Mole Duck Legs

The rich flavors of mole pair amazingly with the flavor of waterfowl especially the legs. I’ve included two recipes for the mole sauce, one using premade mole paste which makes for a quick easy meal, the other making mole from scratch. Mole from scratch can be intimidating because of the amount of ingredients but its well worth the effort. 

Mole from Paste 

Ingredients: 

½ cup              Diced Tomatoes (you can use fresh or canned) 

6 each            Garlic Cloves (minced) 

1 each             Small Onion (minced) 

5 cups            Chicken Stock 

1 each             Corn Tortilla (toasted at 350f until crisp, about 6 minutes) 

8.5oz Jar       Mole Paste 

4 Tbsp           Honey

1 bar               90% Dark Chocolate (finely chopped) 

¼ tsp              Ground Cinnamon 

1 tsp               Ground Cumin 

Process: 

Combine tomato, onion and garlic in a pot, heat over high until boiling

Reduce heat to low and simmer for 8 minutes 

Place tomato mixture in a blender with half of the chicken stock and crumble in the tortilla

Puree until smooth and pour into a pot, turn on medium high heat

To the pot add the mole paste, honey and remaining chicken stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low

Cook stirring until paste has completely dissolved 

Whisk in chopped chocolate, cinnamon and cumin, season with salt to taste 

Cook until desired consistency, it should resemble thick gravy, you can always dilute it with more stock if its too thick 

Duck Legs 

This is a great method from Hank Shaw (@huntgathercook). It’s perfect for tender leg meat when you don’t feel like going the whole process of confiting. 

Ingredients: 

8 each            Skin on Duck Legs

Process: 

Pat the legs dry with paper towels on each side 

Rub both sides with a sprinkle of salt and let them come to room temperature for 1-2 hours 

Get a small casserole pan, something just big enough for the legs to fit without overlapping

Add ¼” of fat (duck/goose fat, beef tallow, butter, ghee or neutral oil like sunflower avocado or grape seed) 

Lay the legs in the pan (if using skin on lay skin side up) 

Place into a cold oven, turn the oven to 290f 

Cook for 90 minutes, the skin should start crisping after that time, if it isn’t crisp enough let cook another 30 minutes

Increase the heat to 375f and cook for 20 minutes 

Remove legs from the pan, arrange on a platter, cover with mole sauce and garnish with toasted sesame seeds

Mole From Scratch

Ingredients: 

5 cups             Chicken Stock 

12 each           Guajillo Chiles (seeds removed) 

5 each             Arbol Chiles (seeds removed) 

1 each              Plum Tomato (quartered) 

1 each              Onion (quartered) 

3 each             Tomatillos (peeled and quartered) (you can also use canned tomatillos just drain well and pat dry with paper towels) 

8 each            Garlic Cloves 

½ each            Ripe Plantain (cut into 1” sliced) (can substitute a green banana) 

2 Tbsp              Raisins

2 Tbsp              Almonds

2 Tbsp              Pecans

2 Tbsp             Peanuts

2 tsp                Sesame Seeds 

2 Tbsp             Pepitas

1 each             Slice Texas Toast (dice into ½” cubes) (can also use 3 slices of white bread) 

2 each           Cinnamon Sticks 

3 each          Whole Allspice Berries

¼ tsp              Cumin Seeds

¼ tsp              Anise Seeds

3 each          Whole Cloves 

1 tsp               Dried Oregano

1 tsp               Dried Thyme 

½ tsp              Dried Rosemary 

4 oz                90% dark chocolate (finely chopped) 

¼ c                  Brown Sugar 

Process:

Heat stock over high heat until boiling 

Toast chilies over an open flame on your stove (if you have an electric stove you can use a cast iron pan over high heat) 

Chiles should be lightly blackened (about 45 seconds per side) 

Place chilies in a bowl, cover with boiling stock, wrap bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let soak 30 minutes 

Heat your oven to high broil, on a sheet pan lay out the tomato, onion, tomatillo, garlic cloves, plantain slices and raisins 

Drizzle lightly with oil, broil for 4-6 minutes per side until charred, set aside 

Using your hands peel the charred skin from the chilies, discard the skin and chop the chilies, be sure to save the stock

Working in batches transfer chilies, tomatoes, onions, tomatillos, garlic and plantain with the reserved stock, puree until smooth 

Heat a cast iron skillet over high heat until smoking, you’ll want to turn on a kitchen fan and open some windows 

Once smoking working in batches toast the nuts/seeds, you only want to cover the bottom of the pan in an even layer, toast for 2-3 minutes

In the same pan toast the cinnamon, allspice, cumin, anise and cloves for 2 minutes shaking the pan frequently

Grind the spices to a fine powder in a mortar pestle or spice grinder 

In the same skillet toast diced bread for 3-4 minutes until lightly browned 

Combine nuts, seeds, spices, ground spices and bread with 2 cups of the pureed tomato mixture

Puree until smooth 

Combine in a pot with remaining tomato puree mixture, bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer

Whisk in brown sugar and chopped chocolate, once combined season with salt