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Holy Mole, the Migrants Eat Well at the Comedor in Nogales + recipe

By Peg Bowden on September 24, 2011

You can smell it across the street. Something bubbling with chilies, chocolate, cinnamon, something else…cloves?? Omigod. The nuns are making mole and chicken for tonight’s dinner for the migrants. I know I’m supposed to be over at the clinica saving lives, but I simply must step into the kitchen and take in these aromas. One of the sisters is wiping away tears from the garlic and onions crackling in the cooking oil. She shows me the menu for dinner which is at 4 PM. Chicken with mole, rice, a soup of vegetables and rice, and fruit. Tortillas, of course, to mop up the juice.

Chicken fixin’s

I see “burn man” sitting on the curb. This fellow was in dire straights a few short weeks ago, with 2^nd and 3^rd degree burns over most of his back. He shows our group his wounds, and waits for the clinic to open for a dressing change. He looks fleshed out a bit—he has been eating regularly at the comedor. His burns are healing. Trying to hit us up for money, he wants cigarettes and a Coke. We tell him, just eat the food here—this is what you need to get back on your feet.

Lorena, a volunteer cook, invites me to help pull chicken off the bones for the mole dish. Her hands glisten with chicken grease. I sit with 3 other women and try to keep up with their rapid banter as they joke in Spanish. I laugh with them, not knowing quite what the joke is, but I’m happy to be here up to my elbows in grease.

After a few hours of talking with migrants, Lorena presents me and others with bowls of steaming chicken, mole, and rice. It is the best I have ever had. The sisters could be stars on the Food Network. The world is a better place with a bowl of chicken and mole in front of you.

Virgin with potatoes

Chicken Mole, the recipe

adapted from The Only Texas Cookbook

by Linda West Eckhardt

1982 Texas Monthly Press

1 whole cooked chicken

1 8-3/4 oz. jar Bueno or Dona Maria brand mole sauce

1 quart chicken stock

1 7-1/2 ounce can tomato sauce

1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter

1 square unsweetened dark chocolate

1 tablespoon sugar

salt to taste

slivered almonds for garnish

cooked rice and or hot corn tortillas to serve

Stew chicken in salted water to cover until tender, about 90 minutes. Remove chicken from the stock, reserve stock. Skin and bone out the chicken, then tear into bite sized pieces using two forks.

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, over low heat, warm the mole sauce from jar until almost boiling. Add stock, stirring ro make a smooth sauce. Simmer about 20 minutes then stir in tomato sauce, peanut butter, chocolate and salt. Cook and stir about 20 minutes. Salt to taste.

To serve, ladle over hot rice or serve along side hot corn tortillas for scoops. Bueno!