Yellow Mole with Chicken

Of the seven types of Oaxacan mole, yellow mole, or mole amarillo, is one of the lightest and brightest in flavor. It’s also one of the easiest to make and is adaptable, pairing well with different meats, seafood and vegetables. The color of the sauce often is orangey-red rather than yellow; this is because the variety of dried yellow chili traditionally used to make the dish is hard to source outside of Oaxaca, so more widely available dried red chilies, such as guajillo, are used instead. We char tangy tomatillos, savory-sweet plum tomato and fragrant alliums, then blend them with the softened chilies to form the flavor base. Masa, the dough used to make corn tortillas, or masa harina, the corn flour often used to make masa, is the typical thickener for yellow mole; in addition to body, it brings sweet, minerally notes. For ease, we thicken ours with corn tortillas that have been briefly softened in the chicken broth, then pureed.