Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce

Or we could just get real and call it what it is: chocolate sauce on your enchiladas.

Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce / Bev Cooks

Heeeeey-o!

It’s not Thanksgiving-y, I know. But I’m thinking about next week for you. Or the week after. Two weeks later. You gotta eat in December, ya know!

Have you ever attempted a mole sauce? If I make a “hole mole” joke about now are you going to punch me in the pancreas?

Okay then.

Mole sauce! Let’s discuss.

Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce / Bev Cooks

This is a true fact, but did you know that there are 18,259,628 katrillion recipes for a mole sauce? Don’t try and check fact me on this, though. I think the internet is down.

All these insane recipes – they each heavily vary on amounts of spices and tomatoes and chocolates and liquids and no. And if you’ve done your mole research, you’ll find that a traditional recipe calls for 952,387,164 TRAGILLION ingredients. This is a true fact, too. Just don’t try to look it up.

So! What’s I’ve done is hack the recipe. Shocker, I know. I brought the sauce down from 952,387,164 tragillion ingredients to 12. Twelve! This still seems like a lot, I know. But it’s honestly a bunch of ish you have in your pantry, so don’t get all Edward Punchy Hands on me just yet.

One shortcut I’m including in the sauce, is to simply start with a can of red enchilada sauce. Some might find this unbelievably offensive. I find it pretty awesome.

I don’t go super crazy on the spices, but there is a kiss of cinnamon in it. And a single canned chipotle pepper with adobo sauce for heat! (instead of pepper soaking for 55 months.)

And instead of the sauce simmering for 86 hours, I let it go about 20 minutes and called it good.

Good!

Good.

Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce / Bev Cooks

As for the chicken, store bought rotisserie is perf.

Or shoot! TURKEY. LEFTOVER TURKEY. FROM THANKSGIVING.

I’ll stop yelling at you.

Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce / Bev Cooks

Inside the enchis we have shredded chicken, a few spinach leaves, and grated Pepper Jack cheese. Any leftover cheese you have from the 8-oz block, just throw it on top!

Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce / Bev Cooks

Guuuuuh.

That sauce! While you do get a lot of silky chocolate essence, it doesn’t feel like a full-on Hershey hurl.

It’s got a little kick from the single chipotle! And the tomato paste slash enchilada sauce adds a nice tomato depth. You know me and depths. I dig depths.

Top the whole thing (after baking) with crumbled queso fresco, thinly sliced red onion, avocado slices, lime wedges, and torn cilantro sprigs. Super rustic, super family-style, super scarf-it-down-able.

One major thing to remember! Give each enchi a good squirt of lime juice. It wakes the whole thing up and calls it Frank.

Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce / Bev Cooks

Remember the Jack cheese inside? Ugh.

Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce
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Ingredients

  • 1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 cup chopped white onion
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 Tbs. tomato paste
  • 1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
  • 1 chipotle pepper + 1 tsp adobo sauce (more if you like the heat!)
  • 2.5 oz dark chocolate (at least 70% cacao), broken into pieces
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 2 Tbs. smooth peanut butter
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tbs. fresh oregano
  • coarse salt
  • 1 rotisserie chicken, shredded
  • 8-10 small flour tortillas (you can use corn if you like!)
  • 1 (8 oz) block Pepper Jack cheese, grated
  • 1 cup spinach leaves
  • crumbled queso fresco, for garnish
  • avocado slices, for garnish
  • thinly sliced red onion, for garnish
  • lime wedges and cilantro sprigs, for garnish

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven 350.
  2. In a medium sauce pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and sauté for 3 minutes, or until they begin to slightly brown. Add the garlic and sauté another 30 seconds, until fragrant. Stir in the tomato paste to coat the onions. Add the enchilada sauce, chipotle pepper, adobo sauce, and the chocolate. Stir it until the chocolate melts, about a minute.
  3. Add the chicken stock, peanut butter, cinnamon and oregano. Season with a pinch of salt, and set the mix simmer for 10 minutes. Then, using an immersion blender, puree the sauce until it’s blended and smooth, about 30 seconds. Let the sauce continue to simmer another five minutes on low, while you prep your enchiladas. Ladle about half a cup of the sauce along the bottom of an 9x13 casserole dish.
  4. Layer each tortilla with a small mound of shredded chicken, a few spinach leaves, and shredded cheese. Roll each one up and place them seam-side down in the casserole pan. Spoon the sauce over the top of the enchiladas, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling, the tortillas are slightly brown and crispy, and the cheese is melted and gooey.
  5. Garnish the enchiladas with crumbled queso fresco, thinly sliced red onion, cilantro, avocado slices, and lots of lime wedges. Lime is key! Citrus is your friend.
  6. Eat all of them at once.
  7. Makes 8-10 enchiladas.
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https://bevcooks.com/2016/11/chicken-enchiladas-ridiculously-easy-mole-sauce/

Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce / Bev Cooks

Hole mole! (OH CHILL.)

