Dave Woolley
Director of Culinary
Buffalo Wild Wings

Mole-Style Beans with Shredded Chicken Tacos

Recipe courtesy of Chef Dave Woolley

Sponsor: Bush’s Best

Servings: 25

Ingredients

Mole Beans:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 slices bacon, finely chopped
• 1 med onion, minced
• 1 tsp finely minced garlic
• 1/4 cup puréed chipotle chile
• ¾ cup dark brown sugar
• ½ cup tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp chili powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin, toasted
• ½ tsp ground coriander, toasted
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• 2 tsp ground ancho chile
• 1 (#10) can Bush’s Taco Fiesta Beans
• As needed salt and freshly ground pepper
• 10 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped

Chicken:

• 12 large chicken thighs, bone-in, skin-on
• 1 tsp smoked salt
• ½ tsp smoked brown sugar
• ¼ tsp ground smoked black pepper

Guacamole:

• 2 avocados, diced in the skin and scooped out
• 1 lime
• 1 cup finely crumbled queso fresco
• 2 tsp chopped cilantro
• ¼ cup corn kernels, roasted
• ½ tsp Tajín

For Serving:

• 1 cup fine julienne/matchstick jicama
• ¼ cup red vinegar
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 cup sour cream
• 5 limes
• 2 cups fresh pico de gallo
• 25 corn tortillas, warmed

Directions

1. For the Mole Beans: Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Add the bacon and cook until softened, about 2 minutes or until the bacon has rendered a decent amount of fat. Then add the onion and cook over moderate heat until softened, 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional 3 minutes or until all the ingredients start to slightly brown. Stir in the chipotle, brown sugar, tomato paste, chili powder, cumin, coriander, paprika and ancho.
2. Drain off half of the liquid of the beans and add the beans and remaining liquid to the mole. Cover and simmer over low heat until the sauce has thickened, about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. You can simmer the beans on low for up to 1 hour. Only right before serving, stir in the chocolate well, ensuring it has all melted evenly.
3. For the Chicken: Season the chicken with the smoked salt, sugar and pepper. In a 350-degree F oven, spread the seasoned chicken on a sheet pan and roast for 30 minutes, or until you have achieved an internal temperature on the bone of 165 degrees F. Set aside to cool, but only until the chicken is warm and not too hot.
4. Once cool enough to touch, pull the chicken skin off and discard, then proceed to pull all the meat off the bone. Using a fork, slightly shred the chicken to reasonable bite size. Then set aside and keep warm.
5. For the Guacamole: In a bowl, add the diced avocado, juice of 1 lime, 2 tsp of the queso cheese, 1 tsp of the cilantro, the roasted corn and ½ tsp of Tajín seasoning. Smash, mix together and season with salt as needed. Garnish the guacamole with the remaining 1 tsp of cilantro. Cover tightly and set aside.
6. For Serving: In a bowl, blend the jicama, honey and vinegar. Season with salt only and set aside for up to 24 hours before using.
7. Blend the sour cream with the juice of 2 limes, mix well and store in squirt bottle for future use. Cut the remaining 3 limes into wedges.
8. Put the remaining queso fresco in a bowl, the pico de gallo in another bowl, and the tortillas in a warmer.
9. To serve, I like to use these preparations as more of a taco spread, so bowl or plate up the components individually, and present them for the customer to assemble. I also like to serve with my favorite hot sauce.

Chef Notes

The beans can be made up to 2 days ahead. Rewarm and stir in the chocolate just before serving. In fact, I recommend highly making these beans the day before, then cool, reheat, and add the chocolate right before you serve. This allows further development of the flavors. You could use a high-quality chocolate fudge sauce to fold into the hot beans instead of the unsweetened chocolate. If finding the smoked salt, pepper and brown sugar is difficult, just replace with unsmoked OR use a smoker to prepare the chicken. The smokiness of chicken does go nicely, though, with the mole beans.

Project Management: Summit F&B Photography: Carlos Garcia // Food Styling: Peg Blackley & Bree Williams