Wine Pairings: Slow Cooker Chicken Mole and Zinfandel

The first time I had mole at a Mexican restaurant, I was hooked. Rich, earthy, and with just a touch of sweetness, this dish had an incredible depth of flavor. At that moment, I knew not only that I had to recreate this dish at home, but also that I had to pair it with wine. Read along for a mole recipe that is incredibly easy to make, and also the perfect wine pairing.

Pairing Wine with Mole

Zinfandel’s layered notes of warm spice, blackberry, vanilla, and mocha meld harmoniously with mole’s earthy red chile and chocolate flavors. The fruit in the Zinfandel also helps tame some of the spices in the dish. While Zinfandel is my personal favorite with the sweetness of mole, if you prefer drier wines, Petite Sirah or Merlot are also good options. Both will have similar cocoa aromas, but with more tannins to balance out the dark fruit.

The Wine: Ridge Vineyards Three Valleys

For our pairing, we selected our favorite Zinfandel maker, Ridge Vineyards. Their critically-acclaimed wines have enough fruit to be approachable, but also the structure and complexity to be far more interesting than your typical, jammy Zinfandel. The Three Valleys is a blend of 78% Zinfandel, 13% Carignane, 8% Petite Sirah, and 3% Mataro. The Petit Sirah lends extra depth to the wine, while the Carignane adds brightness and acidity.

The Recipe

When we say Slow Cooker Chicken Mole is easy, we mean barely any cooking easy. And the results? So delicious, you’ll find yourself craving it later on. We adapted our recipe from AllRecipes’ Slow Cooker Chicken Mole. There’s one key change in our version: more chicken. We increased the quantity of chicken from 1.5 to 2 pounds. This gives you a heartier mole with more servings, with still an abundance of sauce to go around!

Ingredients:

• 1 chopped onion
• 1/2 cup raisins or chopped dates
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 chopped canned chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (not the whole can) << adobo sauce is key! Goya makes these and it’s available at Target, if you’re having trouble finding
• 3 tbsp peanut butter
• 2 14 oz cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• a dash of nutmeg
• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 2 lb chicken

Preparation

Just load up a slow cooker with the onion, raisins, garlic, chipotle pepper, peanut butter,  crushed tomatoes, sugar, cinnamon, chili powder, cumin, coriander, nutmeg, cocoa powder, and chicken. Stir.

Turn it on for 6-9 hours (depending on how much you want the chicken to fall apart). Stir occasionally as needed.

Serve with rice. That’s IT!!

We hope you enjoy this Slow Cooker Chicken Mole and Zinfandel. Let us know what you think in the comments!