 

 

 

 

 

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19 Responses to Chicken Enchiladas with a Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce

  1. Stephanie G. November 22, 2016 at 9:16 am #
    Looks amazing!!! Where did you get that white casserole dish?
  2. Steph November 22, 2016 at 10:21 am #
    I grew up eating traditional mole and ain't nobody got time for that. Love this on all levels, but I HAVE to lightly fry my tortillas first.
    • Bethy October 7, 2017 at 12:59 am #
      Agreed
  3. Kallie November 22, 2016 at 10:47 am #
    My favorite thing in the whole world! Molé sauce!!!
  4. Heather @HeatherChristo November 22, 2016 at 1:22 pm #
    My mouth is watering over these enchiladas!
  5. Caitlin November 22, 2016 at 4:15 pm #
    This: "Give each enchi a good squirt of lime juice. It wakes the whole thing up and calls it Frank." is making me crack up at my desk. Thanks, Bev! I might have a new phrase now. :)
  6. Amy|The Cook Report November 23, 2016 at 8:32 am #
    These look so crazy good! Can't wait to give them a try :)
  7. Anna November 27, 2016 at 9:04 am #
    The mole came out way too tamato-y. The chicken filling for the enchiladas was especially good, though.
    • Bev Weidner November 29, 2016 at 7:34 am #
      Ohhhh I'm sorry the sauce wasn't right! I guess more chocolate? I hope you try it again, and thank you for letting me know!
    • Bethy October 7, 2017 at 1:01 am #
      Weird. Mine wasnt tomatoey at all. Just delish!
  8. Christina @ Every Little Thing She Does... January 16, 2017 at 9:22 pm #
    AAAAHHH! I just made this tonight and it was a HUGE hit in my house. I have to say that I'm a total mole snob because I grew up eating homemade mole from both of my grandmothers. I loved the shortcut of using canned enchilada sauce and thought the mole had great flavor. It was super rich, so the lime and avocado were a great addition at the end to balance it out with some extra freshness. Definitely making this again! Thanks, Bev!
  9. Meghan Teska March 9, 2017 at 10:47 am #
    How do these freeze?
    • Bev Weidner March 16, 2017 at 7:14 am #
      I haven't tried freezing them, but I'm sure they'd be just fine!
  10. Pam May 7, 2017 at 9:35 pm #
    This looks a lot like the recipe from Food Network's Mexican Made Easy recipe.
    • Bev Weidner May 8, 2017 at 7:45 am #
      Oh how funny! I can assure you I've never seen that recipe. But now I'm curious and need to check it out!
  11. Bethy October 7, 2017 at 12:59 am #
    Fantastic recipe! Delish! This made my husbamd very happy tonight! Its going in the rotation, gracias!
  12. Losa H January 23, 2018 at 2:56 pm #
    You have captured the essence exactly of how I feel about authentic mole recipes. And made me laugh. After looking up mole sauce recipes yesterday I soon decided I would just truy a can of red sauce with cocoa powder and call it good.
  13. Gina November 24, 2018 at 10:03 pm #
    I was looking for an easy to modify yet authentic tasting recipe to accommodate my son's peanut allergy and boy did this fit the bill! I substituted almond butter and allergy safe chocolate and this was a big hit with everyone in my family- and they all know authentic mole. Thanks for sharing.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. Recipe Roundup: What We've Been Eating | Every Little Thing She Does... - February 10, 2017 […] Chicken Enchiladas with Ridiculously Easy Mole Sauce – I’ve been following Bev’s blog for a while now, but this was the first recipe of hers I’ve made and it made me really excited to try more! As advertised, the mole sauce was ridulously easy and really rich. The whole dish was really simple to make and it was probably one of my most favorite new recipes. […]

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