Bonus question: is [this recipe](https://www.feastingathome.com/mole-negro/#tasty-recipes-47765-jump-target) actually mole negro, or is it more poblano? From what I can tell, they have basically the same ingredients!
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Context: I recently returned to the UK from a holiday in Los Angeles, and in one burrito place I went to, I tried mole negro – and fell in love with it. Now that I’m back home, I want to make it! I’ve managed to get some ancho, guajillo and pasilla chiles, along with a can of chipotles adobados. The rest of the ingredients I can get easily here.
But when I look up recipes, I get confused between mole negro and poblano, because they seem so similar! I definitely want to make the negro version, because that’s what I had in the restaurant.
Edit: Thank you everyone! I certainly learned a lot about moles and Mexican cuisine. I also learned that it’s probably much easier for me to buy jars of premade mole here in the UK than the ingredients to make it myself – and that’s before all the effort of actually making it!
by Poes-Lawyer
11 Comments
Mole Poblano is the traditional mole from the state of Puebla. Mole Negro is one of the traditional 7 moles from the state of Oaxaca.
Mole Negro gets its deep brown/black color from charring all the chiles and vegetables used to prepare it. Mole poblano gets its color from the ingredients used to make it. Ingredients for both of the are quite similar (both have chocolate, almonds, sesame seeds, etc…), the main difference is the chiles used to make them.
The recipe you linked is an americanized version of mole (we don’t use peanut butter or chipotle in mole negro, its missing tomatoes and we never eeeever use maple syrup to sweeten food ) and it seems to me that the result will be most similar to a mole poblano than a mole negro.
That recipe is taco bell mole negro, but I guess the ingredients are easily available in the US. We don’t use agave nectar, no one I know uses chipotle en adobo, you could use peanut butter since it’s toasted and ground peanuts (or tahini or both). The chillies are very recipe specific, it’s not “pick a color”. IDK but try ordering mole paste online, you can still “fix it” with several different ingredients but the taste is already there and there are several varieties.
main difference is the ingredients and charred tortillas. the hue is made with burnt tortillas and it’s used with avocado leaves and oaxacan peppers. but also some places in oaxaca won’t use oaxacan peppers and use the same peppers made with mole poblano.
One demands reparations for slavery the other one is savory.
Mucho
Proper Mole negro has a LOT of ingredients and it’s very time consuming. I’d reccomend you to buy mole paste instead of trying to cook that yourself.
Easy poblano it’s sweet and mole negro (oaxaqueño) it’s bitter
Word of advice to you and anyone looking for authentic Mexican recipes, if the recipe asks for chili powder or is written by a white person (except Diana Kennedy) then it’s not authentic. I give Diana a huge pass because she spent most of her life researching Mexican food. Not from fancy Mexican chefs, but from Mexican mothers. The core of our cuisine.
Gabacho here. A classmate brought me some me his grandmother from Oaxaca made without chocolate. It was hot 🥵 but good.
The flavor is different because they have some different ingredients.
https://thetakeout.com/beginners-guide-to-mexican-mole-sauce-1830428653#:~:text=Poblano%20is%20very%20similar%20to,one%20of%20Mexico's%20national%20dishes.
I had the most amazing mole, made by my BIL’s MIL. It was rich dark brown, almost black, more picante than sweet, and with the most silky texture. Some times mole seems a little sticky, too rich and sweet. I could eat this mole by the bowl. She sent a batch home with me, but my SIL stole it lol!