This Is My All-Time Favorite Chicken Recipe
On my last trip to the Bay Area, I landed at SFO and went right to La Guerrera’s Kitchen in Oakland, their famous tamales on my brain. But by the time I arrived, just after noon on a Sunday, they had sold out. Lucky for me, chef Ofelia Barajas and her daughter Reyna Maldonado were both working behind the counter of the airy, open kitchen, and they recommended I try the chicken mole instead. It was just cool enough on the patio that by the time I settled into a picnic table with my paper plate of chicken, draped in a velvety red sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds, I was grateful for the accompanying stack of fresh tortillas, made with fresh-ground masa. One swipe of the mole sauce, smoky and warming, shook off my jet lag. Later, Barajas shared that the mole was her grandmother Jovita Vargas’ recipe from