Mole Sauce substitute

Best substitute

Jarred or tubbed mole paste, thinned with broth

1 part paste to 3 or 4 parts hot broth

Best for enmoladas and enchiladas

Close match

Concentrated mole paste sold in glass jars or plastic tubs in Mexican groceries and the international aisle, whisked out into hot chicken or vegetable broth.

Other mole sauce substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Red enchilada sauce plus peanut butter, cocoa and spice
Taste and texture differ
Per 1 cup of enchilada sauce: 1 tablespoon smooth peanut butter, 2 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon brown sugar, a pinch of clove. Use 1:1 for mole.
A five-minute build from a can of red enchilada sauce that puts back the nut fat, the chocolate bitterness and the warm spice.
What changes
Best for
enchiladas, chicken thighs, burrito filling, beans, cooking with only supermarket ingredients
The most useful entry on this list for most people. What changes: enchilada sauce is tomato-based, so the result keeps a bright, slightly acidic tomato edge that a real mole does not have, and it stays thinner because it lacks the ground nuts and bread that give mole its body. It also cannot reproduce the layered depth of six separately toasted chillies. Even so, once the peanut butter and cocoa are in, most people at the table will call it mole. Simmer it at least five minutes so the cocoa loses its raw dustiness, and add the sugar last, tasting as you go, because it should not read as sweet.
3Quick homemade mole from dried chillies
Close match
Makes about 2 cups; use 1:1 for mole
Toast 3 ancho and 2 guajillo chillies, torn and seeded, for thirty seconds a side, soak in hot water twenty minutes, then blend with 2 tablespoons almonds, 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, 2 tablespoons raisins, half a corn tortilla, 2 garlic cloves, a quarter teaspoon cinnamon, a pinch of clove, 20g dark chocolate and a cup of the soaking water.
What changes
Simmer twenty minutes.
Best for
mole poblano over chicken or turkey, enmoladas, special occasions, getting the flavour genuinely right
This is a shortcut mole rather than a substitute, it takes about forty minutes, and it is dramatically better than anything you can build from a jar. What differs from a traditional mole: a real one uses six or more chillies and often thirty ingredients, several toasted separately, so this version is simpler and less mysterious. It is still unmistakably mole. Blend for a full two minutes and pass it through a sieve if you want the silky texture people expect, because the nut and chilli skins are what make homemade versions feel gritty.
4Ancho chilli paste plus almond butter and dark chocolate
Close match
Per ½ cup ancho paste: 1 tablespoon almond butter, 15g dark chocolate, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, 1 cup broth
A shortcut that starts from a jar of ancho or generic dark chilli paste rather than whole chillies.
What changes
Best for
braises, pulled pork and beef, black beans, quick weeknight versions
Ancho is the backbone chilli of mole poblano, so starting there means the chilli character is already right, which is more than half the battle. What changes: without a second and third chilli you lose the complexity, so the sauce tastes like one clear note rather than a chord, and it is generally less smoky than a mole negro. Melt the chocolate into the warm sauce off the heat and keep the pan below a hard boil, because chocolate scorches and turns bitter fast.
5Powdered mole mix
Taste and texture differ
Follow the packet, usually about ¼ cup powder to 2 cups broth
Dry mole powder or mole seasoning sold in packets, whisked into hot broth or fried briefly in oil first.
What changes
Best for
quick weeknight sauce, rice, eggs, beans, seasoning a braise
Convenient and cheap, and better than nothing. What changes: most powders are largely chilli, thickener, sugar and salt with very little of the nut and seed content that gives mole its richness and mouthfeel, so the sauce comes out thinner, dustier and noticeably less rounded. Two easy fixes go a long way: fry the powder in a tablespoon of oil for a minute before adding liquid, and stir in a tablespoon of peanut or almond butter per two cups of finished sauce.
6Broth, cocoa, ancho powder and peanut butter, the emergency version
Taste and texture differ
Per 1 cup hot broth: 1 tablespoon ancho or mild chilli powder, 2 teaspoons cocoa, 1 tablespoon peanut butter, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon brown sugar, salt
The least-bad option when you have no mole, no paste and no dried chillies, only the spice rack.
What changes
Best for
a spoonful of mole stirred into a braise, beans, rice, salvaging a recipe mid-cook
Worth being honest here. This is not mole and will not fool anyone who has eaten mole, because a real sauce gets its character from toasted whole chillies and there is no shortcut to that. What you do get is a dark, savoury, faintly sweet, gently spiced chilli sauce that tastes good on chicken and beans. It works well when mole is one component of a dish, and it disappoints badly when mole is the dish, as in mole poblano over turkey. Simmer at least ten minutes and whisk hard so the peanut butter emulsifies rather than sitting in lumps.

