"Oaxaca's mole negro contains over 30 ingredients (dried chillies, chocolate, charred tortilla, plantain, spices) each toasted separately before grinding. The process takes two days."
About Mole Negro
Mexico's most complex sauce and its most revered culinary achievement: over 30 ingredients including mulato, ancho and pasilla negro dried chillies, Mexican chocolate, plantain, raisins, tomato, charred tortilla and spices toasted, soaked and ground into a paste, then simmered for hours; poured over turkey or chicken; a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Oaxacan cuisine.
Mole Negro, a staple of Mexico's cuisine
The Many Ingredients
Mole negro is Oaxaca's most complex sauce, built from dozens of ingredients: several kinds of dried chilli, Mexican chocolate, plantain, raisins, almonds, tomato, tomatillo, charred tortilla, sesame and a long list of spices. Each is toasted or prepared separately before everything is ground and simmered together. Made properly, it can take two days.
The Chocolate
The Mexican chocolate in mole negro is barely sweetened and there for bitterness and depth rather than sweetness. It thickens the sauce and adds a mineral, almost smoky undertone that ties the other flavours together. Without it the mole is incomplete, missing its defining note.
The Process
What makes mole negro so demanding is that nothing is shortcut: the chillies are toasted, sometimes to the edge of burning for the dark colour, the seeds and spices toasted apart, the tortilla charred, and all of it ground and cooked down slowly. The deep black colour comes from that careful, sometimes risky toasting. It is among the most labour-intensive sauces in the world.
Oaxaca's Pride
Mole negro is the most ambitious preparation of Oaxacan cooking, a region known for its many moles, and a point of real pride. It is festive and ceremonial food, traditionally served over turkey or chicken with rice and tortillas. Eaten at its source, it is layer upon layer of flavour, chilli heat, chocolate bitterness and fruit sweetness resolving together.
What to Expect
The mole negro arrives dark as night, almost black, poured over turkey or chicken on white rice. The first spoonful has depth upon depth: chilli heat building, chocolate bitterness arriving, the sweetness of raisin and plantain resolving it.
Why Try It
Mole negro is Mexican cooking's most ambitious preparation, the dish that takes the longest to make, contains the most components and produces the most complexity.
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Insider Tips
Oaxaca City's Mercado 20 de Noviembre serves reliable mole negro at market stalls.
The colour should be very dark, a brown mole negro has been under-reduced.
Order it over turkey (guajolote) if available, the traditional protein for mole negro.
