MOLE NEGRO WITH CHICKEN AND PORK

Mole Negro With Chicken and Pork image

This sauce recipe from the Chicago Tribune is adapted from Petra Gutierrez de Romero, whose family operates a stall in La Merced market, selling chilies and other dried goods. She has worked in the market for 30 years, and also worked as a cook for 17 years. Serve this with warm tortillas. If you can't find all the varieties of the chiles, then use what you have but it is wonderful how much more available various dried chiles are than they were in the past. This is labor intensive, but it will be a labor of love--the dish is truly worth the effort.

Provided by Chef Kate

Categories Chicken

Time 4h30m

Yield 6 serving(s)

Number Of Ingredients 19

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Ingredients

1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 (2 1/2-3 lb) roasting chickens, cut into pieces
2 lbs country-style pork ribs, trimmed, separated
1 small plantain, ripe, peeled, chopped
1/4 cup peanuts, chopped
1/4 cup almonds, chopped
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
3 cups chicken broth
1 small corn tortilla
1 cinnamon stick
4 maria cookies (or vanilla wafers)
1 concha-style bread or 1 other yeast roll
2 tablespoons mexican chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon pine nuts, ground
4 -8 dried ancho chiles
2 -4 dried mulato chiles
1 -2 dried pasilla pepper

Steps:

Heat a large dry skillet over low heat; cook the sesame seeds until they are fragrant, about 3 minutes; transfer to a small bowl, cover and set aside.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in the skillet over medium-high heat; add the chicken. Cook, turning chicken occasionally, until golden brown, about 3 minutes per side; transfer to a platter.
Add pork ribs to the skillet; cook, turning, until ribs are browned, about 3 minutes each side, and transfer to the platter.
Add 3 tablespoons of the oil to the skillet. Add plantains; cook, turning often, until golden, about 3 minutes.
Transfer with a slotted spoon to a large bowl; set aside.
Repeat process, separately cooking the peanuts, almonds, raisins and brown sugar, adding a bit more oil as needed.
Stir mixture together.
Puree half of the mixture in a blender with 1/2 cup of the broth.
Pour through a strainer; reserve liquid. Repeat with the remaining half of the mixture in a blender and 1/2 cup of the chicken broth.
Pour through a strainer; reserve liquid and set aside.
Process tortilla, cinnamon stick, cookies, roll, chocolate and pine nuts together in the clean blender until crumbly; set aside.
Heat a small skillet over medium-high heat; add the ancho chilies.
Cook, stirring, until very fragrant, about 2 minutes; transfer to a medium bowl.
Repeat with mulatto and pasilla chilies. Pour boiling water over cooked chilies to cover; set aside 30 minutes.
After they have soaked. puree in a blender and then pour through a strainer into a Dutch oven; discard solids.
Add remaining 2 cups of chicken broth to the Dutch oven.
Heat mixture to a boil over high heat; reduce heat to a simmer.
Add the chicken, pork, plaintain-nut mixture, and tortilla mixture to the Dutch oven; cook until pork is tender, about 2 hours.
Set aside to cool, about 20 minutes.
Remove meat; shred meat with a fork.
Stir shredded meat into the sauce; pour into a serving bowl or platter.
Decorate with reserved sesame seeds.