Oaxacan Mole Blanco

The most famous Oaxacan moles are the ones that require an intimidating number of ingredients plus hours of laborious toasting and grinding. At Aura Cocina Mexicana cooking school in Mexico City, instructor Graciela Montaño introduced us to the elegant, lesser-known mole blanco, or white mole, which comes together much more simply. Nuts, sesame seeds and fruit are the foundation of the sauce—not dried chilies—so the color is pale but the flavor is rich and nuanced. In her mole blanco, Montaño included a fresh güero chili, a variety difficult to source outside Mexico; for our adaptation, we use an habanero, seeded to tame its heat. Bread is the thickener here. Any type of basic, thin-crusted bread works well, from sandwich slices to a kaiser roll. Just make sure it’s neither squishy-soft nor stale to the point of dry and brittle. You will have some liquid left over from poaching the chicken; strain it, then reserve it for another use.