Chicken Mole Poblano - February Recipes to Rival

Another month has passed and it's time to reveal what has been done for the February Recipes to Rival challenge. Our hostess this month was Temperama of High on the Hog. She selected a Tyler Florence recipe called Chicken Mole Poblano for the challenge. This is what she had to say about her selection:

"When I think of February, Valentines day, romance and chocolate springs to mind, So when looking for a recipe for this month I wanted something that shouted Valentines day at me. Mole, that fabulous savory chocolate pepper sauce does that for me. spicey and full of passion with the romance of chocolate and just as individual as those we love."

She went on to provide a wonderful backstory for her choice.

"The origin of mole poblano, the thick, rich, chocolate-tinged sauce made so famous in the colonial mountain city of Puebla, Mexico, is still disputed, and generally involves these two versions of the legend:

The first says that 16th Century nuns from the Convent of Santa Rosa in Puebla de los Angeles, upon learning that the Archbishop was coming for a visit, went into a panic because they had nothing to serve him. The nuns started praying desperately and an angel came to inspire them. They began chopping and grinding and roasting, mixing different types of chiles together with spices, day-old bread, nuts, a little chocolate and approximately 20 other ingredients..

This concoction boiled for hours and was reduced to the thick, sweet, rich and fragrant mole sauce we know today. To serve in the mole, they killed the only meat they had, an old turkey, and the strange sauce was poured over it. The archbishop was more than happy with his banquet and the nuns saved face. Little did they know they were creating the Mexican National dish for holidays and feasts, and that today, millions of people worldwide have at least heard of mole poblano.

The other legend states that mole came from pre-hispanic times and that Aztec king, Moctezuma, thinking the conquistadors were gods, served mole to Cortez at a banquet to receive them. This story probably gained credibility because the word mole comes from the Nahuatl word “milli” which means sauce or “concoction”. Another connection could be that chocolate was widely used in pre-Columbian Mexico, so people jumped to that conclusion.

Here is the recipe I chose (mainly for its simplicity and use of fairly common ingredients) please read the notes at the end and enjoy."

I made a few small changes to the recipe we were to use. I substituted skinned chicken thighs for the cut-up chicken called for in the recipe. I find that thighs hold up better to braising than other parts of the chicken. I lightly dusted them with seasoned flour to get them to brown. I also used canned, drained plum tomatoes in the sauce. The fresh ones available now just aren't very flavorful. Other than that, I used the recipe that follows. It's a nice chicken entree.

Chicken Mole Poblano
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence

Ingredients
Mole sauce:
2 dried ancho chilies, stemmed and seeded
2 dried anaheim chilies, stemmed and seeded
2 dried chipotle chilies, stemmed and seeded
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup whole almonds
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 cinnamon stick, preferably Mexican, broken in pieces
1 tablespoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
4 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 small onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 serrano peppers, stemmed and seeded
6 plum tomatoes, chopped
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, preferably Mexican, chopped

Chicken:
1 capon or large chicken, cut into 10 pieces
1 lemon, juiced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups chicken stock

Cilantro leaves, for garnish
Cooked white rice, for serving

Directions
For the mole: Tear the ancho, anaheim, and chipotle chiles into large pieces and toast them in a dry skillet over medium heat until they change color a bit, about 2 minutes. Put them into a bowl with the raisins and cover them with hot water. Soak unti softened, about 30 minutes. In the same skillet over medium heat, add the almonds, sesame seeds, peppercorns, cinnamon stick, oregano, and thyme. Toast for 2 minutes, grind in a spice grinder, and add the powder to a blender. In the same skillet over medium-high heat add the olive oil, onions, garlic, and serrano. Cook until lightly browned, then add the tomatoes. Cook until vegetables are softened, about 10 to 15 minutes, then add to the blender. Add the chocolate and the soaked chiles and raisins to the blender along with some of the chile soaking liquid. Puree, adding more soaking liquid as needed, to make a smooth sauce. (This makes about 4 cups sauce, the recipe uses 2 cups, the extra can be frozen).

