Mexican Name Finder
Main dishSpanishPuebla

Mole poblano

"Puebla-style sauce"

Say it

MOH·leh poh·BLAH·noh

Built from

mōllisauce+Spanish poblanofrom Puebla

What Mole poblano means

Mole poblano is a Mexican main dish name of Spanish origin meaning "Puebla-style sauce". It is built from mōlli (sauce) and Spanish poblano (from Puebla). It is pronounced MOH-leh poh-BLAH-noh, and it is most associated with Puebla.

The name says only where it comes from. The convent legend crediting a nun at Santa Rosa with inventing it for a visiting viceroy is nineteenth-century storytelling.

This is a site about what Mexican words mean, so there is no recipe here. For the name itself: The plated dishes, most named for a cooking method or a place. Cochinita pibil is pork cooked in a píib, the Maya earth oven. Barbacoa gave English the word barbecue. Chiles en nogada is named for the walnut sauce that covers it.

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Mole poblano means Puebla-style sauce

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