Mulato chile: the one mislabeled as ancho
Mulato and ancho are both dried poblanos and are sold interchangeably in the US. How to tell them apart with a light bulb, and why swapping them changes a mole.
- Heat (Scoville)
- 500–3,000
- Recipes here
- 0
- Also sold as
- mulato pepper, chile mulato
Where to buy in the US: This is the chile most often mislabeled in US stores. Bags marked 'ancho' frequently hold mulato, or a mix of both. The light-bulb test below settles it in two seconds and works through the plastic.
Both the mulato and the ancho are the same plant: a poblano left to ripen on the bush and then dried. What separates them is which poblano.
The ancho comes from the strain that ripens red. The mulato comes from one that ripens to a deep brown, almost black. Same species, same drying, two different chiles at the end — and two different flavors.
The light-bulb test
Hold the chile up to a bulb or a bright window and look through the flesh.
- Ancho: the light comes through reddish, like a garnet.
- Mulato: it comes through brown or nearly black, with no red in it.
It works through the bag, so you can do it in the store aisle. This matters in the US more than in Mexico, because bags labeled “ancho” here often hold mulato, or a mix — the two look identical at a glance and get combined in packing.
The mildest chile here
500 to 3,000 Scoville, and the low end of that is genuinely negligible. A mulato is milder than an ancho and much milder than a jalapeño.
If you have read elsewhere that mulato is a hot chile, or that it outpaces guajillo, that page is wrong. It is among the mildest chiles in the Mexican pantry, and that is the entire point of it: it is there for flavor, not for heat.
What it tastes like
Where the ancho gives you raisin and prune — bright, red, fruity sweetness — the mulato goes darker. Cocoa, licorice, a little dried cherry, and a faint tobacco note underneath.
Side by side the difference is obvious. The ancho tastes like dried fruit; the mulato tastes like unsweetened chocolate.
Why mole recipes name all three
A classic mole negro uses ancho, mulato and pasilla together, and cooks who substitute freely between them wonder why theirs never tastes right.
Each one is doing a separate job. The ancho brings sweetness and body. The mulato brings the dark chocolate depth and the color that makes a mole negro black. The pasilla brings a bitter, raisiny edge that keeps the whole thing from going cloying.
Drop the mulato and use double ancho and you get a mole that is sweeter, redder and flatter. It is not a small change.
Toasting it
Ten to fifteen seconds a side over medium-low, then twenty minutes in hot water.
Because it is nearly black already, color tells you nothing — go by smell, the same as with the meco. And this chile in particular turns bitter fast when scorched, since the sugars that make it sweet are the first thing to burn.
Buying and storing
It should still bend. A mulato that snaps has been on the shelf too long and has lost the volatile compounds that carry the cocoa note.
Look for skin that is wrinkled but intact, with a faint sheen. Matte, dusty, grey-looking chiles are old.
Sealed jar away from light, about a year.