Tacos de Mole Verde con Pollo

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy-bottomed 4-quart cazuela or Dutch oven
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting and charring
• •High-powered blender
• •Medium stockpot for poaching the chicken
• •Tortilla press (optional, for hand-pressing tortillas)
• •Cloth-lined basket or clean kitchen towel for keeping tortillas warm

Instructions

1. 1

   Poach the chicken

   Place the chicken thighs in a medium pot and cover with cold water by two inches. Add half of the quartered onion, two garlic cloves, the bay leaves, and the salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, skimming the gray foam that rises in the first ten minutes. Reduce to a low simmer and cook for 35 to 40 minutes, until the meat pulls away from the bone without effort. Cold water and a slow build draws the flavor into the broth. A hard boil toughens the meat and clouds the liquid.

   Use thighs, not breast. The dark meat has fat and connective tissue that keeps the chicken moist after shredding. Breast dries out and tastes like cardboard once it sits in a taco for two minutes.
2. 2

   Toast the pepitas

   While the chicken poaches, heat a dry comal or cast iron skillet over medium-low. Add the pepitas in a single layer and toast them, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. They will start to pop and jump like popcorn after two or three minutes. When most of them have puffed and turned golden with a few brown spots, pull them off the heat immediately and transfer to a plate. The whole kitchen should smell toasty and nutty. That smell is the oil in the seeds waking up. It is half the flavor of this mole.

   Do not walk away from toasting pepitas. They go from golden to burned in about fifteen seconds. If a batch burns, throw it out and start over. Burned pepitas will make the entire mole bitter.
3. 3

   Char the tomatillos and chiles

   On the same dry comal, arrange the husked tomatillos and the serrano and jalapeño chiles. Cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until the tomatillos are soft, blistered, and collapsing, and the chiles are charred in patches. This takes about eight to ten minutes. The tomatillos will release juice onto the comal. Let it caramelize there. That dark fond on the comal is flavor you earned. Transfer everything, including any collected juices, to a bowl and let it cool for five minutes.

   Charring the tomatillos concentrates their sweetness and tempers the raw acidity. If you skip this and blend them raw, the mole will taste sharp and one-dimensional.
4. 4

   Blend the mole verde

   In a blender, combine the charred tomatillos and chiles with all their juices, the toasted pepitas, the remaining raw onion quarter, the remaining two garlic cloves, the hoja santa, parsley, epazote, and cilantro. Add one cup of the reserved chicken broth. Blend on high for a full two minutes until the sauce is completely smooth and bright green, with no visible chunks of seed or herb. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. If the blender struggles, add a splash more broth, but no more than needed. You want body, not soup.

5. 5

   Fry the mole in lard

   Melt the lard in a heavy-bottomed cazuela or Dutch oven over medium heat. When it shimmers, pour in the blended mole verde all at once. It will sputter and spit. Stand back but keep stirring. Cook for eight to ten minutes, stirring frequently, until the sauce darkens half a shade and the fat begins to separate around the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This frying step changes the mole from a raw green sauce into something deeper, rounder, and worth the work.

   The mole will darken from bright green to a more muted olive green as it fries. That is correct. If it stays neon, you have not fried it long enough.
6. 6

   Thicken with masa

   Dissolve the fresh masa in the remaining half cup of warm chicken broth, working it with your fingers until no lumps remain. If using masa harina, whisk it into the broth until smooth. Pour the masa slurry into the frying mole in a thin stream, stirring constantly. The sauce will thicken within two to three minutes into a consistency that coats chicken and clings to a tortilla without running. Taste now. Adjust salt. The mole should taste of pepitas first, then tomatillo, then the anise note of hoja santa at the back of the tongue. If the hoja santa is shy, tear in another half leaf and simmer for two more minutes.

   The masa is what separates mole verde from salsa verde. It gives the sauce enough weight to sit on the meat and hold its place on a tortilla. Without it, the mole slides off and pools at the bottom of the plate.
7. 7

   Shred the chicken

   Remove the chicken thighs from the broth. Discard the skin and bones. Shred the meat into rough, uneven pieces using two forks or your hands. Do not shred it too fine. You want pieces large enough to have texture when you bite into a taco, not a paste. Fold the shredded chicken into the mole verde, stirring gently to coat every piece. Let it simmer together for five minutes so the chicken absorbs the sauce. A mole and its meat need time together. Five minutes is the minimum.

8. 8

   Warm the tortillas and serve

   Heat a comal or cast iron skillet over medium-high and warm each tortilla for about 30 seconds per side, until pliable and lightly charred in spots. Stack them in a cloth-lined basket or wrapped in a clean kitchen towel to hold the heat. Spoon the mole verde con pollo onto each warm tortilla. Top with a few thin rounds of radish for crunch and a pinch of raw diced onion. Set lime wedges on the table. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and this one is Oaxacan from the first bite to the last.

Chef Tips

• •Hoja santa is the ingredient that makes this mole Oaxacan. It grows like a weed in southern Mexico and is sometimes available at Latin markets in the US under the name yerba santa or acuyo. If you truly cannot find it, a mix of one part fresh tarragon and one part fresh basil will get you in the neighborhood, but it is a different neighborhood. The anise-pepper note of real hoja santa has no perfect substitute.
• •Use raw hulled pepitas, not roasted and salted snack pepitas. The flavor profile is entirely different. You toast them yourself on a dry comal so you control the color and the oil development. The mercado vendors in Oaxaca sell them by the kilo from open burlap sacks. If you have a Mexican grocery nearby, buy them there. They are fresher and half the price of the health food store.
• •The mole should be thick enough to coat the chicken and stay on a tortilla. If it is too thin after adding the masa, simmer it uncovered for another five minutes. If it is too thick, add broth a tablespoon at a time. You are looking for the consistency of a cream soup that has not been thinned, something that moves slowly when you tilt the pot.
• •This mole reheats well. In fact, the flavors settle and deepen overnight. Make the mole and chicken a day ahead, refrigerate them together, and reheat gently with a splash of broth before serving. The tacos will be better for it.

Advance Preparation

• •The mole verde and shredded chicken can be made one full day ahead and refrigerated together in a sealed container. Reheat gently over medium-low, adding a few tablespoons of chicken broth to loosen the sauce. The flavor improves overnight as the herbs and pepitas settle.
• •The chicken broth, strained and cooled, keeps in the refrigerator for four days or the freezer for three months. Use it for rice, beans, or the next batch of mole. Do not waste it.
• •Tortillas are best made or warmed fresh on serving day. They do not hold overnight.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 350g)