This mole sauce substitutes chayote and asparagus for the potatoes to modify it to a low carb dish. Easy, bright and medium spicy, mole amarillo is one of the 7 popular moles from Oaxaca.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Do not add oil to the skillet because you will be toasting ingredients rather than sautéing.
First add all the dried chile peppers to the skillet and cook 2-3 minutes over medium-high heat, turning once. Remove from skillet and place on cutting board. Let them cool a bit and then cut peppers in half lengthwise and remove seeds. Place in a bowl and pour enough boiling water over the peppers to cover. Let them soak (rehydrate) for about 10 minutes.
While peppers are soaking, toast the peppercorns, cloves and cumin seeds for 1-2 minutes or until just fragrant. Remove from skillet and grind up in a spice grinder until finely ground.
In the skillet, cook the tomatillos, tomato and onion about 7 minutes or until charred, turning occasionally. Add the garlic for the last minute or so. Remove everything from heat, let everything cool. Then peel the tomatillos and tomato. *note: you can put the tomatillos and tomato in a paper bag and close it up so that they steam for around 5 minutes. This will make them easier to peel.
Drain the chile peppers (reserving the chile water) and add the peppers, peeled tomatillos, tomato and onion to a food processor and process until smooth. Add the toasted spices and process until combined.
In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high and add the processed pepper mixture and salt and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes.
1 tablespoons olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt
In a small bowl whisk together the water and corn meal and add to the simmering pepper mixture. Cook briefly until it reaches a low boil.
2 tablespoons cold water, 2 teaspoons masa harina
In a 6-quart Dutch oven, bring the 4 cups chicken broth to a boil. Add the chicken thighs and reduce the heat. Cover the pot and simmer about 15 minutes. Then add the chayote and asparagus. Simmer, covered 10-15 more minutes until chayote is tender.
4 cups chicken broth, 6 large chicken thighs, 1 medium chayote, 1 bunch fresh asparagus
To serve: Transfer the chicken thighs and vegetables to a plate with a slotted spoon (unless you want more of a soup) and spoon the mole over the chicken and vegetables. Garnish with cilantro if desired.
cilantro
Notes
HOW TO PEEL AND CUT THE CHAYOTE SQUASHThough chayote can be consumed raw and with the peel on, removing the peel and cooking the chayote helps to make it softer and more palatable.To prepare chayote for the chicken mole recipe below, you need to peel off the skin, usually with a common vegetable peeler. It can then be cut into different sized pieces, depending on what you are making. Most often you can cut the fruit down the middle and then cut the halves into quarters. This makes it easy to remove the large seeds by scraping it out with a knife or spoon.