Wipe the dried chiles clean if dusty. Remove the stems and shake out the seeds. Tear the chiles open into large flat pieces. Heat a dry skillet over medium-low heat. Toast the chile pieces in batches for just a few seconds per side until fragrant and pliable. Press them lightly with a spatula as they toast. Do not let them blacken or scorch. Burnt chiles will make the entire mole bitter and muddy. Transfer the toasted chiles to a bowl and cover with hot water. Weigh them down with a small plate if needed and soak for 20 minutes until fully softened. The chiles should smell sweet, rich, and fruity, not acrid. After soaking, they should be soft and flexible all the way through. This brief, watched toast is calibrated specifically to wake up the chiles' own aromatic oils without crossing into scorched territory — that distinction matters more here than in almost any other stage of the recipe, since bitterness introduced at this point carries all the way through to the finished mole with no real way to correct it later.

While the chiles soak, place the tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and unpeeled garlic on a hot dry skillet, comal, or under a broiler. Roast until the tomatoes and tomatillos soften and blister, the onion has dark caramelized edges, and the garlic is softened inside its skins. Peel the roasted garlic once cool enough to handle. The vegetables should have visible char in spots for depth, but still taste sweet and juicy rather than burnt. Roasting the garlic in its skin protects the clove itself from direct scorching while still letting real heat build flavour — the skin acts as a buffer, allowing the garlic inside to soften and sweeten rather than burning the way a peeled clove exposed directly to the same heat would.

Heat the lard or oil in a medium pan over medium heat. Fry the almonds first until lightly golden, then remove. Fry the peanuts, then the pumpkin seeds, then the sesame seeds, removing each as soon as fragrant and lightly colored. Add the raisins and fry briefly until they puff slightly. Remove immediately. Fry the torn tortilla pieces until crisp and golden. Then fry the bread until golden and lightly toasted in the fat. Work in order and do not overcrowd the pan. Each ingredient should take on color and aroma, but none should become deeply brown or bitter. Sesame in particular can go from perfect to burnt very quickly. Frying each component separately and removing it individually, rather than combining everything in the pan at once, is what allows each ingredient to be pulled at its own specific ideal point — items with very different sizes and oil content, like delicate sesame seeds against denser almonds, simply don't reach their peak colour at the same rate.

In the now mostly dry pan, toast the cinnamon, cloves, peppercorns, allspice, coriander, cumin, and anise over low heat for 30–60 seconds, just until fragrant. Transfer immediately so they do not continue to cook in the hot pan. You should smell warm spice perfume clearly. If the spices smoke aggressively, they have gone too far. Transferring the spices out of the pan the moment they're toasted, rather than leaving them to cool in place, matters because a hot pan retains enough residual heat to keep cooking the spices even after the burner is off — that continued cooking in the pan can push already-toasted spices past their ideal point without any further active heat being applied.

Drain the softened chiles, reserving a little soaking liquid only if needed for blending. In batches if necessary, blend together the softened chiles, roasted tomatoes, tomatillos, onion, and garlic, fried almonds, peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, raisins, tortillas, and bread, toasted spices, and 500–700ml of the warm stock. Blend until very smooth. The mixture should be thick but pourable. Add more stock as needed to keep the blender moving. For the smoothest classic texture, pass the blended mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, pressing firmly with a ladle or spatula. The puree should be very smooth, with no obvious grit from skins or seeds. It should already taste complex, but still somewhat raw and unfinished. Straining through a fine sieve after blending catches whatever fibrous bits — chile skin, seed hulls, sesame husks — the blender itself couldn't fully break down, which is what produces the genuinely smooth, restaurant-style texture classic mole is known for rather than a coarser, more rustic result.

Heat 1–2 tablespoons more lard or oil in a heavy pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Pour in the strained mole base carefully — it may splutter. Stir constantly for the first few minutes as it thickens and darkens. Cook the paste for 10–15 minutes, stirring often and scraping the bottom so nothing catches. This frying stage is essential. It deepens the flavor, cooks out raw notes, and gives the finished sauce its signature sheen and richness. The paste should darken to a deeper mahogany-brown, smell rounder and toastier, and leave slow thick trails when stirred. This step is genuinely non-negotiable within the classic mole method — the blended paste, however carefully every individual component was prepared, still tastes distinctly raw and disjointed until it's actively fried in fat, a process that both concentrates and rounds out every flavour built up through the earlier stages into something cohesive.

Gradually whisk in the remaining warm stock until the sauce reaches a thick but spoonable consistency. It should coat the back of a spoon heavily but still flow. Add the Mexican chocolate, 15g brown sugar or piloncillo to start, and the salt. Simmer very gently over low heat for 25–35 minutes, stirring often, especially along the base and corners of the pot. If it becomes too thick, loosen with a little more stock or hot water. Taste and adjust: more salt if it tastes flat, a little more sugar if the bitter cocoa/chile edge feels too sharp, a little more stock if it feels heavy or pasty. The finished mole should taste balanced: chile depth first, then warm spice, sesame-nut richness, a gentle chocolate bitterness, and a mild sweet finish. The sauce is ready when it looks glossy, feels velvety on the palate, and the flavors taste integrated rather than separated. Stirring often along the base and corners specifically, rather than just the centre, protects against the sauce's own density — this thick a mixture is genuinely prone to catching and scorching in exactly those less-disturbed spots, which would introduce bitterness right at the final stage after everything else has been carefully protected from it.

Serve hot over chicken, turkey, pork, enchiladas, or roasted vegetables. If serving in the classic style, spoon the mole onto the plate or over the protein and finish with a light scattering of toasted white sesame seeds.