Chicken in a spicy-sweet chile, tomato and chocolate sauce

Just back from Mexico - a three-week trip taking in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and finally Mexico City and Cuernavaca. Everywhere, we had the most fabulous, memorable food. Such a shame that outside Mexico the real thing is so little known and most people think of Mexican food as heavy, clumsy, fatty - and impossible to reproduce outside the country. 

Amongst other excitements, we spent a terrific day learning to cook this classic dish (one of Oaxaca’s seven moles or sauces) with Susana Trilling, famous cook, teacher and expert on Oaxacan food who has a cookery school just outside the city (www.seasonsofmyheart.com). 

Part of the adventure is getting out to Rancho Aurora, bumping around on cavernously potholed tracks, up hill, down dale and over a dried up riverbed, but Susana does such a superb job and the place is so inspirational that it's well worth the effort. 

The kitchen is a stunning, purpose-built, domed building out in the middle of nowhere, with plenty of room for up to 25 cooks to hone their skills. Susana often has groups of visiting chefs, both from Mexico and from abroad, all keen to learn about real Mexican cooking; to spend a day with her is something special. 

Brace yourself for the recipe! Mole coloradito is quite a production (though less so than some of the other moles), so using Susana's recipe as inspiration, I’ve tried to simplify things, while hopefully remaining faithful to the original. Serve fresh tortillas and rice with fresh corn kernels as accompaniment, and a simple salad of mixed green leaves with olive oil and lemon juice to provide a nice sharp contrast to the rich, sweetish mole.

POLLO EN MOLE COLORADITO

Chicken in a spicy-sweet chile, tomato and chocolate sauce 

• Put the chicken pieces in a large pan with onion, garlic, thyme, bay leaf, salt and 2 litres water. Bring to a boil, simmer about 30 minutes till cooked. Let it cool in the stock.
• Wrap the unpeeled banana in foil and put in a 180oC oven for about 20 minutes or till soft. Peel and reserve.
• Cut the tops off the chiles, snip open with scissors, shake out seeds and veins. Heat a griddle or heavy, ungreased frying pan over moderate heat and toast the chiles very briefly (1-2’ each side), pressing down with a spatula and turning frequently till supple and fragrant – don’t let them burn. Remove the chiles to a bowl, and cover with hot water and leave for at least 30 minutes or until soft
• Toast the onion, garlic and spices on the griddle/pan till onion is lightly browned, the garlic soft and the spices fragrant. Slip the garlic out of its skins. Put them all in a blender with ½ a cup of chicken stock (from cooking chicken) and blend till smooth. Pour into a bowl.
• Heat some oil in a small frying pan, fry raisins till just puffed up; remove. Fry the almonds, bread and sesame seeds till evenly golden, shaking the pan frequently
• Lift the toasted, soaked chiles out of their water with a slotted spoon and put them in a blender with the tomatoes, raisins, almonds, bread, sesame seeds, banana, salt and 2 cups of chicken stock (you may need to do this in 2 batches). Blend till perfectly smooth, then push the purée through a sieve, pressing down hard with the back of a spoon; discard pips etc. 
• Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large, deep pan/casserole over moderate heat. Tip in the blended chile/tomato mixture plus the reserved onion/garlic/spice mixture, clap on the lid (it splatters horribly!) and lower the heat a bit so that the sauce simmers and reduces steadily for 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally. Stir in the chocolate, 2 more cups of stock, a pinch of sugar and salt to taste. Simmer 30 minutes more, check the seasoning and add more salt if necessary. (Mole can/should be prepared ahead: like many of us, it improves with age)
• Shortly before serving, heat the chicken pieces in the sauce 

• Soak the rice in hot water to cover for 10 minutes
• Heat a film of oil in a heavy pan and soften the onion and garlic 
• Drain the rice and shake it dry
• Add the rice to the pan and fry, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the grains are glistening and glazed-looking but not browned
• Reduce the heat, add 2 cups/500ml of the stock, season to taste with salt and pepper
• Stir again, cover and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes
• Add the corn and cook for a further 5 minutes (about 15’ in all) - the stock should be all absorbed, holes should appear on the surface of the rice and it should be just al dente. If not, add the rest of the stock. (Conversely, if still rather liquid, raise the heat and cook hard to boil off the excess stock.) 
• Fork the rice up and serve