POSTED IN: Recipes , Main Courses
TAGS: Ancho , Chicken , Chile , Chili , Food , Mexican , Mole , Pepper , Pumpkin , Recipe , Seeds
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You can do fabulous things with pumpkins aside from spooky faces and pumpkin pie... Just ask any Mexican. We have a way with pumpkins.

Native to Mexico, pumpkins have been devoured there for centuries, in their entirety. The seeds are addicting as snacks, used as a hefty base for salsas, soups and sauces and more recently sprinkled on top of many dishes. The pumpkin meat is used for soups and stews, and along with the entire rind cooked in a piloncillo syrup, becoming a traditional favorite known as Tacha.

Yet there is something else you can make with those fall pumpkins: Mole!

An easy to make, silky textured and exquisite tasting mole sauce, that can bathe anything you can think of. From chicken to meat, fish, seafood and veggies; it all goes beautifully swaddled in it. I like it mostly with chicken or turkey, which is how I am most used to eating thick and rich Mole sauces....

So that you can try it too, here it goes. 

As simple as it is to make, it uses two ancient and crucial techniques of Mexican cooking that enhance the flavors of the ingredients and bring a ton of personality to a dish: charring and toasting.

 

First the onion and garlic take a quick turn under the broiler to be charred. Their sharp, crisp and pungent flavors become transformed...
 

 

...as if their alter ego came out to show depth and sweetness. While at the same time becoming a bit rustic.

Then the ancho chiles, almonds, cinnamon, allspice and whole cloves take a turn either in a skillet or comal, to lightly toast.

 

Toasting them intensifies and deepens their flavor, it releases new aromas and adds a kind of warmth to the dish.
 

 

As the chiles have been dried for a long time, aside from giving them a light toast, you need to rehydrate them and plump them back to life. And it takes just 10 minutes of soaking them in a hot bath. 

 

Then you also use that water from the chile bath, as it has some of the intense flavors and colors of the chiles, as well as the chiles to make the Mole Sauce.

Then everything in the blender goes!

 

If you used True or Ceylon cinnamon, puree it along with the rest of the ingredients. As it is light and thin, it crumbles and purees easily. It is gentle and kind to the blades of the blender. If you only found the hard Cassia kind, use it to simmer in the mole sauce further on.

 

Then you add it all along with the pumpkin puree in a big pot. You can use already made pumpkin puree from the store...

Or make your own pumpkin puree with those extra pumpkins that are sitting on your front porch... Making the puree is pretty simple: Quarter the pumpkin, remove the seeds and fibers, roast in the oven at 400 ºF until soft and process the pumpkin meat in a blender of food processor until smooth.

After you simmer the pumpkin puree along with the ancho chile puree (that has the charred and toasted ingredients), it will look like this. Incredibly rich, just like its flavor.

 

You can make the Pumpkin and Ancho Chile Mole ahead of time, and just heat it when you are ready to serve it.

Topping it with toasted pumpkin seeds makes the dish all the more fabulous.  You can taste it already, right?

 

ANCHO CHILE AND PUMPKIN MOLE

Mole de Chile Ancho y Calabaza

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS

1/2 white onion, peeled, charred or broiled

6 garlic cloves, charred or broiled, peeled

3 ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and opened

1/4 cup slivered almonds

5 whole cloves

1/2 stick , about 1 inch, true or Ceylon cinnamon (or substitute for 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon)

8 whole allspice berries

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 15 oz can pumpkin puree (about 1 3/4 cup)

2 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt, or more to taste

1 tablespoon brown sugar, or more to taste

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted

TO PREPARE

Place the onion and garlic in a baking sheet under the broiler. Char for 9 to 10 minutes, flipping once in between. Once they are soft and charred, remove from the heat. When the garlic is cool, peel. 

In an already hot skillet or comal set over medium-low heat, toast the ancho chiles for about 15 to 20 seconds per side, until they brown and crisp without burning. Place toasted ancho chiles in a bowl covered with boiling water. Soak for 10 to 15 minutes until they are plumped up and rehydrated.

In the same skillet or comal, toast the cloves and all spice until aromatic, about a minute. Remove from the heat. Toast the almonds and cinnamon, stirring often, until lightly browned, 4 to 5 minutes.

Place the onion, garlic, chiles, 1/2 cup of chile soaking liquid, almonds, cloves, cinnamon and allspice in the blender and puree until smooth.

In a soup pot or casserole, heat the oil and pour the pureed mixture over medium heat. Add the salt and sugar. Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring frequently to help prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom of the pan. The color will darken considerably.

