Name: Duck Legs with Mole Sauce
Yield: Makes 8 main-course servings
Cuisine: Mexician
Ingredients: 4 tablespoons lime juice (about 2 limes’ worth), or more to taste; 3 tablespoons rendered duck fat or olive oil; 2 cups brown duck broth, chicken broth, or water, or more as needed; 3 dried ancho or guajillo chiles; 1 large white or yellow onion, peeled and quartered; 2 pounds ripe tomatoes, chopped (don’t bother peeling and seeding); 1 dried chipotle (smoked jalapeño) chile; 1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into 3-inch cylinders; ¼ cup all-natural peanut butter or cashew butter (nuts and salt should be the only ingredients; see Nut Butters); 3 dried chihuacle chiles, preferably chihuacle negros; Salt and pepper; 8 duck legs, including both thighs and drumsticks; 3 dried mulato chiles; ½ cup slivered almonds, toasted for 15 minutes in a 350°F oven, until fragrant and pale brown; 6 cloves garlic, peeled; Sour cream (optional)

Preparation info

Makes
8
main-course servings

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Duck Cookbook

By James Peterson

Published 2003

About

For those of us who think mole sauce tastes mostly of chocolate, it comes as a pleasant surprise to discover that most of its flavor comes from dried chiles. Dried chiles have an amazing array of complex flavors that blend easily into a harmonious sauce. Chocolate, if used at all, is incorporated in such small quantities that it’s almost impossible to identify.

Mole is a perfect way to use any duck legs you’ve been accumulating in the freezer, from those ducks whose breasts you’ve a