#mole enchiladas

If you like mole and Oaxacan cuisine, La Diosa de Los Moles offers nine kinds of mole. You can make your own mole plate by choosing a mole and protein (e.g., filet mignon, chicken, pork chops, halibut). The menu also includes appetizers, salads, soups, enchiladas, tacos, tlayuda, birria in various forms, flautas, etc. They even serve grasshopper tacos. For beverages, they have aguas frescas, café de la olla, soda, michelada, beer, etc.

It started with complimentary corn tortilla chips drizzled with various mole sauces for you to try. The chips were thin and crispy.

Enmoladas ($24): three mole enchiladas stuffed with chicken (or cheese), rice, beans. This was a nice looking plate. The enchiladas were topped with shredded lettuce, crema, and cheese (cojita?). The mole manchamanteles was smoky, spicy, and sweet. The shredded chicken tasted like shredded chicken. The rice wasn’t reddish but white. It was fine (plain but cooked well). Refried pinto beans were creamy. Everything was good but I’ve had better mole enchiladas from several places (Gloria’s has the best enchiladas).

The restaurant is about medium-sized and colorfully decorated with hanging ribbons and flags. There’s a bar area.

4 out of 5 stars

chicken mole enchiladas

chicken tenderloins ground cumin ground coriander garlic powder chili powder paprika salt pepper corn oil

goya mole concentrate

tortillas shredded cheese avocado sour cream rice beans

put all of your tenders in a large ziplock bag. pour in enough corn oil to cover. add in a good amount of your spices, again, enough to cover. seal tight and squish around to cover every piece of chicken in your marinade. let refrigerate for a few hours, up to half a day. 

an hour and a half before you want to eat, start heating your oven to 375F. start prepping your mole sauce. the recipe on the back of the container is really vague, so start with less water than you think. once it’s started boiling and bubbling, stir it and see if you need to add more water. i like my sauce to feel velvety, so when you take a spoonful and pour it back into the pan it doesn’t splatter like water, but isn’t too thick.

while the mole sauce is going, take out your chicken. put the pieces into a large pan so they all have contact with the bottom, and pour the remainder of the marinade on top to cover. turn the heat on to medium-low and cover the pan with a lid. turn the pieces over every few minutes as they cook. cook the chicken until it flakes apart easily when pressed with your tongs. that’s a good indicator that it’s done in the middle, but always check to make sure it’s not still pink.

take out the chicken pieces as they finish cooking and put them in a large bowl. if you notice any rubbery bits, peel them off the chicken. they don’t shred well. when all of your chicken is done, pour a few spoonfuls of the pan oil into the bowl. this will help the shredding process.

take two forks and shred that chicken! the best method is to take one fork, hold a piece of chicken in place, and take the other fork and shred it from one end to the other. remove any not-meat bits as they are separated.

once everything is shredded, add a few spoonfuls of the mole sauce into the chicken, just to lightly cover. stir in a handful of shredded cheese. eat a few bites because this stuff is heavenly.

spread a layer of mole sauce on the bottom of a casserole dish. fill your tortillas with the chicken mixture, roll them up, and put them into the dish. be strategic! the more enchiladas you can fit in the more enchiladas you’ll have to eat. ;)

pour enough of the mole sauce to just the top edges of the tortillas - see the top picture. cover in a heavy layer of shredded cheese. put in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes.

while you’re waiting for that to heat up, start your beans and rice. i love goya’s yellow rice, it’s perfectly seasoned and tastes incredible. often i’ll just use a good refried bean from a can, but if you want to go nuts with your beans, by all means. sautee some onion slices and some diced jalepenos in a saucepan. once those are beginning to caramelize, add in some cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper, and some minced garlic, then add in some canned black and/or pinto beans.

everything should come together within 30 minutes. give your enchiladas a check-on to see if the cheese has melted and browned. once everything is done, serve up with some rice, some beans, a sliced avocado, and some sour cream. top with extra sauce and cheese.