Mole verde

Mexico is a country of thousands of delicious sauces and green mole (mole verde) is one of them. Traditionally, this is made with herbs and greens, while the sauce is known as "pipián" with nuggets and other ground seeds. This recipe uses both seeds (pumpkin seed) and green leaves. It requires many ingredients, but the technique is simple. Arturo Morales from Melbourne restaurant Los Amates talks us through how to prepare this versatile sauce.

• serves

  6

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  1:30 hour

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 whole chicken
• 1 carrot
• 4 celery stalks
• 1 onion, peeled, halved, plus ½ large onion, extra
• 250 g pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
• 1 head lettuce (cos works well)
• 1 bunch radish, leaves only
  
• 1 bunch fresh coriander, plus extra, chopped, to serve
• 1 can green tomatillos
• 8 jalapeños chillies
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 lime

Instructions

Put the chicken in a large pot and cover with water. Add the carrot, celery and onion and bring to a simmer. Cover the pan. Cook for around 1 hour 15 minutes (depending on the size of the chicken), until the chicken is cooked through. You might need to top the water up to keep the chicken submerged.

Roast the pepitas for about 5 minutes in a dry pan or in the oven at 180°C on a baking tray with no oil. Once they’re roasted, set aside to cool and place in a blender or food processor and grind to a fine powder.

Wash and dry the lettuce leaves and radish leaves. Blend these with the coriander, tomatillos, chillies, extra onion and garlic, adding a ladle or two of the chicken stock from the pot to get a thick sauce.

Put the mixture in a pan and add the pumpkin seed powder to achieve the consistency desired, adding more ladles of stock if necessary to keep the sauce runny. Stir until it thickens and add salt at the end.

Remove the chicken from the pot and divide into individual servings: breast, wings, thighs.

Serve a portion of the cooked chicken covered with the mole sauce and top with extra coriander. Add a few drops of lime to finish.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.