Pour the lemon juice over the chicken and season it well with salt and pepper. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed skillet and brown the chicken on all sides; remove the browned chicken to a plate leaving the oil in the pan. Pour 2 cups of the mole sauce into the hot skillet and simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and return the chicken pieces to the pan. Simmer, covered, until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 to 25 minutes.

Serve over cooked white rice. Garnish everything with cilantro leaves.

Notes (from Temperama):
"I realize that all palates and shopping centers are not created equal, so feel free to mix and match your peppers to suite. You can look up how hot diffrent peppers are here (Scoville scale). I skipped the serrrano on mine and while the sauce was good it was definitly missing something, so keep in mind it is important for your sauce to have a bit of bite.

The sauce is perfectly edible before the final step of adding the chicken broth (or veggie) so give it a taste and change it up as needed for your taste buds.

This sauce is suppose to be smooth, and barring commercial equipment, we are just not going to achieve that perfectly smooth texture, so don't be afraid to blend the heck out of everything.

For those not familar with Mexican chocolate, like Ibarra, it is grainy with cocoa nibs, sugar and cinnamon. While delicious it is not the same as your regular baking chocolate.

Don't forget when working with peppers use care, wash your hands well and frequently and wear gloves, pepper juice in your eye or up your nose is not fun."

Coq au Vin - Recipes to Rival

What Les Halles is the Recipes to Rival challenge of the month? It's Anthony Bourdain's version of coq au vin. He describes this dish as "an old, tough bird that you have to drown in wine to get to taste good." Unfortunately, there's more to it than that. There are several disparate steps to this recipe. There is, of course, the braising of the chicken, but the completed dish is enhanced by separate preparations of onions and mushrooms that require special care. The end product can be quite lovely. My problem? My culinary skills, whatever they are, were honed in the 70's and early 80's of the last century. That means I've made a lot of coq au vin and have some very firm opinions as to how it should be prepared. The hard part was keeping my changes to a minimum and preparing the recipe as it was written. I think I did fairly well. Change number one; the recipe called for a stewing hen. Local butchers laughed at me, so I used a 3-1/2 pound free range chicken. Change number two; I substituted a good shiraz for the burgundy wine that's normally used because I prefer to drink shiraz. Change number three; I added a quantity of thick (almost jelly-like) chicken stock to cover the chicken as it braised. Change number four; I increased the amount of bacon used in the recipe to 6-ounces, but blanched the lardons before adding them to the pot. Change number five; I used thawed, frozen pearl onions instead of fresh. My family can deftly move onions from one side of the plate to another before burying them under chicken bones, so the onions are just for show and I refuse to kill myself preparing them. Change number six; I added 1 tablespoon of tomato paste to kill the purple color of the wine that caused the chicken to look black and blue. I also reduce the sauce by half before napping the chicken and vegetables. Technically, when a young chicken is used to replace the stewing hen the dish should be called braised chicken, not coq au vin. I'll never forget how the use of a young bird offended Andre Soltner when he judged a Top Chef episode. If you have time and would like to prepare coq au vin in the classical manner, you'll love this recipe. It is delicious, but it does take time that includes a 24 hour marination. My changes can be identified by red print. The original recipe can be found at Recipes to Rival. This months challenge is being hosted by founders Temperance of High on the Hog and Lori of Lipsmacking Goodness.

Coq au Vin from the Les Halles Cookbook, by Anthony Bourdain

Ingredients:
1 bottle/1 liter plus 1 cup/225 ml of red wine - I used Rosemont shiraz
1 onion, cut into a 1-inch/2.5 cm dice
1 carrot, cut into ¼-inch/6-mm slices
1 celery rib, cut into ½ inch/1-cm slices
4 whole cloves
1 tbs/14 g whole black peppercorns
1 bouquet garni - a bay leaf, 3 sprigs of thyme and 4 sprigs parsley tied in a large coffee filter
1 tablespoon tomato paste
2 to 3 cups reduced chicken stock
1 whole chicken, about 3.5 lb/1.35 kg, “trimmed” – meaning guts, wing tips and neckbone removed

salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tbs/28 ml olive oil
6 tbs/75 g butter, softened
1 tbs/14 g flour
¼ lb/112 g lardons - I used 6-oz. blanched lardons
½ lb/ 225 g small, white button mushrooms, stems removed
12 pearl onions, peeled - I used 1 cup thawed, frozen pearl onions
pinch of sugar

