Pozole

May 2, 2014
Food,Recipes

Pozole is comfort food at its finest– a steaming bowl of tender pork and hominy in a deep red but light chile broth. My good friend Ofelia first introduced me to this Mexican stew and I instantly fell in love. Pozole is her dish. Any time she has a day off, she’ll make a big pot of pozole. Like any good cook, her method is imprecise but the results are always spot-on as a result of years of practice. Thankfully, I’ve watched her make this long enough to pick up a few of her tricks. She usually uses pork neck bones, but those can be hard to find so I’ve used pork shoulder here, which works great. This is the kind of dish that calls for improvisation so make it your own. So how does one eat pozole? I love it overloaded with tons of shredded cabbage, avocado, salsa, cilantro, onions, lime, tostadas and a sprinkle of McCormick’s Mexican oregano. Check out my video below on how it all comes together!

Pozole

Ingredients:

  • 3.5-4 pounds of pork shoulder (with bone in)
  • 6 quarts of water
  • 12-14 dried New Mexican chiles
  • 5 cloves of garlic
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 1 teaspoon of McCormick® ground cumin
  • 2 29-oz. cans of hominy
  • sea or kosher salt

Garnish:

Chiles

Fill a large stockpot with the 6 quarts of water. Cut pork shoulder into large pieces (trimming and discarding some of the large pieces of fat) and try to cut most of the meat off the bone. It’s okay if you can’t get most of the meat off the bone as it will fall off as it cooks. Cut onion in half down the middle of the stem so the layers stay together. Add meat (and the bone), cumin, garlic, onion, and 2 tablespoons of salt to the water. Bring to a boil and simmer, skimming the scum that forms on the surface.Hominy and chiles

While the stock is simmering, drain hominy and add the hominy into the soup. Add chiles to a medium pot and add enough water to just cover the chiles. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes with the lid on until they are pliable. Drain and allow chiles to cool and remove stems and the seeds inside. Place all the deseeded and destemed chiles in a blender and blend adding enough water to liquify the chiles. Strain through a fine mesh sieve and add the strained chile sauce to the soup.

Chile sauce

Simmer the pozole with the lid on for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the pork is tender and breaks apart easily. Add more salt if needed. Also, pozole is even better the next day!

Pozole

Garnish with shredded cabbage, Mexican oregano, avocado, salsa, diced onion and cilantro, lime wedges, and tostadas.


Pozole

(images by HonestlyYUM; music by Tamacun by Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Conversation

I ambitiously made this tonight for our family Christmas Eve dinner. It was a HIT! Thank you so much for your straight forward recipe and easy to understand directions. Even my finicky father-in-law raved about it!

Could this be made in a slow cooker? Or maybe a pressure cooker?

Yes absolutely! Although, I’m not sure if the hominy will hold up in either, so to be safe I would add them at the end.

Hi: This looks very good.
Just one question: When you include the ingredient “tostadas,” do you actually mean “tortillas?” I believe a “tostada” is a dish (for example, a crisp corn tortilla, with refried beans, lettuce, cheese, etc), whereas, a “tortilla,” is the round corn flat bread that forms the base of the tostada.

A tostada is just the crisp corn tortilla (and a dish!). You can usually find them in the supermarket aisle next to regular tortillas.

This is one of my favorite soups. What brand of canned hominy do you guys use? When I make it, I start with nixtamal corn. The flavor is amazing, but it is a lot of work! Would be nice sometimes to use canned hominy 😉

Definitely comfort food. This looks delicious and I love the video.

oh this looks so comforting… must try with your drink for the cinco! x

Thanks. I was looking for a new and different recipe for Cinco de Mayo. I’ve found it.

I love trying new recipes and this looks like one for me. I have never had Pozole but if it is a ‘stew’ I’m ready to try it out. 🙂

oooOOoooh! i’ve never had pozole, but it looks and sounds delicious!!

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