Chicken Mole Recipe

People ask me all the time, "What is the best way to use your Mole Sauce?" That's easy. Make chicken mole and serve it with rice and veggies. Just place the chicken pieces in a roasting pan, cover it with Larry's Southwestern Mole Sauce and bake it in the oven. Easy and delicious!

Chicken Mole
1 16 oz jar Larry's Southwestern Mole Sauce or your favorite mole sauce
1 cut up whole chicken or three pounds of chicken thighs

1. Preheat the oven to 350' and warm the jar of Larry's Southwestern Mole Sauce or your favorite mole sauce in a medium cooking pot.
2. Place the chicken pieces in a large roasting pan and pour Larry's Mole Sauce over the chicken.
3. Cover the roasting pan with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 60 minutes or until the chicken is cooked to your liking.
4. Serve the Chicken Mole with rice and cooked zucchini or your favorite vegetable.
Serves 4 to 6

You can buy Larry's Southwestern Sauces online at www.larryssouthwesternsauces.com

Larry's Southwestern Sauces are all-natural Mexican cooking sauces to make chili, enchiladas, chicken mole, huevos rancheros, seafood, tacos or just to simmer your favorite meats in. Larry's Sauces come in three flavors; Mole, Chipotle and Ranchero. All are made with fresh jalapeno and cilantro and a premium blend of herbs and spices.

Larry's Southwestern Sauces are vegan and gluten-free, preservative-free and are made with no tree or ground nuts. Larry invented these sauces when he was a chef at a natural whole foods restaurant in the Midwest.

Larry's Mole, Chipotle and Ranchero Sauces are now available at Healthy Living in Burlington, VT and Northville Supermarket in New Milford, CT. Also at Shop Rite, Price Chopper, Honest Weight Food Coop, Albany, NY, Belfast Coop Store, Belfast, ME, Guido's Fresh Marketplace, Great Barrington, MA, Adam's Fairacre Farms, Hudson Chatham Winery in Columbia County, 25 more stores in the Hudson Valley and New England and in 26 Whole Foods Markets in New England. The list of stores keeps growing.


August 22, 2011

Larry's Southwestern Sauces in the Times Union

New York Acquires a Southwest TasteLarry Sombke plans to find a national market for his sauces.

The idea of Mexican cooking sauces made in upstate New York catching fire across the country might seem improbable, but Larry Sombke is trying to make it happen.

Sombke, a cooking and gardening expert from Delmar who has authored six cookbooks, developed his own Mexican sauces years ago when he was a chef at a natural foods restaurant in Missouri.

It wasn't until about two years ago that he realized that there aren't many -- if any -- authentic Mexican cooking sauces on supermarket shelves.

Sombke was reading a recipe for a pulled-pork dish in a lifestyle magazine that used salsa as the main seasoning for the meat. Salsa is usually used in Mexican foods as a condiment, but more complex sauces are used for simmering meat and in recipes for classics like huevos rancheros.

That's when it hit Sombke that there may be pent-up demand for Mexican cooking sauces. His wife suggested he make a business out of it.

"All right, there is a market here," Sombke remembers saying.

After reading a newspaper article about a local restaurateur who was bottling his own marinades and sauces, Sombke turned to Nelson Farms in Cazenovia outside Syracuse.

Nelson Farms is an agricultural-business incubator affiliated with Morrisville State College. It works with people starting their own food businesses -- helping with everything from coming up with a concept to preparing and packaging the product to sales and marketing.

"They helped me through the whole process and how to take a home recipe and make it into a store product," Sombke said.

Sombke developed three sauces. His mainstay rancheros sauce is made from tomatoes, jalapenos, cilantro and spices. A chipotle sauce has smoked chili peppers and a mole made with cocoa. They sell under the name Larry's Southwestern Sauces for between $5.99 and $6.99 a jar.

Sombke started hawking his sauce at local farmers markets and pitching the product to supermarkets, big and small. That effort has been so successful that Larry's Southwestern Sauces are now carried in 75 stores in New York and New England, including 26 Whole Foods. Price Chopper in March started carrying sauces in 10 of its stores. He's targeting New York City and has a broker in Colorado to market the sauces in that state as well as Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, hotbeds for Mexican cuisine.

Sombke is now producing and packaging his sauces at Casa Visco in Schenectady, which in addition to making its own pasta sauces bottles private label products.

Adine Viscusi, an owner of Casa Visco, says most of its private label business is pasta sauce, but the Mexican sauces are a good fit since they are both tomato-based.

"We're glad to help him out," Viscusi said. "We started out as a small business too."

Despite the grand plans for expansion beyond of the Capital Region, Sombke says his going to local farmers markets is invaluable. He spends time each week at those held in Delmar, Voorheesville and the Empire State Plaza in Albany.

"It's a perfect marketing tool," he says. "You can get feedback. You learn about pricing. They are just the perfect way to get the product into the market."

Ranchero Chicken Quesadillas

RANCHERO CHICKEN QUESADILLAS
Quesadillas filled with warm, tasty cheese is one of the most popular new snacks found in restaurants, pubs and family eateries everywhere. With the right ingredients, they are very easy to make at home. I've added chicken to the usual cheese to give this dish a little more protein and a good dollop of Larry's Southwestern Ranchero Sauce which I think you will find is a lot more satisfying that salsa from a jar.

