Chef Lupita
Adobo de Puerco Poblano
Puebla's weekday adobo of pork shoulder braised in a thick guajillo and ancho sauce sharpened with vinegar, cumin, and clove. The deep red of a market spice stall, the dish a poblana cooks without thinking.
Culinary Explorer
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Mole Poblano de Guajolote
Created by
Puebla's banquet mole over slow-poached turkey, built from ancho, mulato, and pasilla, toasted seeds, charred fruit, and Mexican chocolate. Thirty-plus ingredients ground into one mahogany sauce that takes two days and feeds a celebration.
Main Dishes
Mexican
Holiday
Special Occasion
Celebration
2 hr
Active Time
4 hr 30 min cook•6 hr 30 min total
Yield12 to 14 servings
This is Puebla's dish. Not Mexico's. Puebla's. The mole that gets called Mexico's national dish was born in the convents and home kitchens of the city of Puebla de los Angeles, and the bird it was built for is the guajolote, the native turkey that pre-Columbian cooks were raising long before any Spaniard set foot in the Valle de Puebla. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one belongs to Puebla.
Mole poblano is three chiles: ancho, mulato, pasilla. Each one does a job. Ancho is the sweetness and the body. Mulato is the depth, with its faint chocolate note that has nothing to do with the chocolate you add later. Pasilla is the dark backbone. Leave one out and the sauce loses a dimension. Add chile chipotle if you want a thread of smoke. Add nothing if you want the classical balance. Either is correct. What is not correct is using one generic dried chile and calling it mole.
The chocolate is not the point of the sauce. I will say this once and then we will move on. Mole is not chocolate sauce. The chocolate rounds the bitterness of the chiles and the spices the way a quiet bass note holds up a song. Two tablets of Ibarra or Mayordomo in a pot that holds thirty-plus other ingredients, fried nuts and seeds, charred tomatoes, day-old bread and tortillas burned dark for that bitter floor, plantain, raisins, canela, clove, allspice. It is architecture on a spoon.
My mother did not make mole poblano. She was from Jalisco and Jalisco has its own birria to argue about. But after she died I found a page in her notebook, the recipe of a friend from Atlixco, with notes in the margin in two different hands: 'fry the seeds well, do not rush' and below it, in pencil, 'remember to char the tortillas almost black, that is the secret.' I have made this mole every December since. It takes two days if you do it right. La cocina no es decoración, es trabajo. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
The convent origin myth of mole poblano, that the nuns of Santa Rosa in Puebla invented the dish in a single afternoon for a visiting viceroy in the 17th century, is almost certainly apocryphal. The dish more credibly evolved over two centuries from the meeting of pre-Columbian molli traditions (the Nahuatl word for sauce, referring to the ground chile and seed preparations of Mexica cooks) with Spanish-imported spices including canela, clove, and black pepper, and with chocolate, which the Mexica drank but did not cook into savory sauces. The guajolote (Meleagris gallopavo) is native to Mesoamerica and was domesticated in central Mexico thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, making it, not the chicken, the original bird of this dish. By the mid-20th century Puebla's claim on mole poblano was so total that the equally complex moles of Oaxaca (seven of them), Tlaxcala (mole prieto), and Michoacán were pushed to the margins of the national imagination, a flattening that historians and cooks in those states have spent the last forty years correcting.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
whole turkey
Quantity
1 (10 to 12 pounds)
cut into serving pieces
white onions
Quantity
2 medium
1 halved and 1 quartered
head of garlic
Quantity
1
halved crosswise, plus 6 cloves peeled
bay leaves
Quantity
3
kosher salt
Quantity
2 tablespoons, plus more to taste
dried chile ancho
Quantity
12
stemmed and seeded
dried chile mulato
Quantity
10
stemmed and seeded
dried chile pasilla
Quantity
6
stemmed and seeded
dried chile chipotle mora (optional)
Quantity
4
stemmed
pork lard (manteca de cerdo)
Quantity
1 cup, plus more as needed
raw almonds
Quantity
1/2 cup
skin on
raw peanuts
Quantity
1/2 cup
skin on
raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
Quantity
1/3 cup
raw sesame seeds
Quantity
1/3 cup, plus 2 tablespoons for garnish
raisins
Quantity
1/2 cup
ripe plantain
Quantity
1
peeled and sliced into 1-inch rounds
day-old corn tortillas
Quantity
2
day-old bolillo or French bread
Quantity
1 slice
Roma tomatoes
Quantity
4
tomatillos
Quantity
3
husked
Mexican canela (cinnamon)
Quantity
1 stick (3 inches)
whole cloves
Quantity
4
whole black peppercorns
Quantity
6
whole allspice berries
Quantity
4
anise seed
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
coriander seed
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
Mexican chocolate (Ibarra or Mayordomo)
Quantity
2 tablets (3.1 ounces each)
