Holy Mole

chicken mole

This recipe is only good for those living in the Nashville area, or where you can get the appropriate ingredients. There are a couple ingredients that you can only get in Atlanta and Nashville, so those living in other areas, you are SOL.

1. Grilled Chicken - Carniceria San Luis 369 Harding Place

2. Red Mole - Zocalo Salsa brand in the fresh fridge food section Whole Foods Nashville

3. Crema Agria - with sodium content 60 - 85 mg

5. White Onion

5. Cojita - Cheese crumble

6. Garlic - biodynamic Barefoot Farmer

7. Water - filter Cumberland River water from my tap

8. Corn Tortilla - Freshly made Dona Mari tortillas in the cooler in the back of the store

Method

Warm tortillas in the oven while making the topping

1. Sautee onions and garlic until onions are soft

2. Add mole and water to a nice consistency

3. Shred chicken into the mole

4. Lay out warm tortillas on a cookie sheet

5. Put a layer of the chicken mole on top of each tortilla

7. Sprinkle Cojita cheese on top

8. Heat the tortillas as desired

9. Remove from the oven and top with crema and enjoy

Notes:

1. The grilled chicken, for those who have driven down Harding Rd in the Antioch area of Nashville has seen BBQ grills rolling smoke and aroma from 369 Harding Place around the building that houses Linbar Market and San Luis meat market. The grilled chicken here is relatively inexpensive, had the right spices on it, and the right amount of grilled flavor you want. Rotisserie chicken will not do this dish justice. What you do is go into the San Luis meat market door (northeast corner of the building) and go to the counter closest to Harding Pl and order your prepared Grilled Chicken. The aroma in the car will make your mouth water. If you want to grill the chicken yourself, I have no idea what spices San Luis uses, so I can't help with that, but I am sure home grilled chicken with S&P, garlic, paprika, annato, and ancho and other appropriate spices will suffice for the seasoning.

2. Go to either Cool Springs or Nashville Whole Foods and go to the fridge section where there are guacs, salsas, and now this Zocalo mole. Zocalo is a little restaurant in Atlanta owned by the Martinez family, and they make their own salsas and red mole. The red mole takes half a day, about 12 hours to make. It has a variety of fruit, seeds and chili peppers in it, producing a really complex and lovely sweet, heat, umami, and earthy flavor. This is the best mole I have tasted since coming back from Mexico 5 years ago. There is no good mole I have tasted in Nashville until now. Zocalo Salsa brand red mole is not distributed widely, only in Atlanta, and now the 2 Whole Food stores in the Nashville area. Zocalo THANK YOU!

3. Invest time in getting good fresh tortillas in this town. There are stores in Nashville including La Hacienda and Dona Mari which makes fresh corn tortillas everyday. They are usually in a blue or red cooler, a stack wrapped in paper, and they are usually still warm. The flavor and texture of these tortillas will reward your taste buds. Do not get those pre-packed, shelf stable ones from conventional grocery stores because the taste and texture will make you frown.

4. The crema needs to be Crema Agria with a sodium content of 60 - 80 mg per serving. Do not use conventional grocery store sour cream or Greek yogurt because those two are not the right consistency and are too acrid for this dish. The only acceptable crema would be the one you make at home starting with whole cream.

5. The cotija cheese is a semi-stiff white cheese good for crumbling like a nabsuli cheese. I would try to find cotija for this dish, and can be found in any fridge section at any Mexican market. I would not use highly flavored cheese like jack, cheddar, or romano, as this dish is more delicate than that.