Chicken Pozole

Pozole is my comfort food. This is a hominy based soup and it is traditionally made with pork. This is a meal often made for large family gatherings as it is simple and inexpensive to make.

My mom always made this dish with pork meat. Now that we are older and my parents are becoming more health conscious, we have begun to make it with poultry. Honesty, it tastes just about the same and it takes even less time to make with chicken as the meat cooks much faster. 
Today I will be showing you the recipe for chicken posole, but I will definitely add the pork version later.

Garnish your pozole with dried oregano, shredded cabbage, and sliced radish. Always remember to have tortilla chips or preferably tostadas to eat with your pozole.

Side note: Hominy is usually sold in two sizes- 1 oz or 12 oz cans. I usually cook just for my husband and myself so in the photo below you will see that I have two 1oz cans. This is great for 2 people. If you are cooking for more than two I would just use one of the 12 oz cans as this is economically better.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken

16 cups of water

3 chiles California

3 chiles pasilla

½ yellow onion

1 garlic clove

Salt to taste (~ 1tbsp + 1/4 tsp)

1 12oz can of hominy

Step 1: Wash and clean the chicken. Place the chicken, water, onion, and salt into a large cooking pot. Bring to a boil on high heat. As soon as it is boiling, lower the heat to low and remove any gunk that may be on top of the soup with a large spoon.  Once the soup is clean place the lid on and leave it slightly ajar. Leave on a low simmer for about 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

* I test that the chicken is cooked by tasting a piece of the chicken breast. If it is soft, then it is cooked. If the meat is still rough, cook for longer. It helps to cut the chicken breasts in half so they cook faster.

Step 2: While the chicken is cooking, place the california and pasilla chilies with 1 garlic tooth in a small saucepan and pour enough water to cover the chilies. Bring to a boil.

* Remove the stems and the seeds from the inside before boiling. If you like very spicy food leave the seeds and just remove the stems.

* My recipe calls for 3 pasilla chilies. The thing about these chilies is that not all are a nice bright red color. I personally like to only use the bright red ones as these will give me a nice vibrant color to my soup. Therefore, I will add an extra two of the pasilla chilies so that I have extra to choose from when it comes time to use them.

Step 3: Let the chiles cool down. In a blender add the chilies and some of the water that was used to cook them. Blend everything together. You should end up with a thick red paste.

Step 4: Use a colander and sieve the red paste into the chicken soup.
*If needed, grab some chicken broth and pour it on top of the paste to make it easier to sieve.

Step 5: Wash and rinse the hominy. Pour it into the soup. Let it cook for an additional 15 minutes on low heat.

Done- Enjoy 😋

Top with dried oregano, shredded cabbage, and sliced radish.