Ranchero Chicken Quesadillas
1 16 oz jar Larry's Southwestern Ranchero Sauce or your favorite enchilada sauce
2 cups chopped or shredded baked or roasted chicken
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
8 whole wheat or regular flour tortillas
1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack of cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream

1. Warm the jar of Larry's Southwestern Ranchero Sauce or your favorite enchilada sauce in a medium cooking pot.
2. Mix the chicken and half of the sauce and cook until thoroughly warmed.
3. Warm a large skillet over medium heat and lightly coat it with vegetable oil.
4. Place a tortilla in the skillet, spoon a portion of Larry's Ranchero Sauce and chicken over the tortilla. Sprinkle cheese over that and cover with another tortilla.
5. Cook the quesadilla for 2 to 3 minutes, flip it over and cook for another 2 to three minutes. Repeat.
6. Remove the quesadillas from the skillet, cut into four sections each and serve with the sour cream and the remaining Larry's Ranchero Sauce.
Serves 4.

You can buy Larry’s Southwestern Sauces online at www.larryssouthwesternsauces.com

Larry’s Southwestern Sauces are all-natural Mexican cooking sauces to make chili, enchiladas, chicken mole, huevos rancheros, seafood, tacos or just to simmer your favorite meats in. Larry’s Sauces come in three flavors; Mole, Chipotle and Ranchero. All are made with fresh jalapeno and cilantro and a premium blend of herbs and spices.

Larry’s Southwestern Sauces are vegan and gluten-free, preservative-free and are made with no tree or ground nuts. Larry invented these sauces when he was a chef at a natural whole foods restaurant in the Midwest.

Larry’s Mole, Chipotle and Ranchero Sauces are now available at Healthy Living in Burlington, VT and Northville Supermarket in New Milford, CT. Also at Shop Rite, Price Chopper, Honest Weight Food Coop, Albany, NY, Belfast Coop Store, Belfast, ME, Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, Great Barrington, MA, Adam's Fairacre Farms, Hudson Chatham Winery in Columbia County, 25 more stores in the Hudson Valley and New England and in 26 Whole Foods Markets in New England. The list of stores keeps growing.

Give them a try. When people taste them they buy them!

August 15, 2011

Ranchero Beef Tacos

Dozens of moms and dads tell me they have switched over to using Larry's Southwestern Ranchero Sauce to make tacos for their kids rather than the packets of taco seasoning powder they had been using. They like the fact that Larry's Ranchero Sauce is made with healthy all-natural ingredients and that their kids like the the flavor. Rather than using ground beef for these tacos, you could easily substitute ground turkey or chicken to suit your family's taste buds.



Ranchero Beef Tacos
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1 pound lean ground beef, turkey or chicken
1 16 oz jar Larry's Southwestern Ranchero Sauce or your favorite ranchero sauce
8 to 10 crunchy corn tortillas
1 cup finely shredded lettuce
1 cup shredded cheddar or Monterrey Jack cheese

1. Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet, add the ground beef and cook through.
2. Pour one 16 oz. jar of Larry's Southwestern Ranchero Sauce or your favorite ranchero sauce over the meat and cook for ten minutes, stirring often.
3. Fill the tacos shells with ranchero meat sauce, sprinkle on the cheese and lettuce and serve.
Serves 4.

Larry’s Southwestern Sauces are all-natural Mexican cooking sauces to make chili, enchiladas, chicken mole, huevos rancheros, seafood, tacos or just to simmer your favorite meats in. Larry’s Sauces come in three flavors; Mole, Chipotle and Ranchero. All are made with fresh jalapeno and cilantro and a premium blend of herbs and spices.

Larry’s Southwestern Sauces are vegan, gluten-free, preservative-free and are made with no tree or ground nuts. Larry invented these sauces when he was a chef at a natural whole foods restaurant.

You can buy Larry’s Southwestern Sauces online at www.larryssouthwesternsauces.com

Mole Chicken Tacos Recipe

MOLE CHICKEN TACOS RECIPE

Chicken Mole is a popular and richly delicious Mexican stew served with warm corn tortillas. But there is no reason why you can't make quick and easy Mole Chicken Tacos using the same ingredients. This recipe calls for already-roasted chicken, minced onion and lettuce and a warm mole sauce. I prefer the best corn tortillas you can find, or if you prefer, you can use small wheat tortillas or the new tortillas made with a blend of whole wheat and corn.
Chicken Mole Tacos
1 16 oz jar Larry's Southwestern Mole Sauce or your favorite mole sauce
1 pound shredded or cubed baked or roasted chicken
12 corn or whole wheat tortillas
1 medium white or red onion finely chopped
3 cups finely shredded lettuce or green cabbage.
(Bagged undressed cole slaw works great)

1. Warm the jar of Larry's Southwestern Mole Sauce in a medium cooking pot.
2. Add the chicken and cook until thoroughly warmed.
3. Warm the tortillas in the microwave or on the stove top until just soft and pliable.
4. Fill each tortilla with a scoop of chicken mole, a sprinkle of onion and lettuce or cabbage and serve.
5. Each person gets 3 tacos.
Serves 4.

Larry’s Southwestern Sauces are all-natural Mexican cooking sauces to make chili, enchiladas, chicken mole, huevos rancheros, seafood, tacos or just to simmer your favorite meats in. Larry’s Sauces come in three flavors; Mole, Chipotle and Ranchero. All are made with fresh jalapeno and cilantro and a premium blend of herbs and spices.

Larry’s Southwestern Sauces are vegan and gluten-free, preservative-free and are made with no tree or ground nuts. Larry invented these sauces when he was a chef at a natural whole foods restaurant in the Midwest.

You can buy Larry’s Southwestern Sauces online at www.larryssouthwesternsauces.com