Mole Powder: What’s in It, Where Mole Comes From, and How to Use It

Traditional mole can take days to make, one merchant says.¹ Mole powder is the shortcut: a dry blend of the chiles, cocoa, seeds and spices that go into Mexican mole. Mole itself isn’t one recipe but a family of thick chile sauces, and there’s no standard for mole powder either. The two blends we checked agree on ancho, cocoa and warm spice, then go their own ways, and only one of them contains salt.

At a glance

What mole is

The Real Academia Española defines mole, in Mexico and Honduras, as a thick sauce made with different chiles and many other ingredients and spices, and also as a stew of chicken, turkey or pork made with that sauce. It’s a cooked chili sauce of Mexican origin, considered an essential item of Mexican cuisine. The word comes from the Nahuatl mulli, “sauce.” The RAE spells it mole, without an accent.⁴

Mexican moles are complex mixtures of several chile cultivars. Most call for dried chiles, and most contain nuts and seeds for body, with corn masa or dried tortillas to thicken. Mexico’s agriculture ministry says dried ancho, mulato, mirasol, guajillo and pasilla chiles go mainly to the artisanal mole industry.⁵

Many moles, not one. El Universal estimates more than 50 local varieties.⁶ Gernot Katzer calls Oaxaca the home of these sauces, where seven classical recipes, los siete moles, are handed down from generation to generation. He names red mole (mole rojo, also called mole poblano) as the most famous, and describes a green mole flavored with Mexican pepper-leaf and a yellow mole made with fresh güero chiles.⁷ Both mole powders we checked are built on dried chiles and cocoa.

What’s in mole powder

Here are two commercial blends and El Universal’s list for mole poblano, each as its source gives it. None of them is “the” recipe.

The two blends agree on ancho, cocoa, cinnamon, allspice, cloves and a sweetener, and differ on almost everything else. Only one has sesame and only one has salt, which matters when you season the dish.

How hot are the chiles? PepperScale’s pepper list gives these Scoville ranges for the dried chiles named above. They’re the usual ranges for each pepper, not measurements of any blend:²

Ancho, the one chile in every list, has the lowest range of the bunch, which fits World Spice’s mild rating for its blend. A blend heavy on chipotle or guajillo will run hotter.

Flavor

Spices, Inc. describes its powder as earthy and nutty, with noticeable fruitiness and hints of chocolate. World Spice says its blend delivers rich, chocolatey depth. Stirred into a sauce, a good mole powder tastes of dried fruit and gentle chile heat first, with cocoa bitterness and warm spice behind. Since the blends differ, two jars can taste quite different.

Origin and history

Before the Spanish. Moctezuma ate a chile sauce called chilmulli or chilmole, and Indigenous cooks kept making their mullis after the conquest.

The Puebla legend. Today’s typical mole is said to have been born in Puebla, hence the name mole poblano. The story goes like this: in 1685, at the Dominican convent of Santa Rosa de Lima in Puebla, Sor Andrea de la Asunción created the dish while trying to make something worthy of a visiting viceroy.⁶ El Universal tells it as a story, not a documented event, and so do we. A popular version with an archbishop, a nearly empty larder and a turkey couldn’t be traced to any source.

Puebla and Oaxaca. Both states are tied to mole. El Universal places mole poblano’s birth in Puebla, while Katzer calls Oaxaca the home of the sauces.

We couldn’t trace two other common claims: that some early mole recipes had as many as 100 ingredients, and that chocolate was only drunk before the Spanish arrived and went into mole under European influence. World Spice, a merchant, says traditional mole can take days to make and use more than 30 ingredients.

How to use mole powder

As a sauce base. Spices, Inc. gives one method: mix ¾ cup of the powder with ¼ cup of chicken or vegetable broth and ¼ cup of water to make a paste, then thin it to use. It suggests the result for tamales and empanadas.⁸ That’s the merchant’s ratio for its own blend, so expect to adjust for others.

As a rub or seasoning. World Spice suggests adding salt and sugar to its blend for a rub, or stirring it into chili con carne.¹ Spices, Inc. also suggests it for seasoning chili.

A few more ideas:

• Simmer the paste with broth and a little tomato, then add cooked chicken or turkey for a quick mole.
• Bloom the powder briefly in oil before adding liquid. Cocoa and ground chile scorch easily.
• Stir a spoonful into black beans, braised pork or enchilada sauce.
• Taste for salt and sugar before adding more of either, since some blends contain both.

Buying and quality

• Read the ingredient list. Blends vary a lot (see the table). Check for salt, sugar, sesame and nuts.
• Smell. A good blend smells of dried fruit, cocoa and warm spice. A flat, dusty smell means it’s faded.
• We found no standard, grade or adulteration record specific to mole powder.

Storage

Air, light, moisture and heat all speed up flavor and color loss in spices. Keep the blend airtight, dark and cool. We didn’t find a shelf-life figure for mole powder from a regulator or standards body.

Safety

• Allergens. The FDA lists sesame, tree nuts and peanuts among the major food allergens.³ One of the two blends we checked contains sesame,¹ and El Universal’s mole poblano includes sesame, almonds and other nuts.⁶ Check the label on any blend or prepared mole.
• Chile mycotoxins (EU). EU law caps ochratoxin A at 20 µg/kg in dried Capsicum fruits, whole or ground, and sets 5.0 µg/kg for aflatoxin B1 and 10.0 µg/kg for total aflatoxins.⁹ Those limits apply to the dried chiles, not to blends as such.

Health claims

Mole powder often gets credited with the vitamins of its chiles and cocoa, the minerals of cumin and sesame, and benefits for blood pressure and the heart. None of the sources we reviewed supports those claims for the blend, and we’re not claiming mole powder treats or prevents any disease. For measured nutrient figures on one of its main chiles, see ancho powder.

Related pages

• Chiles in mole: ancho powder, which the Chile Pepper Institute calls a key ingredient in mole,¹⁰ pasilla powder, guajillo powder and chipotle powder
• Spices in the blends: cinnamon, allspice, cloves, cumin, anise seed, Mexican oregano and sesame seeds
• Related blends: chili powder and adobo seasoning; for cooking with Mexican spices, see good Mexican spices for chicken and best spices for chili