No, that’s not pronounced mole. It’s mole-A! Give it a Mexican flare at the end, come on, try it!! TRY IT!!! Shout it at the roof tops. “Mole-A, Mole-A, TODAY TODAY!!” That’s what you should be singing when you are cooking this up tonight! If you don’t sing/yell loudly, it’s not even worth making. That’s a lie. I didn’t yell any of the sort while I cooked up this mole. I had company, and I try to only make a fool of myself on occasion. I have a reputation to uphold.
Anyways, if you’ve never tried mole before, you absolutely should try the REAL stuff. It’s often made with peanut butter and dark chocolate, but it is FANTASTIC! I mean, how the hell couldn’t it be, right? But you need to go to the right restaurant. One of those Mexican restaurants that truly makes you uncomfortable because it looks like the silverware was used right before you walked in the door, or a place that has floor tiles that are peeling away, revealing a green fuzzy mold pattern. Those are the best. Those restaurants use the real sh*t. Sweat.
Ok, so this recipe may not be quite as good as the real deal, but it does a person good. I literally just sat smiling at my desk eating out of my always adorable (of course) tupperware, getting mole on my face. Not to be confused with getting mole on my moles. Holy crap that’s confusing.
Paleo Chicken Mole
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken tenders, breast, thighs (whatevs)
- 2 tablespoons fat (I used duck fat)
- 3 garlic cloves, pressed or thinly sliced
- 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 can of diced tomatoes, drained of liquid
- 2–3 chipotle peppers, chopped
- 1/4 cup coconut milk OR broth OR water (just need it to help thin out the mixture)
- 2–3 heaping tablespoons almond butter
- 3–4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 yellow cabbage, roughly chopped
- 1/2 purple cabbage, roughly chopped
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat fat in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add pressed garlic and mix around in your pan a bit.
- Add chopped onion and let cook down until translucent.
- Add spices and continue to cook the onions down.
- Add diced tomatoes, chipotle peppers, cocoa powder, and almond butter and mix together. Then add your broth/coconut milk/or water until you get the preferred consistency.
- Add chicken directly to your pan and mix with your sauce until chicken is coated.
- Cover pan and let cook for about 20-25 minutes, depending how thick your pieces of chicken are. Check on it randomly to make sure it is cooked through!
- While the chicken is cooking, grab another saute pan and heat up a bit more fat (olive oil, coconut oil, etc.). Add your chopped cabbage to the pan and let cook for about 15 minutes, stirring the cabbage ever so often to make sure it doesn’t burn. If you want it to cook a bit faster, add 1 tablespoon of water to the pan and cover with a lid, the steam will help those little babies cook quick! Towards the end of the cooking process, add a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve your chicken mole over your sautéed cabbage and enjoy your fiesta. Mole-A I say!!
Grocery Store Helper:
- Chicken tenders: on sale at Sunflower Market
- Canned tomatoes: King Soopers
- Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce: King Soopers in Ethnic foods isle
- Veggies: Sunflower Market
- Spices: Kroger
- Cocoa Powder: King Soopers
OK, I have NO idea what went wrong with my version but it ended up being SO spicy that I was literally sweating. 🙁 So sad since mole is my absolute fave Mexican dish on this Earth. I used broth though to cut the sauce so maybe I’ll add some coconut milk to try killing some of the spice.
This was great! I have to say, I’m terrible at actually following all of the directions, normally because I don’t have everything on hand… But a modified version still came out awesome! With lots of leftovers for tupperwares too. Thanks for this one!
Holy mole! This was so good!! It was hot hot hot but my hubby likes it that way! This was the first recipe I tried of yours and hubby declared it the best healthy recipe I ever made. So, yeah. It was good! He was looking forward to the leftovers for lunch. And a coworker stole them!! He’s royally pissed now. Good thing it was pretty simple and I don’t have any problem making it again. Thank you!!
Holy Mole!! I made this last night! HOT!! but really really yummy, and I served it on red cabbage and kale sauted. It cuts the heat a bit, but wow! HOT! my daughter tried to eat it and did a pretty good job actually. I love hot, but next time for kids sake, ill reduce the cayenne pepper.
I have to agree with some of the other posters, this was INSAAAAAANELY HOT! The flavor was excellent underneath the searing heat, but man, I hate to be That Commenter, but are you sure about all your measurements? I love spicy – spicy Thai, spicy Indian, and spicy Mexican above all, but, dude.
This NEVER happens to me. I always have to make it spicier! Pretty much every recipe I make, I bump up the spice. This time I actually undercut it ever so slightly, because I saw 2 TABLESPOONS chili powder, *and* a TABLESPOON of cayenne, plus 2 or 3 chipotles, and thought “Gee, that sound a little bit aggressive, maybe I’ll be conservative for once . . .” It is SATANICALLY HOT. And I have a huge pot of it! Is there any chance you mixed up some teaspoons and tablespoons?
Delicious otherwise, truly, so I’m only reducing it to 4 stars instead of 5 because of the spice factor.
As a Mexican, I was skeptical of paleo chicken mole, especially with the simplicity of this recipe for an infamously complex dish, but sometimes I long for a taste of my childhood so I set out to make some today. Honestly, I was not trying to get my hopes too high that it would taste like what my mom used to make even though it wasn’t from scratch (she would boil the chicken and put a spice mix called Doña Maria directly into the broth, only my nana still makes it from scratch). I boiled my chicken like my mom used to do but I only used some of the broth (instead of water/coconut milk) to get the thick consistency. I was so surprised to find this is very similar and absolutely delicious! Thank you so much for this recipe, it really hit the comfort food spot. I think I’m going to have to add it to the usual meal rotation!
First I want to thank you for sharing your recipes and for free. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Loved this recipe. Of course being Mexican, Mole is something I’ve ate all my life.
So with that said, this is what I changed. I cut the cayenne pepper to 1tsp (what a shame I can’t handle too much heat anymore), used Chicken Thighs, and Chicken Broth instead of Coconut Milk (i wanted more of an authentic Mexican Mole), and added some palm sugar (because I wanted the mole that’s sweet). I didn’t I use any cabbage instead I made Cauliflower Rice with a little chicken broth then sprinkled some salt and pepper. Then served my Mole over the rice……
This came out delicious. Even my daughter liked it. So again thank you for sharing.
Did this in a slow cooker.
and just sauted the cabbage separately.
the only variation was canned chipotle in a tomato sauce. was tasty!!!
Made this mole last night. Cut down on the spice cause of all the reviews, but ended up adding more cause I like some heat. Cut down on the cocoa, nut butter, and cinnamon cause I didn’t think I’d want my mole too sweet. It was delicious though! Nice, different flavor than what’s usually in rotation. I love the coconut milk addition. Made it nice and creamy.
Hi…how big of a can of tomatoes?
14 ounce