Slow-Cooker Chocolate Chicken Mole is the perfect blend of two worlds: simple cooking and huge flavor!
When my friend Arsy Vartanian, author of the brand new book The Paleo Foodie Cookbook, asked me to share one of her recipes with you, I jumped at the chance.
I know you all love chicken recipes, and slow cooker food definitely fits my criteria of stupid-easy. While it may seem like there are a lot of ingredients, they’re integral in creating a savory, complex mole sauce with a richness and depth of flavor.
If you love the sound of this recipe, go check out Arsy’s cookbook. She’s also got two awesome bonuses for you: We are giving away a copy of her book (sorry, contest is now closed) and you can get a free copy of her ebook, The Paleo Dinner Party, if you pre-order (details also at the bottom).
Slow Cooker Chocolate Chicken Mole Recipe
Slow Cooker Chocolate Chicken Mole is rich with savory flavor and so easy to prepare in your crock pot. Paleo & gluten-free!
Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken breast bone in, skins removed
- Salt and pepper
- 2 tbsp ghee
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic crushed or minced
- 6 whole tomatoes peeled, seeded and chopped
- 5 dried New Mexico chili peppers rehydrated and chopped
- 1/4 cup almond butter
- 2 ounces dark chocolate (70% or above)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp guajillo chili powder
- Garnish: avocado, cilantro and jalapeño, all chopped (garnish)
Instructions
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Generously salt and pepper the chicken.
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Place a pan over medium heat and add ghee. Once the ghee has warmed, add the chicken and brown on all sides. This may need to be done in batches. Move chicken to the slow cooker.
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Add onion to the same pan and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and sauté for 1 to 2 minutes, until fragrant. Transfer onion and garlic to slow cooker.
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Add the tomatoes, chili peppers, almond butter, dark chocolate, salt and spices (cumin, cinnamon, chili powder) to the slow cooker.
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Cook on low for 4 to 6 hours or until the chicken is tender and pulls apart easily. If you are home when making the dish, lift the lid once and give it a stir to make sure all the ingredients are well combined. Remove chicken bones. Top mole with avocado, cilantro and jalapeño and serve!
Recipe Notes
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I have to try this i love my moms mole but this sounds very yummy and very healthy thanks for the chance
this is so yummy i actually make the real meal but this beyond healthy and looks delicious thank you so much for the chance 🙂
mmmmm what an awesome recipe! this would definitely be a hit in my house 😀
I would love the chance to win this book, but I don’t subscribe to facebook.. 🙁 Maybe next time.
Sorry about that Danielle!
Love your recipes!
Thank you so much!
is there a quick/easy method to peeling and seeding tomatoes? because that was the most grueling, messy tomato experience I’ve ever had haha
I don’t ever peel them…I think you could get away with not doing that for this recipe…or used jarred.
How much should I use if I use canned tomatoes? Keep the juice or drain?
I asked and when I find out I’ll let you know 🙂
Hi Britt…I asked Arsy and she said a 14.5 oz can of tomatoes with the juice.
I too was wondering. I only had one can which I used along with the juice.
Made this for dinner tonight, very tasty, thanks.
Thought I’d mention my quick/easy way to seed and peel tomatoes. Slice them in half width-wise, squeeze out the seeds, then grate them on a cheese grater. Cut side towards the grater.
That’s SO clever, JR!!
Just made this, with many modifications, and it was delicious! Really nice flavor. Sauce was a bit liquid-y, but that’s probably because I did not add in almond butter (none on hand). Used canned tomatoes, whole guajillo chilis, boneless chicken thighs, and no almond butter. Now, what to do with the leftover New Mexico and guajillo peppers??
They’ll keep forever 🙂
Great recipe! I new family favorite, I used the leftovers later in the week to make Quesadillas.
Awesome!!
Love this recipe. I made it this weekend and we fought over the leftovers!!
Excellent! I’m glad you all liked it!
Hi Steph. This recipe looks awesome, but lists “dried New Mexico chili peppers, rehydrated and chopped” amongst the ingredients. For someone in the UK, could you suggest a suitable alternative? I don’t even know what New Mexico chilies are. I’ve seen dried Chipotle chilies in supermarkets here recently… would those work? Also, how do you rehydrate a chili? Sorry if that’s a dumb question, but we have a much more limited selection of chilies available here in the UK (much to my dismay!). Thanks!
Hi Sarah…you definitely won’t want to use chipotles. They’re a lot hotter than the Anaheim (or New Mexico) chilies used in this recipe. My best guess is to used chili powder, but I have no clue how much. I’ve sent a message to Arsy asking her what she thinks and I’ll let you know.
I lived in Scotland for 4 months last year…very eye opening in terms of the difference in availability!
I talked to Arsy. She said 2-3 chipotles will work.
Thank you! Definitely going to try this at the weekend.
Love this recipe , unfortunately my son is allergic to tomatoes. Any ideas for substitutions? Thanks!
I can’t think of anything :/
I would love the chance to win this book,
I have New Mexico chile powder, how much should I use because I do not have the dried whole pepper. Also, did you ever get an answer about the jarred/canned tomatoes? I’m going to make this on Sunday and I have a feeling my kids will like it, too, assuming I don’t make it too hot.
If you’re using chili powder, use 1 tbsp. For canned tomatoes, I just got the answer: one 14.5 oz can with the juice.
