Pozole

Pozlole -- what is it? Well the word "pozole" means hominy, which you'll find in this soup. But there is plenty of meat (beef, pork or chicken) in this comfort food, too. Pozole is a very traditional soup dating back to the Aztecs. It's served at weddings, birthdays, quinceañeras, holidays, when the weather gets chilly out or after a night of drinking. Most restaurants serve this soup on the weekends because it really is hangover food from the gods!

A six-quart pot

Hominy - I usually buy the white hominy, Mexican style, medium sized can

4 Dry California Chiles and 4 Guajillo Chiles

2 lbs of pork butt or pork shoulder with the bone in. I buy it with bone because it's usually cheaper.

2 lbs of beef neck bones. Make sure to use bone here -- a lot of the flavor comes from the bones.

1 large white onion

1 head of garlic

Salt as needed to your taste

Metal strainer sieve

Garnish: limes/lemons, onion, cabbage or lettuce, radishes, oregano

Dried Chiles

Hominy

Metal Sieve

Take 5 garlic cloves and blend them with 6 cups of water. Blend until you have garlic water and put it all in the pot.

I love my Vita Mix blender and use it often. If you don't have a Vita Mix, any blender will work.

Vita Mix Blender

Fill your pot half way with filtered water and garlic

Cut your onion in half and peel the dry skin off

Take the half and cut it in half again. Add these two quarter-onion chunks to the pot.

The first pic is 2 lbs of beef neck bones. These are essential to use in any Mexican soup with beef because the neck bones really add a lot of flavor.

All other pics are of the pork butt. I cut it into cubes. Pork adds a ton of flavor as well, especially the fat.

Using lean meats here is fine, and chicken is a great alternative. If I make chicken pozole I like using the drums and thighs but you can use the breast. Pozole can be a very lean and healthy soup but I prefer the good old traditional comfort soup I grew up with.

Throw all the meat into the pot with the onions.

Set your burner on high and put the lid on your pot. Stick around and wait for it to boil. Now is a good time to clean up. When your pot begins to boil, turn it down to simmer. You will want this to simmer with the lid on for at least 2 hours.

This is a good time to start preparing your chiles.

You will notice a film on top of the water. Use a spoon and remove as much as you can.

Add 2 tsp of salt.

Put the lid back on and simmer for another hour or two. Add more water if needed, just to cover the meat.

After 2-3 hours of simmering, turn off the burner and remove the onion from the pot. Save the onions to blend with the chiles later on.

It's your choice if you want to remove the fat from your soup. It was cold in my house and the fat congealed after the soup cooled down, so I took it out.

Soak all 8 chiles for about an hour in warm water.

Put a clean bowl next to the bowl of soaking chiles. Once the chiles are soft, deseed them one by one and move them into the clean bowl. Leave the chili seeds and stems in the bowl with chili water. Save the chili water! Use the sieve to strain out the seeds and stems.

Combine the cooked onions, 5 garlic cloves, chiles, and the water your chiles were soaking in. Blend until smooth.

Combine your blended chiles and 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a pan. Cook for about 10 mins over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Keep the lid off so some of the water steams out.

Take a fine sieve and strain the blended chile into the soup. Use the back of your spoon to smash the chile against the sieve. Try to get all the chile you can into the pot here.

Open your can of hominy and drain the water from it.

Add the hominy to your pozole and let the soup simmer for about 30-40 mins.

Your pozole is ready to eat!

Squeeze a wedge of lime in it and top it with dried oregano, shredded cabbage or lettuce, fresh diced white onion, and dried red pepper flakes or any hot sauce you enjoy.

I like to heat up corn tortillas or make quesadillas and dip them into the soup. You can either keep you pozole in the fridge for 2-3 days or freeze in individual plastic jars to serve at a later date.

Enjoy!