Mole Verde

Mole Verde
from the incredibile book: Food lover’s guide to the world. Ed. Lonely Planet.

2 large chicken breasts (mine 1.5kg)
1 small onion diced (me? 2 large ones :D)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (1 cup & 1/2)
1 can plum tomatoes (2)
1 small jalapeno (medium one)
2 chilli seranos (2 small dried ones)
6 lettuce leaves (the whole head)
1/2 medium onion (one big)
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup coriander (1/2 cup coriander seeds, crushed)
pinch cumin (big one!)
Pinch black pepper (big one!)
1 clove (3)
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (1 tsp)
1 tsp vegetable oil (extra virgin from Garda of course :D)

Cook the chicken and onion covered with water, skimming scum from the top until the breasts are nearly done.
Remove the chicken strain the broth. Toast the pumpkin seeds on a flat pan without burning.
Cool them and mash in a blender until powdery.
Remove from the blender.
Drain the canned tomatoes and then toss them in the (dirty) blender with the rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth.
Heat oil in a large pan and then heat the pumpkin powder, add a cup or two of broth for 4-5min, stirring constantly until thick and dark. Add the vegetables and stir.
Gradually add about 2 cups of chicken broth and let simmer for 25-30min. Season.
Before serving, return the chicken to the sauce until it heats through.

Brigida_ate:
I cut the chicken breast in chunks before adding them to the sauce.
The sauce is very very tasty, but the chicken breast cooked in the water before doesn’t get tasty enough. It is almost cooked so it tastes boiled chicken.
My advise is to use other more tasty parts of the chicken for this dish, or add the raw chicken breasts to the sauce at the end.

I made this for our international family dinner yesterday evening.
It is fun to cook for my family, at the moment we are 6 Germans, one Italian, one Norwegian, one Romanian and one Suede.
There is a lot of discussions over the food served 😀
And..can you immagine the satisfaction seeing guys like Giovanni (Italian) and Chris (Norwegian) eating your food considering they usually don’t eat vegetables, foreign spices and herbs.
Simply lovely!

I wish to thank Lucia that waited for my recipe and now..let’s move to Vietnam!!