Arroz con Pollo on a bed of Mole
This recipe is the fusion of two Mexican legacy dishes. “Mole de Pollo” and Arroz con pollo”.
“Mole de Pollo” is a dish of chicken in mole sauce and accompanied with rice. Mole is considered the National dish of Mexico so it’s the star of this dish; the chicken is plain and unadorned. For me the best part of “Mole de Pollo” is mixing the rice with mole.
On the other hand, “Arroz con pollo” hallmarks the chicken in an appetizing combination of robustly flavored ingredients. This dish has it’s underpinnings in the Moorish influences on Spanish cuisine. There are many versions throughout Latin America and Spain.
This food idea came to me upon awaking one recent morning – serve arroz con pollo on a bed of mole. Let’s get started.
Ingredients
Serves 4
2 tablespoons cooking oil
4 -6 chicken thighs
1 ¼ teaspoons of salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ cup diced onion
½ cup red pimento in 1 inch strips
2 cloves garlic minced
1 ½ cups canned tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
2 cups chicken broth, or water
1 cup rice, preferably long-grain
Cilantro for garnish
Mole Ingredients
3 tablespoons store bought red mole paste
¾ cup chicken broth
Preparation- Arroz con Pollo
In a large, deep frying pan, heat the oil over moderately high heat. Season the chicken with 1/4 teaspoon each of the salt and pepper. Cook the chicken in batches, turning, until well browned, about 8 minutes in all. Remove and set aside. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the pan.
Reduce the heat to moderately low. Add the onion, and garlic to the pan and sauté, stirring occasionally, until the onion starts to soften, about 2 minutes. Add the pimento pepper strips and cook, stirring occasionally, until they start to soften, about 3 minutes longer.
Add the tomatoes, broth, and the remaining 1 ½ teaspoons salt and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper and bring to a simmer. Stir in the rice and add the chicken in an even layer. Simmer, partially covered, over moderately low heat until the chicken and rice are just done, 20 to 25 minutes.
Preparation Mole Negro
Place the mole paste in a sauté pan. Use a wooden spoon or stiff spatula to breakup the mole paste and add chicken broth in small amounts to achieve the consistency of pancake batter that slowly runs off the spoon. Simmer for 15 minutes, Set aside.
Plating the dish
Slowly pour 1/3 cup of mole on the dinner plate and very slowly swirl the plate to form a circle of sauce. Place the Arroz con Pollo over the bed of mole. Serve with fresh warm corn or flour tortillas.
Note
If you choose to omit the mole, add 1 cup of frozen peas. I didn’t include them above because I don’t think peas and mole flavors pair well.
Making your own mole is intimidating because it can include up to 20-30 ingredients and therefore it’s labor intensive to make from scratch. Fear not, because today there are excellent selections of good commercial moles, and that’s what I use in this recipe.
Buen Provecho
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