Have you ever eaten Pozole? It is soup of Mexican origin. There are 2 basic kinds, pork and chicken. The pork is red and the chicken is white. What makes them Pozole is the hominy. It is typically made at Christmas because it a long time to make. IF you make it from scratch! The first time I ate it was at a little 3 table restaurant called Byby's. I was hooked immediately and wanted to learn how to prepare this most wonderous soup.
This turned out to be quite the journey. I had no Mexican friends and no one I knew had made it before. Internet search on! Not the results I wanted but I was getting ideas. Like many recipes for traditional foods, each household, state, town, whatever will have it own variation. But the basics are the same. A mild broth with hominy and chili guajillo. Then you top it with sliced radish, cabbage, onion and a good squeeze of lime. And if you want heat, you may add a small dry chili japones which are real hot! A woman I went to school with told me she made red pozole but with chicken instead of pork. Her kids like the chicken better than pork and invited me over to try her soup. It was marvelous and I liked it better than the pork also. The lady that worked at the laundry mat where I wash my clothes gave me her recipe. After that I would ask every hispanic woman how they made it. Keep in mind that not every hispanic is Mexican. But I finally have an easy recipe for red chicken pozole that is not from scratch and is a little expensive for that reason.
1 rotisserie chicken
4 cartons of chicken stock or broth
1 onion finely chopped
4 -5 cloves of garlic, more if you want, chopped
Mexican oregano
1/2 of 1 small bag of chili guajillo - maybe 5 or 6.
2 28 oz cans of pozole drained
In a large pot, saute onion and half of garlic in a small amount of olive oil, slowly. When clear, put chicken with juice from bottom of container and all the stock/broth and bring to a boil. Add a palm of oregano to soup. But you need to rub it between your hands when you do to break it up. Simmer until chicken if falling off the bone.
Rinse chilis and remove woody tops. Put in a pot a cover with hot water and allow to soften while chicken is cooking. When the chilis are soft, put half in a blender with some of the water that you soaked them in along with the other half of chopped garlic. I use my kitchen shears to make smaller pieces first. Blend until smooth. Strain well and set aside. Repeat with the rest of the chilis.
When the chicken is done, remove from pot and when cool enough to handle, remove skin and bones. Cut unto small bite size pieces and return to pot. Add strained chili mixture and the cans of drained pozole. Simmer for about 1/2 an hour.
Serve with the following on top of soup to taste.
Sliced radish
Chopped white cabbage
Several dry peppers like Chili Japones
Squeeze fresh lime juice over all
Variations abound for making pozole. Some women toasted the peppers before soaking them. Some add all the garlic to the chilis in the blender. Some saute all of the garlic. I do half and half. Be careful with the chilis because the can have dirt in them like leeks do. Restaurants serve it with raw onions but I don't care for them. I like a lot of lime juice! Some places serve it with chopped lettuce instead of cabbage. I believe that is a regional thing. I serve the cabbage at room temperature otherwise it brings the temp of the soup down real fast. And who likes cold soup?
