Ancho Chile Mole Sauce with Cocoa and Cinnamon

As promised, this is my brief follow-up post to the ever-popular Braised Pork Belly post! My mole sauce was something I took a chance on, not knowing if it would fall flat or be amazing. I actually think it was amazing and I have pretty high standards for myself. I wanted it to be spicy, but not the burning-my-mouth-I-need-some-milk spicy. I wanted it to warm you from the inside with an undertone of chocolate, a hint of cinnamon and a base of pork broth. I wanted it to have body.
I researched many, many, many mole recipes to find out some of the typical ingredients – wow, some of the classic mole recipes have about a thousand ingredients. Okay, a slight exaggeration on my part, but they do have a lot. I didn’t want it to be overly complicated as I was already making pork belly for the first time and still wanted to be able to focus on that.
My inspiration




And the end result

Here is what I came up with – deviate as you see fit! And enjoy!
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Ancho Chile Mole Sauce with Cocoa and Cinnamon
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 2 cups 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Mexican-Inspired
Description
Ancho Chilis Mole Sauce with Cocoa and Cinnamon – a flavorful and delicious homemade mole sauce you are sure to love!
Ingredients
- 3 tomatillos
- 1 plum tomato
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 small yellow onion
- 3 dried Ancho chile
- 2 Tablespoons toasted pecans
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 1/2 oz 100% cocoa
- 1 plantain
- 1/2 Teaspoon brown sugar
- 1/8 Teaspoon allspice
- 1/8 Teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 Teaspoon ground oregano
- 1/4 Teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 1/2 cinnamon stick
- 2 cups broth from braising the pork belly (or additional beef broth)
- 1/8 Teaspoon of flour (more or less depending upon desired thickness)
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cut up tomatillos, plum tomato and yellow onion into large chunks.
- Place on baking sheet along with garlic cloves.
- Broil until everything starts to brown.
- Remove from oven and let cool slightly then blend.
- Run through sieve twice and place in sauce pan.
- Add toasted pecans, chicken stock, cocoa, cinnamon stick and Ancho chiles.
- Let simmer approx. 30 minutes.
- In a separate fry pan, fry 6 slices of the plantain in a small amount of oil and then mash and add to sauce.
- Add brown sugar, allspice, ground cloves, oregano and black pepper.
- Continue simmering sauce and remove Ancho chiles after they have been in the sauce a total of 1 hour.
- Add beef broth and braised pork broth and continue to simmer until reduced to the desired consistency – the sauce should at least coat the back of a spoon.
- Run through sieve twice and return to pot.
- Serve when ready.
Keywords: Ancho Chile Mole Sauce
Susan E Diaz says
Love authentic Mexican food