It has been a while since I attended the Caring Place Community Kitchen. The reason is most of the demonstrations in that kitchen had been blogged already from other kitchens. Minoo will make it a point to inform me if there is something new in Caring Place Community Kitchen so that I can blog about it. This time, we had Rosa to make Spanish dishes in the Caring Place Community Kitchen.

This is the first time I met Rosa. She is a very cheerful lady with great passion in cooking. Coming from Las Vegas, Rosa told us that the chicken and beef here tastes different from those in the United States. She still goes to the Bellingham Costco to get her meat which is also cheaper there. Rosa told us when she first moved here where her family got to stay in a hotel for 2 months, she lost 20lbs as she cant do her cooking. Once they settled down in a house, she gain back her weight. This is how much she enjoys her own cooking.

Rosa made this Chicken Mole which is her family’s favourite dish. You may cook this dish in the mole sauce or cook the chicken and the mole sauce separately. This way, the sauce will last longer in the refrigerator, like a few days. Otherwise, you have to freeze the chicken with the sauce if you have left over.

The most important ingredient for this Chicken Mole recipe is the Mole sauce. Mole is a Mexican condiments. It is made with cocoa, sesame seeds, chili pepper, peanut butter, sugar, spice, etc. Rosa told us that you can get Mole from Safeway. There are different flavours of Mole, like Adobo, etc but according to Rosa, the original Mole is the best.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs chicken pieces (Rosa used chicken thigh which is more flavourful)
• 1 can Mole
• 2 tablespoons peanut butter
• 6 to 8 pieces bay leaves
• 1/2 onion
• 1 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Place chicken and onion in a large pot and add enough water to cover the chicken. Bring it to a boil.

After the water comes to a boil and the release the scum, remove the scum with a ladle.

Add bay leaves and salt. Cover and let cook for 30 minutes or until the chicken is fully cooked.

To prepare the Mole sauce, open the can carefully as the mole will stain your clothes. Use a sharp knife to cut a ‘X’ into the mole so that you can get the mole out easily. Sometimes, the mole can be rather hard.

Cut up the mole into smaller pieces.

Add water or chicken stock (from pot where the chicken is cooking) to the mole in the ratio of 4 parts of liquid to 1 part of mole. If you intend to store the mole in the refrigerator for a few days, then you should just use water.

Use a potato masher to mash the mole so that it dissolves in the liquid.

Once the mole has dissolved completely, add the peanut butter and mix well. The addition of peanut butter is Rosa’s twist in the recipe. The peanut butter makes the sauce more nuttier and thicker. Place the sauce on the stove and cook on medium heat until the sauce thicken. You have to constantly stir the sauce while cooking to prevent burning. Serve the sauce over the chicken with Spanish Rice wihich I will blog later.