes. Lift them out with a slotted spoon. In the same fat, fry the peanuts until golden, then the pepitas until they puff and pop, then the sesame seeds until they turn the color of caramel. Each goes into the same bowl as the almonds. Finally, fry the raisins until they swell, then the plantain slices until they are dark brown on both sides, and last the stale bread until crisp. La manteca es el sabor. Every one of these elements brings something the others cannot.

   Fry each ingredient separately. They cook at different rates and you will burn the sesame waiting for the almonds. Take the time. This is not the dish to rush.
7. 7

   Toast the spices and avocado leaves

   On the dry comal, lightly toast the cinnamon stick, cloves, peppercorns, allspice, and oregano for about a minute, until fragrant. Toast the avocado leaves separately for 15 seconds per side. The hoja de aguacate is the secret note in Oaxacan mole. It tastes faintly of anise and it tells your tongue this is from Oaxaca and nowhere else.

8. 8

   Blend in batches

   Drain the soaked chiles, reserving the soaking liquid. Working in batches, blend the chiles in a high-powered blender with the charred tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic. Add just enough warm turkey broth to move the blades. Blend until completely smooth. Pass each batch through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing on the solids. Discard the skins. In a separate batch, blend the burned seeds and tortilla with the fried nuts, raisins, plantain, bread, spices, and avocado leaves. Add broth as needed. Strain this batch as well. You should have two bowls: one of chile puree, one of nut and seed paste.

9. 9

   Fry the mole

   In a wide heavy cazuela or Dutch oven, melt the remaining lard over medium heat. When it shimmers, pour in the chile puree. It will sputter aggressively. Stand back. Cook for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until the puree darkens and the fat starts to separate at the edges. Now add the nut and seed paste. Stir to combine. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring without stopping. The mole at the bottom of the pot will scorch in seconds if you walk away. Asi se hace y punto.

10. 10

    Loosen and simmer

    Add 6 cups of the warm turkey broth in a steady stream, stirring as you go. The mole should be the consistency of heavy cream. Add the chopped chocolate and the piloncillo. Stir until both melt completely. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for one full hour, stirring every 5 to 10 minutes and scraping the bottom. The mole will darken further, deepen, and the flavors will marry. Add more broth as needed to keep it loose. Taste for salt. The chocolate is not there to make it sweet. It is there to round out the chiles. If you can taste chocolate as chocolate, you have used too much.

    Mole negro is better the next day. Better still on the third. If you have the patience, make it one or two days ahead and refrigerate. The flavors marry in a way that no same-day mole can match.
11. 11

    Warm the turkey in the mole

    Slide the cooked turkey pieces into the simmering mole. Spoon the sauce over the top so every piece is coated. Cover and warm through for 15 to 20 minutes over low heat. Do not let it boil hard. The turkey is already cooked. You are letting it absorb the mole.

12. 12

    Serve

    Plate one piece of turkey per person on a wide shallow plate. Ladle a generous pool of mole over and around the meat. Scatter toasted sesame seeds across the top. Serve with white rice and a stack of warm hand-pressed corn tortillas. The tortillas are not optional. They are the spoon. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.

Chef Tips

• •The chilhuacle negro is non-negotiable. If you cannot find it, you are not making mole negro, you are making something else and you should call it something else. Mexican specialty importers and Oaxacan diaspora groceries are your best chance outside Mexico. Order in advance. A substitution with mulato and pasilla alone will give you a dark mole, but it will not be mole negro. That is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Use Oaxacan chocolate de mesa, not baking chocolate. The grit from the cane sugar and the cinnamon ground in are part of the texture. Mayordomo and La Soledad are the two brands the Mercado de Abastos in Oaxaca City sells by the kilo. If you can find them, use them.
• •Mole takes lard, not vegetable oil. Manteca de cerdo is what carries the chile flavor and what gives the mole its sheen. Vegetable oil will make a thin, flat sauce. La manteca es el sabor.
• •Make the mole at least one day ahead. Two days is better. The flavors do not finish marrying until the mole has rested and been reheated. This is not a same-day dish. Plan accordingly. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Advance Preparation

• •The mole base, finished but without the turkey, can be made up to three days ahead and refrigerated. The flavor only deepens. Reheat slowly with a splash of broth to loosen.
• •The turkey can be poached one day ahead. Cool in its broth, then refrigerate the bird and the broth separately.
• •Mole freezes well for up to three months. Portion it into containers without the turkey. Defrost slowly in the refrigerator and reheat with broth.
• •Mole is the gift that keeps giving. Leftover mole goes onto enmoladas, into tamales de mole, or thinned with broth as a soup base. Nothing in this dish is ever wasted.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 500g)