This recipe from Diary of a Foodie is an excellent starting point for a mole. I followed the instructions with a few important changes:

1. It was impossible to obtain the prized (and rare) chilhuacle negro. As a substitution, I used pasilla negro chiles.
2. I used ancho chiles (essentially dried poblanos) instead of mulatto chiles, also known as ancho negro.
3. The variety of chipotle chile to be used was not specified in the original recipe, but I used morita chipotles.
4. Since I used pasilla negros in place of the chilhuacle negros, I did not follow the directions, which called for an additional four pasilla chiles.

   Instead, I threw in an assortment of leftover chiles.



5. I attempted to set the chile seeds on fire as directed, but was not successful.


6. I was not able to obtain an avocado leaf.


7. Venezuelan chocolate and rich high-fat cocoa powder (4 oz altogether) and sugar were used in place of mexican chocolate.


8. Two chickens were cooked whole (skin removed) in separate stock pots. They were later shredded, mixed with mole sauce, and eaten in a warm tortilla.

The dish was excellent. We had enough meat for five days and extra sauce leftover to freeze.

The key to mastering this mole was balancing the complexity of flavors: bitter, salty, nutty, sweet, and spicy. Pay careful attention to the level of sugar and salt added to the dish, being conservative until the end when more can be added to taste. In the future, with a little preplanning, I should be able to obtain avocado leaves (probably dried, not fresh), mexican chocolate, mulatto chiles, meco chipotles, and pasilla de Oaxaca (the variety of pasillas native to the region).

NB: Cook’s Thesaurus’ entry on dried chiles was extremely useful, especially since the labels for dried pasilla and ancho chiles are sometimes interchanged! In the future, I may also refer to their article on chocolate if mexican chocolate is unavailable.