Chef Lupita
Adobo Costeño para Pescado a la Talla
Guerrero's coast gives this adobo its authority: guajillo, pasilla mexicano, morita, chile costeño, garlic, vinegar, and fire, ground into the paste that belongs on butterflied fish.
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Mole Verde con Cacahuate Guerrerense
Created by
Guerrero's Costa Chica mole verde uses toasted cacahuate instead of pepita, with tomatillo, hoja santa, and serrano blended into a green sauce built for chicken, pork, or vegetables.
Sauces & Condiments
Mexican
Special Occasion
Comfort Food
Make Ahead
30 min
Active Time
45 min cook•1 hr 15 min total
YieldAbout 6 cups sauce, enough for 8 servings with meat or vegetables
Guerrero, especially the Costa Chica running toward Oaxaca, has a green mole that does not behave like Puebla's or Oaxaca's. This one leans on cacahuate, toasted peanut, not pumpkin seed. That is the first thing to understand. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
The tomatillo gives the sauce its clean acidity. The hoja santa gives it that anise-green depth that tells you this is southern Mexico. The peanut gives body, sweetness, and the afromestizo memory of the coast, where African, Indigenous, and Spanish kitchens learned to speak through the same clay cazuela. I have eaten versions near Cuajinicuilapa where the sauce was loose enough to spoon over chicken and versions inland near Chilpancingo thick enough to hold a trail from the wooden spoon. Both belonged to Guerrero.
Toast the cacahuate until it smells warm and nutty. Roast the tomatillos until they slump and spot. Fry the blended sauce in manteca de cerdo. Yes, manteca. Oil will cook it, but lard gives the sauce its roundness. No me vengas con atajos. A blender is fine here. Skipping the frying is not. The frying is where the raw green paste becomes mole.
Peanut-based sauces in Guerrero and the Costa Chica belong to a wider Afro-Mexican cooking grammar that connects African peanut stews, including mafe, with New Spain's local chiles, tomatillos, herbs, and clay-pot techniques. In the Pacific coast communities of Guerrero and Oaxaca, cacahuate and ajonjoli became central thickeners in encacahuatados, pipianes costeños, and table salsas, alongside Indigenous ingredients like hoja santa and miltomate. This mole verde is not a pumpkin-seed pipian with peanuts added; it is a Guerrero sauce shaped by coastal afromestizo kitchens.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
raw unsalted peanuts
Quantity
1 cup
preferably skinless
sesame seeds
Quantity
2 tablespoons
tomatillos
Quantity
1 1/2 pounds
husked and rinsed
white onion
Quantity
1/2 medium
thickly sliced
garlic cloves
Quantity
4
unpeeled
fresh chile serrano
Quantity
3 to 4
stemmed
dried chile costeño
Quantity
1
stemmed and seeded
chicken broth or vegetable broth
Quantity
2 cups
warm, divided
cilantro leaves and tender stems
Quantity
1 packed cup
fresh parsley leaves
Quantity
1/2 cup
hoja santa leaves
Quantity
3 large
center rib removed and torn
epazote
Quantity
1 small sprig
leaves only
dried Mexican oregano
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
ground cumin
Quantity
1/4 teaspoon
manteca de cerdo
Quantity
2 tablespoons
kosher salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| raw unsalted peanutspreferably skinless | 1 cup |
| sesame seeds | 2 tablespoons |
| tomatilloshusked and rinsed | 1 1/2 pounds |
| white onionthickly sliced | 1/2 medium |
| garlic clovesunpeeled | 4 |
| fresh chile serranostemmed | 3 to 4 |
| dried chile costeñostemmed and seeded | 1 |
| chicken broth or vegetable brothwarm, divided | 2 cups |
| cilantro leaves and tender stems | 1 packed cup |
| fresh parsley leaves | 1/2 cup |
| hoja santa leavescenter rib removed and torn | 3 large |
| epazoteleaves only | 1 small sprig |
| dried Mexican oregano | 1/2 teaspoon |
| ground cumin | 1/4 teaspoon |
| manteca de cerdo | 2 tablespoons |
| kosher salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
Equipment Needed
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet
- •High-powered blender
- •12-inch clay cazuela or heavy-bottomed pot
- •Wooden spoon
Instructions
- 1
Toast the peanuts
Heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the peanuts, stirring constantly, until they turn golden in spots and smell warm, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the sesame seeds for the last minute only. They should turn pale gold, not brown. Scrape everything into a bowl so the heat of the comal does not keep cooking them.
