Chicken Mole (pronounced moh-lay) is a delicious chicken dish with a rich, flavorful sauce. A mole sauce is typically created with peanuts, cocoa and an assortment of spices. This one does it the easy way, combining peanut butter and cocoa powder.

Tradition has it that mole sauce was first created by nuns in the state of Puebla, Mexico.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 lbs chicken breast
1 onion
1 clove garlic
24oz salsa
1 cup chicken broth
2 Tbsp baking cocoa
2 Tbsp peanut butter

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet. Cut the chicken breast into pieces and brown for about 5 minutes, stirring. Put chicken on a plate.

Dice the onion and garlic. Brown for 3 minutes. Add in the salsa, chicken broth, cocoa and peanut butter.

When the mixture boils, reduce to a simmer and add in the chicken. Cook the entire dish for about 25 minutes.

Chicken Mole is a traditional dish for the Cinco de Mayo celebration, but of course it can be enjoyed at any other time of the year as well!

In terms of carbs, the chicken breast is zero carb, as is the chicken broth. The onion is maybe 1g per person. Each person only gets 1/2 Tbsp of cocoa and peanut butter, so if you use sugar-free peanut butter the carbs there are minimal (under 1g). Really the bulk of the carbs in this dish are in the salsa - so it all comes down to what salsa you are using.

I love the Newman's Own Salsa mixture, and that has about 2g per serving. You can get a wide variety of salsa types with all sorts of flavors, to add different variety to your salsa based dishes. Just be sure to check the carb count on the side of the container and figure out how many servings you'll be making out of it. That way you can choose the lower carb varieties.

Of course, if you are feeling adventurous, you can always make your own homemade salsa too! Really, you just chop up tomatoes, green onions, a chili or two and toss in salt and pepper. There are hundreds of salsa recipes out there to give you specific flavors. You can make them mild to super spicy.

Enjoy!


Lisa Shea's Library of Low Carb Books