How would this be with 100% cacao chocolate? so that it would be whole 30 compliant?
It would be compliant with cocoa or cacao.
but would it still taste good? or does it need that little extra sweetness?
The cocoa powder in this recipe is unsweetened, as would be the cacao. It doesn’t add sweetness, just depth of flavor 🙂
Hi! I have the same question…this recipe calls for 2 1/2 oz of dark chocolate (at least 70%), not 100% cocoa powder. To make it Whole30 compliant, would you use 2 1/2 oz of cocoa powder or a smaller amount? Thanks for all your great recipes!
I found this on a website for chocolate substitutions: 3 level tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder and 1 tablespoon butter, margarine or shortening for every 1-ounce unsweetened baking chocolate. For Whole30, just use ghee or coconut oil instead of the butter.
Hey Steph! Can’t wait to try this tomorrow. Quick question – if I wanted to use cocoa powder instead of chocolate, how much would I use? 1 Tbs?
Hey Maura! Try 1 tablespoon then go from there 🙂
So I made a Whole30 version of this, using the suggested cocoa powder & ghee as a substitution for the chocolate, and also did not include the almond butter because my body does not like nuts. The result came out very bitter – is there any way for me to fix this without adding sugar, since sugar isn’t allowed on Whole30? Or am I just out of luck & have to throw it away? 🙁
Hi Jen…unfortunately I don’t have any feedback for you since Arsy from rubiesandradishes.com created the recipe, but I can say that omitting an ingredient can change the intended flavor of the dish. Why not try softening a dried date with water, then blending it up and adding it for a bit of sweetness?
I’m eating it now! I used unsweetened chocolate. I think it caused it to be a little too bitter for my taste, so I added a little coconut sugar and it is much tastier!
Thanks for the recipe!!!
Thanks for yet another amazing meal! I served everything on top of sliced red cabbage, and we loved it.
You’re very welcome, Donna! Arsy did a great job with that recipe!
Is it possible to just use FRESH New Mexico chiles?
Sure if you can find them. If they’re out of season, it’s very hard to find them fresh.
Made this last night and it was pretty good, felt like it was missing some depth. Used 2 tbs of cocoa powder based on comments on here. Used an immersion blender before adding the chicken to create a mole ‘sauce’, much easier! Also used thighs and breasts and threw them in the crockpot raw and just cooked them longer. Need to figure out what to add for next time!
Hi Jenn,
Maybe Arsy will chime in here. Since it’s her recipe I’m not really sure what she would recommend.
Hey,
According to the whole30 site no dark chocolate is allowed. Can you substitute with cocao powder and if so how much?
I think if you scroll back through the comments the suggestion was 2 tbsp 🙂
Made this, and it was good. We made a few tweaks, which is no indicative of a poor recipe, but that my husband has the palate of 3 year old amid a temper tantrum. Next time though, I would blend the sauce ingredients before pouring into my cooker. The skin from the peppers for some reason stayed kinda tough, and was offputting. I soaked for 3 hours, but next time I’ll try longer…maybe that will help too. Anyway. Flavor wise-delish!
Hi Jen! Glad you found ways to make it your own 🙂
Awesome and delicious! I’ve made it a couple of times and it never disappoints.
So glad to hear it 🙂
This looks great! Couldn’t find Guajillo chili powder… What would be a good substitute? Ancho chili powder? Regular chili powder?
Hi Angie…I would probably use ancho. It’s a bit less spicy but unlike regular chili powder it won’t have any other ingredients in it.
Thanks! I’ll give the Ancho a try!
Hi Steph,
Love the recipes you post, but whenever I try to pin them to Pinterest (from your blog or Facebook), I get an error message telling me to disable my pop-up blocker… but it is disabled and I only have this difficulty with Stupid Easy Paleo. Any thoughts? Tricks? I imagine it is something simple on my end, but I’m not sure what as I’ve checked repeatedly and my pop-up blocker is definitely disabled.
Thanks!
Hi Lisa,
Would you give me more details so I can troubleshoot it for you? Which browser and type of device are you on? Have you tried to restart your browser, restart your device, and clear your cache?
We have tested it on our end and there are no problems pinning right from the post so it appears it may not be a global issue.
Thanks!
Hi Steph,
Thanks so much for getting back to me!
I am on an iPhone 6+ using Safari. I have tried restarting my browser, restarting my device, and clearing my cache… still no luck. I click to pin, the images pop up, but when I click on an image to pin, I get the error message “stephgaudreau.com – please disable your pop-up blocker” ?
It is very odd… I’m certain it’s not a widespread issue or you would have heard about it before now. I’ll drop by the Apple Store the next time I’m nearby and see if the folks there have any thoughts… could just be something buggy with my device.
Thanks again for checking and getting back to me…. and thanks for all the great content you put out! Always my favorite!! ?
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
Ahhhhh okay, I’ve tested it on my iPhone 6s and I do see the issue you’re running into. It appears to be with the plugin we use to give share options. I did get it to successfully pin with the Pin option on each individual photo instead of using the share option at the bottom of the post.
I will do a bit more digging and see if I can remedy that. I don’t think you need to go to the Apple store…it seems to be a problem with the global share options.
Thanks for the feedback…you helped narrow it down!
You’re welcome <3
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