Oaxacan Black Mole (Mole Negro Oaxaqueño)
A dark, velvety sauce built from charred dried chiles, toasted nuts and spices, and a touch of chocolate, simmered slowly with chicken until deep, smoky and faintly sweet. The great centrepiece sauce of Oaxacan cooking, worth every hour it takes.
Servings
Ingredients
Nutrition
Per serving
Steps
Simmer the chicken
Put the chicken, water, onion half, garlic cloves and salt in a large pot (at least 6 litres) and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook 35-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Lift out the chicken, then strain and reserve the broth; discard the onion and garlic.
- 1.8 kg chicken
- 2 litres water
- 1/2 onion
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp salt
✅ Done when: chicken reaches 74 C / 165 F, no pink near the bone
Char the chiles
Toast the chiles a few at a time on a dry, hot or heavy skillet, pressing flat, 30-45 seconds per side, until blistered and almost black but not burnt to ash. In the same dry pan, burn the reserved seeds 1-2 minutes until black and smoking, then rinse the ash off under water. Soak the charred chiles and seeds together in the hot water for 20 minutes until softened.
- 6 mulato chiles
- 6 pasilla chiles
- 4 chiles
- 2 chipotle chiles
- 1 litre hot water
✅ Done when: chiles are blistered almost black and soft after soaking
Char the vegetables
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Toast nuts and spices
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Blend and strain
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Fry and simmer mole
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Finish with chicken
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Simmer the chicken
Put the chicken, water, onion half, garlic cloves and salt in a large pot (at least 6 litres) and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook 35-40 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Lift out the chicken, then strain and reserve the broth; discard the onion and garlic.
- 1.8 kg chicken
- 2 litres water
- 1/2 onion
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp salt
✅ Done when: chicken reaches 74 C / 165 F, no pink near the bone
Char the chiles
Toast the chiles a few at a time on a dry, hot or heavy skillet, pressing flat, 30-45 seconds per side, until blistered and almost black but not burnt to ash. In the same dry pan, burn the reserved seeds 1-2 minutes until black and smoking, then rinse the ash off under water. Soak the charred chiles and seeds together in the hot water for 20 minutes until softened.
- 6 mulato chiles
- 6 pasilla chiles
- 4 chiles
- 2 chipotle chiles
- 1 litre hot water
✅ Done when: chiles are blistered almost black and soft after soaking
Char the vegetables
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Toast nuts and spices
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Blend and strain
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Fry and simmer mole
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Finish with chicken
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The Story Behind the Dish
Oaxaca is known as the land of the seven moles, and the black one is the most elaborate of them all, reserved for weddings, baptisms and Day of the Dead. It layers native ingredients, chiles, tomatoes, chocolate, with others that arrived from Europe and Asia through colonial trade, cinnamon, cloves, almonds, forged into a single sauce over generations of Oaxacan cooks, mostly women, who guard their own version of the recipe.
The defining step is burning some of the chiles and their seeds until nearly black, a technique that looks like a mistake but is exactly what gives the sauce its colour, its bitterness and its unmistakable depth.
⭐ Why It's Famous
It is considered the most sophisticated sauce in Mexican cooking, a slow, many-ingredient labour of love that defines Oaxacan festive cuisine.
💡 Fun Fact
A proper mole negro can call for over twenty ingredients and several hours of work, which is why many families only make it for the biggest celebrations of the year.
Oaxaca
17.07°N, -96.73°W
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