Enmoladas Mineras de Guanajuato

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •12-inch cast iron comal or heavy skillet
• •Wide clay cazuela or 5-quart Dutch oven
• •High-powered blender
• •Fine-mesh strainer
• •Tongs for dipping tortillas

Instructions

1. 1

   Poach the chicken

   Put the chicken thighs, water, broth onion, peeled garlic, bay leaf, and 2 teaspoons salt in a pot. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat, then lower the flame and cook for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meat pulls from the bone. Skim the foam in the first ten minutes. Remove the chicken, strain the broth, and save at least 5 cups. When the chicken is cool enough to handle, shred it by hand. The broth is part of the mole, so do not throw it away.

2. 2

   Toast the chiles

   Heat a dry comal over medium. Toast the chile ancho, chile mulato, chile pasilla mexicano, and chile guajillo separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. They should soften, puff in places, and smell deep and fruity. They should not blacken. Put the toasted chiles in a bowl, cover with hot water, and soak for 20 minutes.

   Burned chile makes bitter mole. If a chile goes black, throw it out. No me vengas con atajos.
3. 3

   Roast the vegetables

   On the same comal, roast the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion slices, and unpeeled garlic until they have dark spots and soften at the edges, 8 to 10 minutes for the tomatoes and tomatillos, a little less for the garlic. Peel the garlic. The roast gives the mole its cooked depth before it ever reaches the cazuela.

4. 4

   Fry the mole base

   Melt 3 tablespoons of the manteca de cerdo in a skillet over medium heat. Fry the sesame seeds, peanuts, almonds, raisins, plantain slices, torn tortilla, and bolillo pieces in batches until golden and fragrant. The raisins will puff. The sesame will turn the color of old gold. Move each batch to the blender as it finishes. Toast the cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, and Mexican oregano on the comal for 30 seconds, then add them to the blender too. La manteca es el sabor.

5. 5

   Blend the mole

   Drain the soaked chiles and add them to the blender with the roasted tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, garlic, and 2 cups of the chicken broth. Blend until completely smooth, working in batches if your blender is small. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pressing hard on the solids. A proper mole should feel smooth on the tongue, not gritty.

6. 6

   Fry the mole

   Melt 2 tablespoons manteca de cerdo in a wide cazuela or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the strained mole paste carefully. It will sputter. Stir for 8 to 10 minutes, until the color darkens and the fat begins to shine at the edges. Add 2 1/2 cups chicken broth and the chopped Mexican chocolate. Simmer 25 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce coats a spoon but still runs slowly. Taste for salt. Mole is not chocolate sauce. The chocolate rounds the chiles, it does not lead them.

   If the mole gets too thick, loosen it with more chicken broth, a few tablespoons at a time. Thin mole slides off the tortilla. Thick mole tears it. You want the middle.
7. 7

   Fry the vegetables

   Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add the potato cubes and carrot coins and cook 6 to 8 minutes, until barely tender. Drain well and let them dry on a towel. Melt 3 tablespoons manteca de cerdo in a skillet and fry the potatoes and carrots until the potato edges turn golden and the carrots take on color. Season with salt. This topping is what keeps the miner structure of the dish. Do not skip it.

8. 8

   Warm the tortillas

   Warm the tortillas on a comal until flexible. In another skillet, melt 2 to 3 tablespoons manteca de cerdo and pass each tortilla through the hot fat for a few seconds per side. This keeps them from cracking when they meet the mole. Flour tortillas do not belong here. This is Guanajuato, not the northern border.

9. 9

   Fill and fold

   Keep the mole hot over low heat. Dip one softened tortilla into the mole, coating both sides. Lay it on a plate, add a small line of shredded chicken, and fold it in half. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, arranging three enmoladas per plate or overlapping them on a family platter. Work steadily. Cold tortillas crack, cold mole clumps, and both are the cook's fault.

10. 10

    Finish the plate

    Spoon more mole over the folded tortillas. Scatter with diced white onion, queso fresco, toasted sesame seeds, and the fried potatoes and carrots. Serve at once on a Dolores Hidalgo majolica platter if you have one, with café de olla and bolillos at the table. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.

Chef Tips

• •Buy chiles that bend a little when you press them. If the ancho or mulato cracks like old paper, it has been sitting too long and your mole will taste dusty. Pregúntale a las señoras del mercado.
• •Chile mulato is the one that gives the sauce its deep, almost tobacco-dark flavor. If you cannot find it, use two more chile ancho, but understand what you are losing. A substitution is a compromise, not an upgrade.
• •Use corn tortillas from a tortillería, preferably from the day before. Fresh tortillas can be too soft and break when dipped. Supermarket tortillas often crack because they were never good tortillas to begin with.
• •Do not replace the manteca de cerdo with butter. Butter burns and tastes wrong here. If you cannot use pork, use a neutral oil and know the flavor will be leaner. Así se hace y punto.
• •The mole should be dark and savory, not sweet. One ounce of Mexican chocolate is enough. If the sauce tastes like dessert, you lost the chiles.

Advance Preparation

• •The mole can be made up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated. Reheat it slowly with splashes of chicken broth until it returns to a spoon-coating texture.
• •The chicken can be poached and shredded 1 day ahead. Store it with a little broth so it does not dry out.
• •The potatoes and carrots can be parboiled the morning of serving, but fry them right before plating. Cold fried potato tastes tired.
• •Do not assemble enmoladas ahead. The tortillas absorb sauce and soften too much. Dip, fill, fold, and serve.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 300g)