Sure, this isn’t the most authentic mole sauce recipe in town, but it’s definitely one of the simplest. Our easy mole sauce tastes great, too, with earthy flavors like you’d expect: cinnamon, cocoa powder, brown sugar, and more. It’s perfect over chicken and enchiladas, or try mixing it with eggs or drizzled over fries for a deliciously earthy treat. It’s also a great steak marinade for an earthy grilled meal.
🌶️ Quick recipe snapshot
| Flavor profile | Earthy and deep before it’s anything else. Cocoa, cinnamon and cloves over browned onion, tomato and ancho, with peanut butter for body |
| Primary heat source | A quarter cup of chili powder plus a teaspoon of ancho powder, spread across 32 servings |
| Heat level | Mild. Ancho runs 1,000 to 1,500 SHU, two to eight times milder than a jalapeño, and there’s very little of it per spoonful |
| Texture | Rustic. Nothing gets blended, so the onion and tomato stay in pieces |
| Best uses | Over chicken and enchiladas, stirred through eggs, or as a steak marinade |
| How long it takes | Forty minutes, and most of that is the sauce simmering without you |
Flavor notes
Ancho is a dried poblano, and drying changes it completely. Fresh, a poblano tastes green and vegetal. Dried, it’s earthy and sweet with a bit of raisin and coffee behind it, and that’s why it shows up in nearly every mole there is. There’s only a teaspoon of ancho powder in this one, so most of the chili flavor comes from the quarter cup of regular chili powder alongside it.
The peanut butter is the smart shortcut here. Traditional mole gets its body from nuts and seeds, usually almonds, peanuts, sesame and pumpkin seeds, toasted and ground down. That’s a fair bit of work just for texture, and it’s the step most people skip. Three tablespoons of peanut butter gets you most of the way in one step, and peanuts belong in mole anyway.
Three tablespoons of cocoa across 32 servings won’t make this taste like chocolate, and it shouldn’t. Cocoa in mole rounds off the chilies and puts a little bitterness underneath them. If you’ve only ever heard mole described as chocolate sauce, that’s the part people get wrong.
This one never gets blended, so the onions stay chopped and the tomatoes stay diced. You’ll end up with something rustic rather than the glossy sauce you’d get in a restaurant. That’s deliberate, and it’s half the reason it’s quick. If you’d rather have it smooth, a stick blender at the end sorts it in twenty seconds.
Adaptation ideas
If you keep your spice rack well-stocked, the majority of ingredients you likely already have. Ancho chili powder can be found in many grocery stores — just look for the gourmet spices on the store shelves. They may, instead, carry ancho peppers , and from there, it’s simple to grind down the dried pepper into a powder for this recipe.
- Use whole anchos: Toast two or three dried ancho peppers, soak them in hot water for twenty minutes, then blend them in. More work, but you’ll taste it.
- Bring in the other two: Mulato and pasilla are the rest of the traditional trio, and all three sit in the same earthy family. A teaspoon of either alongside the ancho gets you closer to the real thing.
- Real Mexican chocolate: Swap the cocoa for an ounce of it. Cinnamon and sugar are already in there, so pull the cinnamon and brown sugar back a little if you do.
- Make it hotter: It’s a mild sauce as written. One chipotle pepper, chopped fine, adds heat and smoke without pulling it off course.
- Skip the peanuts: Sunflower seed butter or tahini instead. Same body, different background.
Serving ideas
It thickens as it sits, so loosen it with a splash of water or stock before it goes anywhere near a plate.
- Over roasted vegetables: Sweet potato and cauliflower especially. The earthiness suits both.
- As a braise: Thin it out, then cook chicken thighs or pork shoulder in it low and slow.
- On rice and beans: A spoonful over a bowl of either, and you’ve got dinner.
- Stirred into soup: It turns a plain black bean soup into something worth a second bowl.
Storage notes
Five days in the fridge in a sealed jar, and it’s better on day two once the spices have settled into it. It freezes well. Freeze it flat in a bag, or in an ice cube tray if you want it in single spoonfuls. It’ll thicken up cold either way. A splash of water or stock over low heat brings it back.
Like mole? You’ll love these recipes too:
- Black Bean Mole Soup: Black beans and mole are such a natural pairing. It just works.
- Pumpkin Mole Sauce: Flavors of fall pair up with earthy mole, and it’s a delicious way to ring in the season.
- Smoky Mole Bitters: One of our favorite ways to bring a cocktail to life.
50 quick, bold sauces and salsas: classic salsas and fun twists, BBQ sauces with a kick, and dippers with bang. Simple to make, big on flavor.
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Easy Mole Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 can diced tomatoes 15 ounce
- 2 onions chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups water
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons peanut butter
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ancho powder
- 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- Pinch of ground cloves
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
- Add the chopped onions and cook, stirring often, until the onions are brown. Approximately 10 minutes.
- Add the chili powder, ancho chili powder, brown sugar, garlic, cinnamon, and cloves and stir for 1 minute, until the mix is fragrant.
- Add the tomatoes, peanut butter, cocoa powder, and water. Stir to combine.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the sauce, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
- Serve.