piloncillo or dark brown sugar
Quantity
1 tablespoon
grated
sesame seeds for garnish (optional)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)
Quantity
for serving
warmed
Mexican red rice (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| whole turkeycut into serving pieces | 1 (10 to 12 pounds) |
| white onions1 halved and 1 quartered | 2 medium |
| head of garlichalved crosswise, plus 6 cloves peeled | 1 |
| bay leaves | 3 |
| kosher salt | 2 tablespoons, plus more to taste |
| dried chile anchostemmed and seeded | 12 |
| dried chile mulatostemmed and seeded | 10 |
| dried chile pasillastemmed and seeded | 6 |
| dried chile chipotle mora (optional)stemmed | 4 |
| pork lard (manteca de cerdo) | 1 cup, plus more as needed |
| raw almondsskin on | 1/2 cup |
| raw peanutsskin on | 1/2 cup |
| raw pumpkin seeds (pepitas) | 1/3 cup |
| raw sesame seeds | 1/3 cup, plus 2 tablespoons for garnish |
| raisins | 1/2 cup |
| ripe plantainpeeled and sliced into 1-inch rounds | 1 |
| day-old corn tortillas | 2 |
| day-old bolillo or French bread | 1 slice |
| Roma tomatoes | 4 |
| tomatilloshusked | 3 |
| Mexican canela (cinnamon) | 1 stick (3 inches) |
| whole cloves | 4 |
| whole black peppercorns | 6 |
| whole allspice berries | 4 |
| anise seed | 1/2 teaspoon |
| coriander seed | 1/4 teaspoon |
| Mexican chocolate (Ibarra or Mayordomo) | 2 tablets (3.1 ounces each) |
| piloncillo or dark brown sugargrated | 1 tablespoon |
| sesame seeds for garnish (optional) | 2 tablespoons |
| hand-pressed corn tortillas (optional)warmed | for serving |
| Mexican red rice (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 8-quart cazuela or Dutch oven
- •Large 12-quart stockpot for poaching the turkey
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting and charring
- •High-powered blender (a weak blender will not make smooth mole)
- •Fine-mesh strainer or chinois
- •Spice grinder or large volcanic stone molcajete
- •Wooden spoon with a long handle (the mole sputters when it fries)
Instructions
- 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 2 tablespoons salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and skim the gray foam that rises in the first twenty minutes. Reduce heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Partially cover and cook for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the meat is tender but not falling apart. Lift the turkey out and set aside. Strain the broth and reserve. You will need about 8 cups for the mole.
Guajolote is turkey, and turkey is the bird this dish was built for. Chicken works if you cannot find a whole turkey, but mole poblano de guajolote is the banquet version. The flavor of the broth changes the mole. - 2
Toast the chiles
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast each chile variety separately. The ancho takes about 30 seconds per side. The mulato burns faster. The pasilla is thin and turns bitter if you look away. You will know they are ready when the skin puffs and the kitchen smells like the inside of a chile vendor's stall at the Mercado de Sabores in Puebla. That smell is the oils releasing. Skip the toasting and your mole will taste flat. There is no recovering from it later. No me vengas con atajos.
The three chiles do three different jobs. Ancho brings sweetness and body. Mulato brings depth and a faint chocolate note. Pasilla brings the dark backbone. Leave any one out and the mole loses a dimension. - 3
Soak the chiles
Transfer the toasted chiles to a heatproof bowl and cover with hot tap water. Hot, not boiling. Boiling water cooks the skins and makes the puree bitter. Weigh the chiles down with a plate so they stay submerged. Soak for 30 minutes until completely soft.
- 4
Fry the seeds, nuts, and fruit
In a wide cazuela or heavy pot, melt 1/2 cup of the lard over medium heat. Working in batches so the pan is not crowded, fry the almonds until golden, then lift out. Fry the peanuts, then the pepitas (they will pop, stand back), then the sesame seeds until just turning gold. Fry the raisins until they puff. Fry the plantain rounds until deeply browned on both sides. Fry the day-old tortillas and bread until darkened, almost black at the edges. That bitter-dark char is the bottom note of mole. Reserve everything together. La manteca es el sabor.
- 5
Char the tomatoes and aromatics
On the same comal, char the tomatoes, tomatillos, quartered onion, and 6 peeled garlic cloves. Turn them as the skins blacken in spots. The tomatoes should collapse. The tomatillos should turn olive-green and soft. The garlic should be tender inside its papery skin. This direct-fire charring is what gives mole its smoky undertone.
- 6
Toast the spices
In a small dry skillet over low heat, toast the canela, cloves, peppercorns, allspice, anise, and coriander for about 60 seconds, just until fragrant. Spices burn in a blink. Grind them fine in a spice grinder or molcajete. The canela should give you that distinctive Mexican cinnamon perfume that no supermarket cinnamon can imitate. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado which canela to buy.
