Survival Sunday 237: Chicken Mole

Chicken Mole with Buttered Rice

Good afternoon friends! I have discovered the joys of mole (pronounce Moe-Lay) and am a full convert, but more of that in a moment. Here's what you'll need for today's recipe:

Chicken broth, leftover chicken, mole paste, water, rice, and butter (which is hiding behind the broth)

I find that having your ingredients pre-measured in this case is a very, very good idea. Thankfully, everything I've got has instructions on it, so I just followed the instructions for four servings of rice, which was written right on the bag!

In this case it was a 1 to 2 ratio - one part rice to two parts water.
One cup of uncooked rice and two cups of water make four servings.

I started with the rice and hacked of a tablespoon of butter to dump in the pan.

It's a very big pan.

Then I added the rice and turned the heat to low, melting the butter and stirring it around so that all of the rice was coated. It turned a little golden, which is absolutely fine! That just means you're developing a lot of lovely flavor in your rice. It'll whiten right back up once you've cooked it.

This was also the point where my "kitchen helper" became decidedly unhelpful and began nipping the backs of my legs because I wouldn't stop what I was doing and go sit down to be her living couch...

Eventually, she gave up and decided to go eat some of her breakfast...

Once the butter was completely melted, I poured the water in. Despite being on very low heat, the pan was hot enough to instantly boil the first couple of splashes, but the full two cups quickly overwhelmed the heat from the pan and I had to turn up the heat to get a full boil.

Once it was boiling, however, I covered the pot with its lid and quickly turned the heat back to the lowest setting.

With the rice bubbling away quietly on the back burner, I set the timer for 9 minutes (because last time I went the full 15 it said on the bag, it burned horribly) and got to work on my mole.

The jar gave a 1:3 ratio - one part paste to three parts liquid.

I carved out a tablespoon or so of the mole paste, which was gritty feeling and smelled very rich and sweet. Then I added three tablespoons or so of chicken broth. I turned the heat to the lowest setting, and began to stir.

Believe it or not, this was several minutes into stirring the mixture. It's slow going at first.

Once I realized that things were going to take a while, I relaxed and started stirring the mole more gently. As the paste and the broth mingled and combined, the smell went from sweet-but-spicy to deep-dark-rich-sweet-spicy, and I knew I was going to love it.

Pretty much the second the paste incorporates, the mole thickens.
Be ready to cut this with more broth!

Once the mole was thick and smooth and slightly bubbly, I began adding chicken. Since the chicken was cold from the fridge, I knew it would cool everything else, so I left the heat on at first. By the third handful, however, I knew it was time to turn off the heat and just let the mole heat the chicken on its own!

Picture taken as I was being assaulted by the cat again...
Trust me, though, it looked great!

Nine minutes was plenty of time for my rice, which I turned off and let finish steaming while I worked on the mole. When I felt they were both finished, I took out the portion of the rice I was taking with me and put it in a microwave safe container. I was planning on eating this a few hours later, after all. My mother was an excellent test case for it, though, because she came home as I was working on the meal and I gave her some for lunch! She ate all of it, so I guess she liked it, lol!

Our finished rice being spooned out with a mole-covered spoon.
I'm not worried about cross-contamination.

The actual chicken mole itself was spooned on top of the rice, and it looked... well... see for yourself:

Beautiful. It's simply gorgeous.

Sweet and spicy, dark and mysterious, and absolutely delicious, this was one of the best meals I think I've made since that chili last year. I could seriously eat this three times a week and be very, very happy.

If you find some mole paste at your local supermarket (and remember, I live in the middle of nowhere, so if it's at one of my stores, you've probably got some somewhere), definitely give it a try! I'd recommend adding some veggies to your mole - maybe some onions and peppers? - and trying it with yellow rice. I'd also love to experiment with putting it in tortillas, because... mole taco? Yes please!

And since you've been so good and read to the end, here's your prize:

That'll about do it for me, today.

Go Enjoy Something!
FC