What is Mole Sauce?

Mole Sauce is Mole is a family of thick Mexican sauces built from several kinds of dried chilli blended with nuts or seeds, aromatics, dried fruit, warm spices, a small amount of chocolate and usually stale bread or tortilla as a thickener, with mole poblano being the reddish-brown version and mole negro the near-black Oaxacan one.

Cooking tips

Decide first whether mole is the dish or an ingredient. If you are making mole poblano over turkey, or enmoladas where the sauce is the whole plate, use real mole paste or make the quick version from dried chillies, because a build from enchilada sauce will not carry a dish that is entirely sauce. If mole is a spoonful in a braise or a base for beans, any of the shortcuts here are fine and nobody will know.
Mole is not a chocolate sauce, and this is the most common misunderstanding. Chocolate is a small fraction of the ingredients, usually one or two per cent, and its job is bitterness and body rather than sweetness. If your sauce tastes like dessert you have added too much chocolate or too much sugar, and the fix is more broth, more salt and a squeeze of lime rather than more chilli.
Toast dried chillies for seconds, not minutes. Thirty seconds a side in a dry pan until they smell fragrant and turn slightly pliable is the target. Once they darken past deep brown they turn irreversibly bitter, and that bitterness carries all the way through a finished sauce that took you an hour. If you are unsure, undertoast.
Thin mole with hot broth rather than water. The sauce is thick because of ground nuts, seeds and bread, and it needs loosening, but every tablespoon of plain water waters down the salt and savour along with the texture. Chicken broth keeps the savoury backbone intact, and vegetable broth does the same for a meatless version.
Keep the pan below a hard boil once chocolate or nut butter is in, and stir the bottom often. Both scorch easily, and a sauce this dark hides a burnt patch until you taste it. Mole also improves substantially overnight in the refrigerator, so if you have the time, make it a day ahead and reheat it gently with a splash of broth.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use chocolate syrup or a chocolate bar instead of mole?

No. Chocolate syrup is sugar, water and cocoa, and it will make a sweet brown sauce that tastes nothing like mole. Mole's chocolate content is small and unsweetened, contributing bitterness and richness rather than sweetness. If you are building a shortcut, use unsweetened cocoa powder or a square of dark chocolate at seventy per cent or above, and pair it with chilli, nuts and warm spice, because chocolate alone is not the flavour anyone is remembering.

Is enchilada sauce the same as mole?

No, though it is a reasonable starting point. Red enchilada sauce is chilli, tomato, broth and a little spice, thin and bright. Mole adds ground nuts or seeds for fat and body, dried fruit for sweetness, several warm spices, a little chocolate for bitterness and a starch such as tortilla for thickness. If you stir peanut butter, cocoa, cinnamon and a pinch of sugar into enchilada sauce and simmer it, you close most of the gap, which is exactly why that build sits near the top of this list.

Can I just leave the mole out?

Only if it is a background element. If a recipe adds a spoonful of mole paste to a pot of beans or a pork braise for depth, you can skip it and add a little extra chilli powder, a pinch of cocoa and some salt instead. If the dish is named after the mole, leaving it out means you are cooking something else entirely: plain roast chicken instead of pollo con mole. In that case it is better to make the forty-minute version from dried chillies than to serve the dish without its sauce.

What is the difference between mole poblano and mole negro?

Mole poblano, associated with Puebla, is the reddish-brown one most people mean by mole, built largely on ancho, mulato and pasilla chillies with nuts, seeds, raisins and a little chocolate. Mole negro is the Oaxacan version and is much darker, almost black, because the chillies and seeds are toasted far more aggressively, sometimes to the point of charring, which gives it a deeper, smokier, faintly bitter edge. For substitution purposes they behave the same way, but if you are aiming at negro, toast harder and add a little more chocolate.

Is mole spicy?

Usually much less than people expect. The chillies in mole are chosen for flavour rather than heat, and ancho, mulato and pasilla are all mild, so a classic mole poblano tastes rich, fruity and faintly bitter with only a gentle warmth. Some regional and homemade versions are hotter, and mole negro can carry more of a kick. If you want your substitute hotter, add a chipotle in adobo or a pinch of cayenne rather than more mild chilli powder, which would just thicken it.

Related substitutes

More sauces & condiments substitutes

Mole Sauce substitute

Other mole sauce substitutes

2Red enchilada sauce plus peanut butter, cocoa and spice

3Quick homemade mole from dried chillies

4Ancho chilli paste plus almond butter and dark chocolate

5Powdered mole mix

6Broth, cocoa, ancho powder and peanut butter, the emergency version