Directions:
1) The day before beginning to cook, combine the bottle of red wine, the diced onion, sliced carrots, celery, cloves, peppercorns, and bouquet garni in a large deep bowl. Add the chicken and submerge it in the liquid so that all of it is covered. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
2) Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Remove the chicken from the marinade and pat it dry. Put it aside. Strain the marinade through the fine strainer, reserving the liquids and solids separately. Season the chicken with salt and pepper inside and out. In the large Dutch oven, heat the oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter until almost smoking, and then sear the chicken, turning it with the tongs to evenly brown it. Once browned, it should be removed from the pot and set it aside again. Add the reserved onions, celery, and carrot to the pot and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and mix well with the wooden spoon so that the vegetables are coated. Now stir in the reserved strained marinade. Stir in tomato paste. Put the chicken back in the pot, along with the bouquet garni. Add thick chicken broth to cover chicken. Bring to a simmer; cover pot and bake for 1 hour and ten minutes.
3) While chicken braises in oven, cook the bacon lardons in the small sauté pan over medium heat until golden brown. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain it on paper towels, making sure to keep about 1 tablespoon/14 g of fat in the pan. Saute the mushroom tops in the bacon fat until golden brown. Set them aside. Now, in the small saucepan, combine the pearl onions, the pinch of sugar, a pinch of salt, and 2tablespoons/28 g of butter. Add just enough water to just cover the onions; then cover the pan with the parchment paper trimmed to the same size of the pan. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until the water has evaporated. Keep a close eye on it. Remove the paper cover and continue to cook until the onions are golden brown. Set the onions aside and add the remaining cup/225 ml of red wine along with salt and pepper and reduce over medium-high heat until thick enough to coat the back of the spoon.
4) When the chicken is cooked through – meaning tender, the juice from the thigh running clear when pricked – carefully remove from the liquid, cut into quarters, and arrange on the deep serving platter. Strain the cooking liquid (again). Return to a pan and cook until sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon. Add reduced red wine. Add the bacon, mushrooms, and pearl onions, adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, and swirl in the remaining 2 tablespoons/28 g of butter. Pour sauce over the chicken. Yield: 4 servings.

Beet Leaf Holopchi

Beet Leaf Holopchi

I recently had the privilege of joining a group called Recipes to Rival. This months challenge is hosted by KatBaro at A Good Appetite and Giz and Psychgrad at Equal Opportunity Kitchen. The purpose of the goup is to explore the world of uncommon savories. Each month the group collectively works on a recipe chosen by one of its members. This months experiment was Beet Leaf Holopchi, a Ukranian dish in which beet leaves are stuffed with a bread dough, then cooked and served in a creamy sauce with onion, garlic and dill. As you can already tell, this is not an ordinary cabbage roll. And I must say I was grateful for the support the group offers to its members. The original recipe makes enough holopchi to feed an army. One of the members rescaled the recipe for those of us with smaller families. Quantity taken care of, I moved on to the wrappers for the bread dough. The beet leaves in my market were way past their prime so I decided to use red chard, hoping that I'd be able to retain the gorgeous red striping of the leaves in the original photo I had seen. The leaves were tough so I microwaved them for a few seconds to soften them a bit before filling. The last item to deal with was the sauce and when it should be used. Some folks were going to cook the leaves in the sauce, others were going to use it to sauce the finished product. I planned to use it as a sauce. How did it all turn out? It was an adventure to be sure. I found the holopchi to be bland but could see how they might be made more tasty if they had cooked in a sauce or a lower calorie broth. I'm really glad I tried this recipe, but I would not make it again. I love this kind of exercise. You win some, you lose some, but in the course of trying something new you learn and meet new people who share your passion for food. How great is that?