- 7
Blend in batches
Drain the chiles, reserving the soaking liquid. Working in three or four batches, blend the chiles with the charred tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic, adding turkey broth as needed to keep things moving. Each batch should blend to a completely smooth paste. Strain each batch through a fine-mesh sieve into a large bowl, pressing on the solids. Discard the skins. This is the chile base.
Do not skip the straining. A grainy mole tells on the cook. The sauce should be velvet on the spoon. - 8
Blend the seeds and fried things
In the same blender, combine the fried almonds, peanuts, pepitas, sesame seeds, raisins, plantain, fried tortillas and bread, and ground spices. Add enough turkey broth to blend to a thick, smooth paste. This will take patience. Stop the blender, push down, blend again. Strain this paste through the sieve into a second bowl. You now have two purees: the chile and the seed-nut. This is the architecture of mole poblano.
- 9
Fry the mole
In a heavy 8-quart cazuela or Dutch oven, melt the remaining 1/2 cup lard over medium-high heat until shimmering. Pour in the chile puree. It will sputter and protest. Step back. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon for 10 minutes as the puree darkens and the fat begins to separate at the edges. Now stir in the seed-nut puree. Lower the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring often so nothing sticks, for 20 minutes. The mole should be the color of dark mahogany and smell like a Pueblan kitchen on a feast day.
- 10
Add chocolate and simmer
Break the Mexican chocolate tablets into pieces and stir them in along with the piloncillo. The chocolate melts into the sauce. It does not turn this into a dessert. Mole is not chocolate sauce. The chocolate rounds the bitterness of the chiles and the spices the way a quiet bass note holds up a song. Add about 6 cups of the reserved turkey broth, a little at a time, stirring after each addition. You want the consistency of heavy cream. Simmer uncovered, stirring often, for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Taste for salt. Taste for sugar. Taste for chile. Adjust until the four corners of the sauce, bitter, sweet, smoky, and deep, all stand up at once.
If a thin film of red-brown fat rises and pools at the surface, do not skim it. That is the chile fat. It is the visual signature of a mole that has been fried properly. Skim it and you skim away the soul of the dish. - 11
Warm the turkey in the mole
Return the poached turkey pieces to the pot, nestling them into the sauce so the mole comes about three-quarters of the way up the meat. Cover partially and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes, turning the pieces once. The turkey should drink the mole and the mole should hold the turkey. This is the moment the dish becomes mole poblano de guajolote and not just turkey and sauce.
- 12
Serve
Toast the 2 tablespoons sesame seeds for garnish on the dry comal until golden. Lift the turkey pieces onto a warm talavera platter. Ladle generous spoonfuls of mole over each piece. Shower with sesame seeds. Serve with Mexican red rice and a stack of hand-pressed corn tortillas wrapped in a servilleta. The tortillas are not optional. You eat the mole by tearing the tortilla, scooping, and folding. Así se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •Source the chiles from a Mexican mercado or a serious specialty shop, not from the international aisle of a supermarket. Old, brittle, dusty chiles will give you a dusty mole. Good chile ancho is pliable, smells like raisins and tobacco, and bends without cracking. If your chile vendor cannot tell you the difference between ancho and mulato, find another vendor.
- •Mole poblano is better on day two and best on day three. The flavors marry overnight and the harsh edges of the freshly fried chile soften into something rounder. Make it ahead. Plan the meal around the mole, not the other way around.
- •Mexican chocolate is not the same as baking chocolate. Ibarra and Mayordomo are the two reliable brands. They are gritty with sugar and flavored with canela and almond. Dark European chocolate will throw the balance off. La manteca es el sabor and the chocolate has to be the right chocolate.
- •Leftover mole, and there will be leftover mole, freezes beautifully for up to three months. Use it on enmoladas (tortillas dipped in mole and folded around shredded chicken), on chilaquiles, or thinned with broth as a sauce for poached eggs. A pot of good mole is a household resource.
Advance Preparation
- •Day one: poach the turkey, toast and soak the chiles, fry the nuts and seeds, char the aromatics. Refrigerate everything separately overnight. The flavors deepen.
- •Day two: blend, fry the mole, finish with chocolate and broth, warm the turkey in the sauce. Serve.
- •Mole paste (without the broth thinning) can be refrigerated for one week or frozen for three months. Thin with hot turkey or chicken broth when ready to serve.
- •The finished mole with turkey can be made one full day ahead and reheated gently. It only improves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 460g)
Calories
750 calories
Total Fat
41 g
Saturated Fat
13 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
25 g
Cholesterol
170 mg
Sodium
700 mg
Total Carbohydrates
33 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
11 g
Protein
59 g
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