📍 Puebla

Mole poblano

Name: Mole poblano
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 120 min
Total time: 180 min
Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients: Mulato, ancho, and pasilla chiles; 1 tablet of chocolate; Sesame seeds, almonds, and peanuts; Raisins and plantain; Toasted bread and tortilla; Cooked turkey or chicken

· Lunch

A thick sauce of chiles, spices, nuts, and chocolate, served over turkey or chicken.

Editorial content by WorldBites · 2026-10-04 · Contact

⏱ 180 min🍽 8 servings📊 Difficult🏷 Commonly associated

Preparation: 60 min
Cooking: 120 min
Waiting and resting: 0 min

History

One of Puebla's most celebrated dishes, traditionally attributed to the colonial convents. It combines Indigenous and European ingredients in a sauce of dozens of components.

Ingredients

Adjust quantitiesServings

Only numeric quantities at the start of an ingredient are adjusted. Descriptive quantities, seasoning to taste and timings remain unchanged; check them when changing servings.

Preparation

1
Toast and soak the chiles, taking care not to burn them.
2
Fry the nuts, raisins, bread, and plantain.
3
Grind the chiles and the other ingredients with spices.
4
Fry the ground paste in hot lard.
5
Add broth and the chocolate tablet; simmer over low heat.
6
Bathe the turkey or chicken pieces and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Cooking tips

Start with 8 mulato, 4 ancho and 2 pasilla chiles; add stock gradually and avoid burning seeds when toasting.

Technique and preparation

What to check during preparation

Prepare ingredients in separate groups; chiles, seeds and bread brown at different rates. Remove each before it burns and reserve separately. Blend with enough broth to eliminate hard fragments; strain if your equipment cannot produce a fine texture. Stir while cooking the paste and thin gradually. Incorporate chocolate near the end, tasting before adding more so it does not overpower the chiles.