Easy Mole to Spice Up Your Holiday

Mole refers to a complex sauce in Mexican cuisine. There are several types of mole, but this is based on the most popular — mole poblano, a combination of chiles with a long list of other ingredients, including toasted bread and tortillas for thickening, nuts, spices and, in many versions including this one, chocolate — all ground together into a rich paste. It’s very common for Mexican home cooks to start with mole paste and make it their own, adding a bit of this and that in the process of heating it up and thinning it out into a sauce. This version starts with the most common, easy-to-find paste, Doña Maria. If you have access to a more artisanal mole paste, use that in its place.