Coloradito

Oaxaca, Mexico

Coloradito is one of the seven classic moles of Oaxaca, listed among the region's canon of poultry preparations in Diana Kennedy's The Art of Mexican Cooking. It falls within a broader tradition of mole-based chicken cookery that Kennedy situates firmly in the peasant roots of Mexican cuisine, where domestically raised birds—poached rather than roasted dry—form the backbone of heavily sauced festival dishes. The technique follows the foundational mole method: toasted seeds (sesame and pumpkin) are ground to a coarse paste, fried in lard until deeply colored, then married with a blended chile-and-herb purée and the reserved poaching broth. The sauce is cooked down until it thickens and fat pools visibly on the surface before the par-cooked chicken is added. Kennedy recommends sourcing a better-quality bird than a standard supermarket chicken, as firmer, more flavorful flesh holds up to the extended braising the dish demands.

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