Big's Turkey en Mole

[bigmike&nan]

Yeah this is the dish that got me started cooking seriously.
Urban legend has it some nuns in old world Mexico were caught off guard when a big shot cardinal dropped in to stay with them. Being poor women they pretty much grabbed everything in the pantry, killed a chicken and whipped this dish up.

Back when I lived in Chicago I went to a Mexican restaurant and had the same thing to eat every time, a combination plate of 1 taco, 1 chile rellano and two chicken enchiladas. The enchiladas had this dark brown spicy sauce ladled over them and garnished with chopped onions and slices of radish. Loved this sauce, foud out it was called Mole. I had a friend who really cooked A LOT !! She had a Trader Vic's Mexican cookbook. We spent all day making this sauce. At the end of the day we served this to our friends, it was amazing !! And for me a little light went on inside my head, I can do this. And next time I'm gonna do "this" to it to make it better. And that was the story of my life from then on.

I don't have this written down anywhere any more, it's off the top of my head. But a good cook should be able to recall something they've made as many times as I've made this...

1 half a turkey breast, bone in/skin on
or ` 5 pound frying chicken cut up into 8 pieces - bone in and skin on

1 onion small dice
1 cup cilantro, stems and all
1 14 oz. can stewed tomatoes
1 corn tortilla torn into bits
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup almonds
2 tablespoons peeled garlic
2 tsp corriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
3 dried ancho chile
2 dried pasilllo chile (both chiles soaked in boiling water. remove stems add to blender)
the water from soaking the chiles

4 tbls lard, yeah LARD

2 squares bakers unsweetened chocolate
more cilantro for decoration
3 tbls sesame seeds
flour and corn tortillas
sour cream
chopped tomatoes
chopped scallions
sliced radishes

some spanish rice

Preparation:

In a large dutch oven add 3-4 quarts water. Wash and pat dry your meat (chicken pieces or turkey breast) and add to pot with a half dozen peppercorns. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a low simmer and cook 25-30 minutes until all meat is poached. Turn off heat and remove poached meat to a warm platter. Reserve 2 quarts of the "stock".

In a blender add the 2nd group of ingredients and holding the lid on tight pulse again and again until it is all pureed nicely. Now in that empty dutch oven add the lard and heat, when the lard has melted and is shimmering pour in the mixture from the blender and fry that for about 6-8 minutes. It's got a lovely fragrance... Now add the "stock" slowly to the pan and mix until the "mole" is nicely thinned. Reduce to low and let simmer about 20 minutes. Now add the baker's chocolate and then the meat pieces (or diced up turkey breast meat) to the pan. Simmer another 15 minutes until the sauce is nicely thickened.

If cut up chicken plate a piece and nappe the sauce over the meat. Serve with spanish rice and refried beans and tortillas. If using cubed turkey breast meat you can make enchiladas using the meat and sauce or ladle some of the meat/sauce onto the plate with spanish rice, garnish with chopped scallions and sliced radishes. This makes amazing mole burritos. I can get all my buddies to take me shopping AND PAY if I offer to make mole... Here's some photos of different presentations I "borrowed from recipes online. Have at it !!


Mike

 

[bigmike&nan]

Wanted to make this for our dinner, yet also wanted to take a big platter of food over to the next door neighbors. So thought about it. Here's a more speeded up version of the dish. Buy a roasted chicken at Costco or Sam's. Cut it into 4 pieces (I was always taught to cut the chicken in HALF lengthwise, then cut thru the breast near the thigh so you have two portions half a breast with the wing on it and half a breast with the leg and thigh on it. Repeat with the other half or cut into the breast in the middle and remove the leg/thigh portion). Make the sauce as described but use box chicken stock. After your fry the stuff from the blender add the chicken stock and simmer about an hour. Then add the chocolate and cut up chicken pieces and simmer about 15 minutes. This simmering will get the chicken to give up some of it's fat and juices into the sauce and really make the chicken delicious. Serve some spanish rice on a plate with a a piece of the chicken, nappe some of the sauce over the chicken. Garnish the chicken with toasted sesame seeds chopped onions and a slivered radish. Add a small salad on the other end of the platter to color it up some.

That'll be what is served tonight. So from start to finish you could knock out a very memorable meal in 2 hours, where most of the 2 hours is you cooling out with a cigar or adult beverage.

 

[bigmike&nan]

Busy day Saturday, Big's Fun Day, the wife off at the mall getting her hair done and me home cooking. Nice weather. Got my sauce rolling in a big yellow roasting pan. Had two roasted chickens with which to work with. Made up a big pan of chicken/cheese enchiladas with mole sauce for us, a bigger pan of enchiladas for our neighbors and on the end of their pan a big pile of spanish rice and place the leg quarters (separated) on top, poured mole sauce on top of them and then sprinkled sesame seeds. Great people going through a lot of nasty medical stuff. I told my neighbor "this is the dish that started it all for me". Great people...

Anyway this is what dinner looked like. Enchiladas garnished with red onion and sliced radishes, spanish rice and a salad. A-mazing... And I have two storage containers of sauce left over. Gonna grill a filet mignon and nappe some sauce on it... Oh yeah.