The Specific Chocolate You Need For Your Mole

If you ask someone what is in mole sauce, you'll probably receive ten different answers. This particular sauce comes from Mexico, with over 50 varieties coming from numerous different regions around the country. No answer is necessarily wrong — some mole recipes call for 30 ingredients, while others have around 100. Either way, mole always features dried chilis, a diverse blend of spices, nuts, seeds, and sometimes dried fruit. One key ingredient in many recipes that contributes to the richness of the sauce is chocolate, particularly Mexican chocolate.

While chocolate is not a common ingredient included in savory dishes and sauces, in a mole sauce, it's not intended to provide sweetness. Instead, it helps impart a creamy, silky texture, and balance out some of the spicy and bitter flavors in the sauce. Mexican chocolate, which traditionally comes packaged as a disc shape, has a coarser texture and is less sweet than an average supermarket chocolate bar. It is typical to find spices in Mexican chocolate like cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, or chili.

When melted into the mole, Mexican chocolate dissolves easily and helps develop a velvety texture. The spices present in the chocolate naturally pair well with other hot ingredients in the sauce. The cacao in the chocolate adds depth of flavor, and the sugar is needed to enhance and balance the other spices. Mexican chocolate can be found in some grocery stores, in specialty Hispanic grocery stores, and online. Popular Brands on Amazon include Ibarra and Taza.

If it's proving difficult to secure Mexican chocolate, other types of chocolate can be used in mole sauce. A common and easy-to-find option is a dark chocolate bar (milk chocolate will be too sweet and creamy). Dark chocolate will provide the deep chocolate flavor without a lot of added sugar, allowing better control over the mole's sweetness. If using super dark chocolate, about 80% cacao content or above, you'll likely need to balance it out with an addition of sugar.

Unsweetened cacao or cocoa powder can also work but it lacks the fat (in the form of cocoa butter) found in a chocolate bar, which can change the texture and reduce the richness of the sauce. A bit of butter can help smooth things out. Like a dark chocolate bar, cacao powder will need some sugar to balance out the bitterness. Both options can be complemented with a grating of piloncillo, a raw cane sugar found in Mexican cuisine.

To make a mole free of chocolate, choose a mole recipe like mole verde or mole amarillo. Whichever recipe you chose, consider using your slow cooker to make the mole, as its low and slow cooking method helps deepen the nuanced flavors. For a drinking pairing to go alongside your mole, try tequila.