Mole Poblano

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken (about 1.8kg), jointed into 8 pieces
• 1 large white onion, halved
• 8 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 litres cold water
• 8 mulato chiles (about 120g)
• 6 ancho chiles (about 90g)
• 4 pasilla chiles (about 50g)
• 2 chipotle meco chiles
• 250ml lard or vegetable oil
• 60g whole blanched almonds
• 50g raw peanuts
• 50g raisins
• 50g sesame seeds, plus 1 tbsp to finish
• 30g pumpkin seeds
• 1 very ripe plantain, peeled and cut into 1cm coins
• 2 corn tortillas, torn into strips
• 1 stale bolillo roll or 2 thick slices of white bread, torn
• 2 ripe tomatoes
• 4 tomatillos, husked and rinsed
• 1 cinnamon stick (5cm, preferably canela)
• 4 whole cloves
• 8 black peppercorns
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp anise seeds
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp dried Mexican oregano
• 90g Mexican chocolate, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp grated piloncillo or dark brown sugar
• 3 tsp fine sea salt

Before you cook

• Snap the stems off every dried chile, tear each one open and shake the seeds into a bowl. Set aside 2 tablespoons of seeds and discard the rest.
• Halve the onion and peel the garlic.
• Cut the plantain into 1cm coins, tear the tortillas into strips and tear the bread into rough chunks.
• Chop the chocolate small so it will melt quickly.
• Tip the cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, coriander, anise, thyme and oregano into one small bowl so they can be toasted together.

Steps

1. Put the chicken pieces, one onion half, three garlic cloves, the bay leaves and two teaspoons of salt into your largest pot and pour over three litres of cold water.
2. Set the pot over medium heat, bring it to a gentle simmer, and skim off the grey foam that gathers at the edges.
3. Simmer the chicken very softly for forty minutes, until the meat pulls easily from the bone.
4. Lift the chicken onto a tray and cover it loosely with foil.
5. Strain the broth into a jug and keep it hot. You will use about two litres.
6. Heat three tablespoons of the lard in a wide heavy pan over medium heat.
7. Fry the mulato, ancho, pasilla and chipotle chiles a few at a time for around fifteen seconds a side, pressing them flat, until they puff and smell nutty. Pull them out before they blacken or the mole will turn bitter.
8. Put the fried chiles in a bowl, pour over enough hot broth to submerge them and weigh them down with a small plate. Leave them for twenty minutes.
9. Fry the two tablespoons of reserved chile seeds in the same fat for about thirty seconds, until they are the colour of strong coffee, then tip them in with the soaking chiles.
10. Fry the almonds and peanuts in the pan for two minutes, until golden, and lift them into a second bowl.
11. Fry the sesame and pumpkin seeds for one minute, until the sesame turns pale gold and begins to pop, then add them to the nuts.
12. Drop in the raisins and fry for twenty seconds, just until they swell, then add them to the same bowl.
13. Fry the plantain coins for three minutes a side, until deeply caramelised, and add them to the nuts.
14. Fry the tortilla strips and torn bread in the remaining fat until crisp and dark brown, then add them to the nut bowl.
15. Wipe the pan out, set it over high heat, and char the tomatoes, tomatillos, the second onion half and five garlic cloves for about eight minutes, turning until they are blistered and blackened in patches.
16. Toast the bowl of whole spices and dried herbs in the dry pan for forty seconds, shaking constantly, until they smell warm and sweet.
17. Grind the toasted spices to a fine powder in a spice mill or molcajete.
18. Blend the soaked chiles and seeds with 300ml of their soaking broth until completely smooth, then push the purée through a sieve into a bowl and scrape the underside of the sieve clean.
19. Blend the nuts, seeds, raisins, plantain, tortilla, bread, charred vegetables and ground spices with 500ml of broth until smooth, and sieve that purée as well.
20. Heat four tablespoons of lard in the big pot over medium-high heat until it shimmers.
21. Pour in the chile purée, standing back because it will spit, and fry it for fifteen minutes, stirring without stopping, until it darkens and thickens into a stiff paste.
22. Stir in the nut and seed purée and keep frying for ten minutes more, still stirring, until the mixture leaves a clean trail behind the spoon.
23. Add the chopped chocolate, the piloncillo and one litre of hot broth, and stir until the chocolate has completely melted.
24. Turn the heat to its lowest setting and simmer the mole uncovered for forty-five minutes, stirring every few minutes so nothing catches on the base.
25. Taste and correct it with salt and a pinch more piloncillo. It should land sweet, bitter, smoky and gently hot all at once, and coat a spoon like double cream.
26. Slide the chicken pieces into the mole and let them warm through for ten minutes.
27. Serve each piece under a heavy ladle of sauce and scatter the reserved sesame seeds over the top.