Add the pumpkin puree and chicken broth to the sauce. Stir well until the pumpkin puree has dissolved, it will have a silky consistency. Continue to cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Use the mole sauce to pour over grilled, broiled or boiled chicken, meat or fish. Sprinkle with toasted pumpkin seeds for some added flavor and crunch. 

Thank you for the fun ideas!! We have just moved to Arizona and I will share your name and web site with all my new friends!! happy holidays!!

Pati? Fragon!! this looks great!! (I'm diabetic can I leave out the sugar you think? Pumpkin is supposed to be good for diabetics by the way. jccampb

Hola Pati, I love all of your recipes and the dishes that you prepare, my question, can I use ground allspice instead of the berries? and how much, my famila want me to prepare this dish we all love pumpkin too. hope you have a great Halloween weekend. thank you

Hi, this recipe is fabulous! I love all of your Mexican and Hispanic recipes that you've posted for National Hispanic Heritage Month. I enjoyed this super original recipe using pumpkin for mole, so much that I shared it with my readers with a link back to you. I look forward to more wonderful food photos and recipes from you in the future. Best, Maria

Many thanks Danny! Yes, you can use ground allspice instead... I would do a pinch. Have a great Halloween weekend to!

Good! Yes you can leave out the sugar for sure... but you may want to add something that you can use instead, it does beg for a bit of sweetener...

Tried this for on top of roasted turkey breast. It smelled wonderful during the toasting stages on the hot dry skillet. My blender is mediocre quality, so I had to strain it to get rid of the bits of dried chile skin, and because of this, I added the liquid to the chile/spice puree before heating everything. Maybe that was a mistake? It ended up needing something...a sour note, I decided, and I added some lime juice, which improved it, but still, it wasn't as amazing as the initial aromas...

I am so excited to get your cookbook! Do you know when it will be published? I enjoy your show.

This is a great light mole - good for around my house because I'm the only one who likes the really dark moles. My only suggestion is to put the toasted spices into the coffee mill and grind them up really fine before adding to the blender. My blender didn't do a real good job on the cloves and cinnamon.

Hola Melissa, I do not know the exact date yet. Once I do, I will be sure to let everyone know! :)

Hola pati.Lo que haces es impresionante con tan pocos ingredientes!Y tan simple pero con mucho sabor.Esta SI ES comida mexicana.Nacida aqui,en E.U.,de padres mexicanos jamas habia visto algo como lo que tu haces.Vemos tacos duros,cheese dip,etc.Pero nada cercano a lo que Mexico realmente es.Yo estoy muy orgullosa de ser mexicana y voy aprendiendo mucho de mi cultura gracias a ti.Es hermoso nunca olvidar la patria de uno,y de donde vienen las raices de uno.Mil gracias de nuevo. :)

I'm going to love this! I had an abundant Hubbard crop this year and am constantly looking for good ways to use it. Mexican dish and pumpkin can only turn out great. I wonder how to much ANcho powder to use though as that's all I can find in Germany. Bye, Susanne

Hola Susanne, I would say about 1 tsp ancho powder per ancho chile. But, I would add 1 tsp at a time and test before adding more, because sometimes the powder is much more concentrated than the chiles. I hope you enjoy! :)

Thanks for your quick reply. Tomorrow will be Pumpkin Roasting Day.
Tschüss sagt Susanne

Pati, thank you so much for posting this pumpkin mole...I thought it sounded so good I immediatly double the recipee to freeze some for the fall..it just finished cooking and it tastes delicious! I had some super dried Anchos, so they didn't rehydrate as well as yours did and so the sauce is more black then reddisch, but tasty never the less

Hola, Chantal. I'm so glad your pumpkin mole turned out delicious...no matter what the color. What a great idea to make a big batch and freeze!

Hola Pati: this recipe sounds deliciosa , so I'm making it this weekend for my family, every time I see you on t.v. I feel like home, full of memories of my childhood in Mexico. Thank you for showcasing the real Mexican food..
Cristina S.

Pati,
I am so excited that I found your show. I am third generation mexican, but my grandmother really didn't pass our culture along to my father, and our family, so I am trying to re-learn Mexican culture. I have wanted smoe REAL mexican recipes, not tacos and burritos, but cousine. I tried the pumpkin mole, and my wife said it was the best meal I've made for her in the 10 years we've been together. I absolutely loved it!
Thank you, and keep the recipes coming!!
~ Bill

Hola Bill, I love your story about making the pumpkin mole for your wife! Thank you so much for sharing it with me. I hope you will try more of my recipes. All the best to you.