What? You’ve never heard of it? It only has about a bezillion ingredients and takes forever to make but it is totally worth it. Okay, so it has a finite number of ingredients. When you start with having to scrounge up about 8 different types of dried whole chile peppers, then go on to dry toast cups worth of sesame seeds before grinding them before you begin to cook you know the final dish better be good.

Why am I writing about it? It is, at heart, a chocolate sauce into which you add shredded meat and serve over rice. By the way, I usually cheat and start off with a mole paste available at grocery stores (Doña Maria is a good brand). Reconstitute with a 1:1 mixture of chicken broth/water and doctor it up with 3-4 different kinds of dried chile peppers (Anaheim, Arbol, Piquin, Poblano).

Boil peppers (after washing) until soft in a small saucepan with enough water to cover, remove stems and puree in a food processor. Note: if you don’t like things spicy, remove the seeds before pureeing. Add the chile water into sauce. While the peppers are boiling dry toast 1 cup of sesame seeds/jar of paste and then grind in a coffee mill or spice grinder. Go easy on yourself and buy raw sesame seeds in bulk online or at your grocer. Do not buy them in the little bottles — they cost way too much. Same for peppers. There are lots of places that sell them online, ethnic stores (Mexican, Chinese), or maybe even your local grocer.

Add one piece of Mexican chocolate/jar to the sauce + a piece for the pot (it’s okay to add more). Mexican chocolate is a mixture of chocolate and sugar. It has no milk and is something between baker’s chocolate and cocoa. It comes in a hard flat brick that is stamped into about 12 different segments (think big Hershey bar with stamped sections only much harder). What you don’t use for mole makes dynamite hot chocolate. And don’t forget to add a rounded tablespoon/jar of granulated sugar to the sauce. The sugar makes the sauce go from flat to rounded. (I know it sounds crazy, but try it).

Your sauce will look thick but a little sauce goes a long ways so add as much shredded chicken or turkey as your sauce can hold. If you think your sauce is too thick you can always thin with a bit of broth or water. Be careful, you don’t want a thin runny sauce. Serve over rice with a garnish of chopped fresh parley (optional) and you are done … enjoy!