- 2
Roast the vegetables
On the same comal, roast the tomatillos, onion, garlic, and chile serrano. Turn them as they blister. The tomatillos should soften and collapse at the edges, the onion should char in patches, and the garlic should feel soft inside its skin. This roasting pulls sweetness out of the vegetables. Raw tomatillo makes a sharp sauce. Roasted tomatillo makes mole.
- 3
Wake the costeño
Toast the dried chile costeño for 10 to 15 seconds per side, just until fragrant. Do not blacken it. This chile is from the coast and it brings a small fruitiness and heat that serrano alone cannot give. Cover it with hot water for 10 minutes, then drain it.
- 4
Blend the base
Peel the roasted garlic. Put the peanuts, sesame, tomatillos, onion, garlic, serranos, soaked chile costeño, and 1 cup warm broth into a blender. Blend longer than you think you need, until the peanut is completely smooth and the sauce looks thick and pale green. If the blender struggles, add a little more broth. Just enough to move the blades.
- 5
Add the herbs
Add the cilantro, parsley, hoja santa, epazote, Mexican oregano, cumin, and salt. Blend again until the sauce turns a deeper green and no large herb pieces remain. Do not boil these herbs in the blender with hot liquid. Warm broth is enough. Boiling heat dulls the green and flattens the hoja santa.
- 6
Fry the mole
Melt the manteca de cerdo in a 12-inch clay cazuela or heavy pot over medium heat. Pour in the blended sauce carefully. It will sputter. Stir with a wooden spoon for 8 to 10 minutes, until the sauce darkens slightly, thickens, and the raw tomatillo smell disappears. La manteca es el sabor, and this frying is where the sauce becomes serious.
- 7
Simmer and adjust
Add the remaining broth little by little until the mole reaches the texture you want: spoonable for chicken or pork, looser for vegetables, thicker if you are using it as a table sauce. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring often so the peanut does not catch on the bottom. Taste for salt. The sauce should be green, nutty, lightly tangy, and grounded by the hoja santa.
- 8
Serve or store
Serve warm from the cazuela over poached chicken, pork ribs, roasted squash, or quelites. If making ahead, cool it completely and refrigerate. Reheat gently with a splash of broth. Peanut mole thickens as it rests. That is normal. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
Chef Tips
- •Do not replace the chile costeño with guajillo and pretend it is the same. Guajillo is sweeter and cleaner. Chile costeño is sharper, coastal, and more direct. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
- •If you cannot find hoja santa, ask at a Mexican market before you give up. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado. Avocado leaf can give a related anise note, but it is not the same leaf and the sauce will change.
- •Use raw peanuts, not honey-roasted, salted, or supermarket snack peanuts. If the peanut already tastes like a factory bag, your mole will taste like a factory bag.
- •This is a sauce, not chocolate mole. Mole means sauce from the Nahuatl molli. Anyone who tells you mole must contain chocolate learned from a menu, not from a kitchen.
Advance Preparation
- •The mole can be made 3 days ahead and refrigerated. It will thicken as the peanut absorbs liquid, so loosen it with warm broth when reheating.
- •The toasted peanuts and sesame can be prepared 1 day ahead and kept covered at room temperature.
- •Do not freeze this sauce unless you have to. Peanut sauces can separate after thawing. If that happens, reheat slowly and blend again with a splash of broth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 180g)
Calories
205 calories
Total Fat
15 g
Saturated Fat
3 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
12 g
Cholesterol
5 mg
Sodium
650 mg
Total Carbohydrates
10 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
5 g
Protein
7 g
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