If you’re looking for a taste of Mexico and you want to get it done in a hurry then this is the dish for you! Mole is a group of sauces from Mexico but often refers to a very specific sauce. See Wikipedia:

Mole (/ˈmoʊleɪ/, /ˈmoʊli/ Spanish pronunciation: [ˈmole]; from Nahuatl mōlli, “sauce”) is the generic name for a number of sauces originally used in Mexican cuisine, as well as for dishes based on these sauces. Outside Mexico, it often refers specifically to mole poblano. In contemporary Mexico, the term is used for a number of sauces, some quite dissimilar, including black, red/colorado, yellow, green, almendrado, de olla, huaxmole and pipián. Generally, a mole sauce contains a fruit, chili pepper, nut and spices like black pepper, cinnamon and cumin.

I will be following in the footsteps of my American brothers and my sauce refers to a chocolate and pepper-based sauce. I like to serve it with chicken but I think it would be great with shrimp or fish as well.

Just a note, the recipe below is going to be just for the mole. I am going to trust that you can hopefully cook some chicken breasts without too much guidance.

If you have some frozen breasts then throw them in the oven at 400F and bake for 40 minutes. Cut them up into slices, sprinkle some paprika, salt and pepper on them and broil them until you have a bit of golden brown.

If you have fresh chicken breasts season them with salt, pepper and paprika and then pound them out so they’re about as thick as your thumb. Fry them in a pan for about 3-4 minutes turning them once every minute.

The only thing of note here is if you want to use an actual dried chilli or just some hot sauce (I recommend Sriracha since it’s pretty flavorful instead of just hot. If you have a dried chilli then that’s great, but if you don’t I’ve tried the recipe with just Sriracha and it was pretty damn great still. You don’t get the smokiness from the dried chilli but I understand if they’re hard to find.

Dice up your tomato, onion and garlic cloves. Break up your chocolate into smaller pieces.

Add your tomato, onions, garlic cloves and dried chilli if you’re using it to a high sided pot with some olive oil and fry until fragrant.

Add in your chicken stock. I put 1/2 cup but you might have to eye ball it a bit. You want it to just cover your tomato, onion, garlic and chilli so that the chilli can re-hydrate and the onion and garlic can soften. If you aren’t using a chilli you can add your hot sauce with the stock.

Let everything simmer for about 10 minutes or so until the chilli re-hydrates and everything softens. At that point add in your cumin, peanut butter, dark chocolate and banana piece. Stir everything together until the chocolate melts.

Immersion blend the sauce until smooth. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth so go to whatever smoothness you like.

Serve the sauce with your chicken and you’re done. I recommend pairing with my avocado salad which can be seen in the picture below.

As always thank you for reading and if you try out this recipe let me know how it goes in the comments below. Please also let me know any recipes, cuisines or techniques you want to know more about and I’ll try my best to either share something I’ve already done or find something new.