Easy and Delicious Chicken Mole Recipe

It's not often that you hear "easy" and "mole" in the same sentence. This classic Mexican dish is often associated with hours of prep and cook time to get the final result, but we unearthed a recipe over 10 years ago from food editor Matthew Card. The result is a savory and smoky version, more driven by coffee and charred vegetables, than the classic flavor of chocolate.

It's also very diet-friendly with low fat and whole food ingredients! Enjoy.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

This produces a whole blender of sauce - depending on the size of our group,  we have frozen half and it's delicious at a later time.

• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained and squeezed dry
  
• 1 small white onion, chopped coarsely
• 6 cloves garlic
• 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3/4 cup hot brewed coffee
  
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 4 teaspoons ancho chile powder (we use basic chili power from any grocery store).
• 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 canned chipotle chile (these are hot! We often leave out 1 chili and also scrape seeds from the pepper interior - test and add more if needed).
• 4 teaspoons firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/3 cup pepitas (shelled pumpkin seeds), lightly toasted (To toast pumpkin seeds, spread on baking sheet and bake in a 350-degree oven for 3 to 5 minutes or until brown.)
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed of excess fat and cut crosswise into thin slices (we use chicken breast too!).

Garnish:
3 tablespoons minced fresh cilantro leaves
1 lime, cut into wedges for serving
Sour cream
Flour or corn tortillas

Adjust oven rack to within 5 inches of broiler element and heat broiler. On a rimmed baking sheet toss together tomatoes, onion, garlic and oil; season generously with salt and pepper. Broil mixture, stirring often, until it's browned and blackened in spots and tomatoes are dried out and withered, 8 to 12 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a blender jar combine coffee, raisins, chili powder, cocoa and allspice and allow to sit for at least 5 minutes.

Add tomato mixture to blender along with chipotle chile, brown sugar, pepitas, chicken broth and 2 more tablespoons oil. Process until mixture is smooth and thick; adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Chicken: you can bake, broil or saute - whatever you prefer.
Season with salt & pepper, & oil before cooking. This is just cooking the chicken basically because it's all about the mole sauce.

Place mole sauce & cooked chicken in stove-top skillet, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer 8 to 10 minutes.  We cut the chicken into strips or chunks - easy to wrap in tortilla. Over rice is great too.

Serve topped with cilantro and accompanied by lime wedges, sour cream and tortillas.