Pork Tacos with Quick and Easy Mole Sauce

I put chocolate in my taco sauce...and I liked it!

Who knew Mole Sauce could be so easy?

I'll admit, it felt strange to be dropping a hunk of a Hershey bar into my taco sauce but the flavor that was left behind quickly made me get over my uneasiness and as the chocolate melted was incredible and it provided such a depth of flavor, I'm not sure I'll ever go back to making them any other way.  I've had mole sauce at restaurants and I love it but anytime I think of making it just seems like the type of project that needs to be reserved for a rainy Sunday so that I can make sure I'm home for hours upon end to let a mob of ingredients simmer together until they turn delicious.  Apparently, I proved myself wrong by making up an abbreviated mole sauce in about 30 minutes flat.

Pork Tacos with (easy!) Mole Sauce

Not to mention, this was so easy to pull together, it's perfect for a weeknight meal.  Of course, chicken or beef would work here too or you could even make these veggie style with some meatier vegetables like mushrooms and eggplants as your base.

Pork Tenderloin swimming in Mole Sauce

Saucy Pork

Roughly based off of a mole sauce, these pork tacos packed a spicy punch (thank you chipotle) and then were cooled down by a bit of smooth, rich, sweet chocolate.  Simply put folks, this one's a keeper.

Pork Tacos with Quick and Easy Mole Sauce
1 pork tenderloin
Salt and Pepper (enough to lightly coat the pork)
2 tbs chipotle sauce
1/2 onion chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 small can tomato sauce
1 tbs cumin
1/2 tsp coriander
A couple pinches of cinnamon
1/4 chocolate bar (I used Hershey's)
A couple pinches cinnamon
Cheddar Jack and Sour Cream (garnish)
Soft Corn Tortiallas or regular taco shells

Start by coating the pork in a thin layer of olive oil.  Dust it with salt and pepper and bake the pork at 400 until the juices run clear (about 30 minutes or so, depending on your oven temp).  While the pork is cooking, on the stove top, fry up the onions in a little bit of salt and heat them until they start to get translucent (about 5-7 minutes).  Add chopped garlic and fry it up for another couple of minutes.  At this point, add the tomato and chipotle sauces as well as the cumin, coriander, cinnamon and chocolate.  Stir to combine and then cover the pot with the lid and let it simmer, preferably for 20 minutes to a half hour.

Once the pork is done, let it rest for about 10 minutes and then thinly slice it and dump it into the mole sauce.  Let this simmer for about another 5 minutes or so just to let the sauce soak into the pork.  Then, take the taco shells and stuff them (I baked some soft corn tortillas until they got nice and crispy but regular taco shells work just fine here as well) with toppings of your choosing.  (I kept it simple with Cheddar Jack cheese and a bit of sour cream on the side).