What Is Posole & How to Make It At Home
Posole is a traditional Mexican dish from the pacific coast region of Jalisco. A thick soup that’s usually made with pork, hominy, garlic, onion, chili peppers, cilantro, and broth.
My neighbor Debbie found this recipe in a great looking cookbook that she just lent me called The Feast of Santa Fe by Huntley Dent.
This is a good recipe but I have learned a simpler, just as tasty recipe from my friend Paula who is from Mexico, is an incredible cook and never uses a recipe. She also always uses what’s on hand and if we don’t have one ingredient, she just finds something to substitute and her dishes always turn out great.
Check out Paula’s Posole recipe after this one fromThe Feast of Santa Fe.
What is Hominy?
If you remove bran (also known as the pericarp) and the germ from a kernel of corn, you are left with the endosperm or sometimes called hominy. When the hominy is ground, we have what is commonly called “hominy grits”, a popular dish in the south.
UPDATE Notes: 2/28/99 – My wife and I made this last night for some friends and came up with some additional ideas. We didn’t add the optional jalapenos because we mistakenly purchased a couple of milder Anaheim chili peppers.
One of our guests suggested roasting them on our gas stove, slicing them, and adding them to the Posole. Great idea. Added another layer of flavor.
The next night we had the Posole leftovers and it was tastier than the night before which leads me to suggest you make this dish the day before you are going to serve it. Not a conventional idea but how many times have you had leftovers that were better than the first night?
Serves 8 to 10 depending on whose doing the eating.
Click Here for Paula’s Mexican Posole Recipe
This is a simplified version of posole that is incredibly easy to prepare and has a mouthful of flavor with every spoonful AND gets better the next day. My friend Paula who is from Mexico and a wonder in the kitchen shows me how to prepare this dish and I’m amazed how simple she makes everything she does look.
She never measures anything out and uses what she can find in the refrigerator or in the pantry not depending on a recipe. Of course there are a few ingredients you must have like hominy and pork to make this dish, but then she gets creative and uses whatever ingredients she can find in the house.
Posole Recipe
Ingredients
- ½ onion stuck with 2 cloves
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 1 cup green chilies canned, chopped
- 1 whole jalapenos canned or fresh, chopped (optional)
- 1½ pounds pork shoulder
- 5 peppercorns
- ½ teaspoon whole cumin seed
- 1 pince oregano
- 1 onion peeled and chopped
- 2 cloves garlic chopped
- 2 tablespoon oil
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon cayenne
- 31 ounces hominy 2 - 15.5 ounce cans
- 4 cups pork broth from cooking pork shoulder
Instructions
- Prepare the ½ onion with the 2 cloves. Chop the green chilies and jalapenos if you are using them. Drain the hominy and rinse. Now you are ready to start cooking.
- Place the pork in a large saucepan and just cover with lightly salted water.
- Add the clove studded onion, 2 cloves of garlic, peppercorns, cumin seed, and oregano.
- Bring to a boil over medium heat, skim off any foam that rises, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove meat and broth, reserving both.
- Sauté the chopped onion and garlic in oil until translucent. Add the remaining spices, stir for a minute. Cut the reserved pork into 1 inch cubes and add to the pan.
- Stir in the canned hominy, pork broth (if there is not enough pork broth, add chicken stock), green chilies and jalapenos (optional).
- Cook at a simmer, covered, for 45 to 60 minutes until the meat and hominy are tender. If necessary, cook for up to an additional 60 minutes until the chilies and onions are well blended into the broth.
- De-grease the posole, taste for salt, and serve in soup bowls.
Notes
As any devoted Southwestern would know, there is no such thing as a chili pepper. It’s a chile, a pod-like vegetable grown by most Mexican households, and many Anglo households in the Southwest. The phrase chili pepper marks the user as an outsider. See the book DICTIONARY OF THE AMERICAN WEST under the entry CHILE.
P.S. Chile is also a stew of diced green chiles, onions, tomatillos, pork, and various spices. It is not the same thing as the stew chili, which was first popularized in Texas and is now canned and sold everywhere by such manufacturers as Horme, and consists of ground beef, tomatoes, beans, and tomato sauce, none of which go into chile.
Tara – good Posole recipe. I top it with cilantro, sliced radishes, avocado, lime, and grated cheese.
Thank you for posting this excellent recipe. I have made it many times over and the family really enjoys it.
True Posole does not use hominy. There is a vast difference in texture between posole corn and hominy. I cannot tell you why the difference, but growing up in New Mexico, only Yankees used hominy. Also, if you serve posole to a New Mexican that has cumin and cloves in it, be prepared to meet your maker. The main spice is Mexican oregano.