How to make Pozole Rojo

I went all out on tonight’s dinner and it was so much fun! I have to thank my co-worker Lilly for telling me about this recipe! My sister had made a Mexican soup last week which included hominy. Now, I’ve passed the cans of hominy at the store, but I have never ever tried them before.

Facts about hominy:

According to Nutrition Data , per one cup serving is this:

Hominy is low in sat fat, very low in cholesterol and a good source of dietary fiber.

So, since I had never tried Hominy, I asked my friend at work if she had ever had it before and she said her Mom made Pozole. Pozole?? What’s that!

She described the dish, a pork and hominy stew with red chiles. After her description I was sold, I was making this dish!

When I looked on-line and there are of course tons of variations of the soup, but I chose a recipe from Epicurious because I thought that would be pretty trustworthy. I re-read the recipe probably a dozen times to make sure I was doing everything right. I thought their directions were kind of weird, so I will tell you how I made it.

Ingredients:

1 large head garlic
12 cups water
4 cups chicken broth
4 pounds country-style pork ribs
1 teaspoon dried oregano (preferably Mexican), crumbled
2 ounces dried New Mexico red chiles (seeds removed!)
1 1/2 cups boiling-hot water
1/4 large white onion
3 teaspoons salt
two 30-ounce cans white hominy (preferably Bush’s Best)
8 corn tortillas
about 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

Awesome Toppings!

diced avocado
thinly sliced iceberg or romaine lettuce
chopped white onion
diced radishes
lime wedges
dried oregano
dried hot red pepper flakes

Directions:

In a large pot, add 12 cups of water and 4 cups of chicken broth, the country-style ribs and 8 cloves of garlic which have been sliced. Bring that to a boil, then simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

Meanwhile, in a small plastic bowl, add the 2 oz. of dried chiles (it was about 8 dried chiles) to 1 1/2 cups of boiling water. Let steep for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. I should tell you the directions said to use protective gloves, but open the bottom of each pepper and shake the seeds out. They come out very easily.

After the meat has cooked, remove the meat from the pot. Skim off any fat from the top of the broth. Remove meat from the bones and place back into the pot. Add the oregano to the broth at this point.

Take the red chiles that have been re-hydrating with the liquid and add that to a blender with the white onion and 2 more cloves of garlic and 2 tsp. of salt. Blend until smooth.

Empty the cans of Hominy in a strainer and rinse them off. Add that to the pot with the pork/broth. Add the red chile sauce from the blender and 1 more teaspoon of salt (if desired). Cook for about 30 minutes on low.

While that was cooking, I sliced up some corn tortillas and made my own tortilla strips. Just cook in an inch of Canola oil for about 2 minutes. Let drain on a paper bag and sprinkle with salt.

Now, on the side in small bowls, you can have cut up avocado, diced radishes, chopped romaine lettuce, raw white onion, the tortilla strips, lime wedges, dried oregano and dried hot pepper flakes, red cabbage, sliced pickled jalapeno, red cabbage, etc… Just dish up the soup and let everyone put what toppings they want on top.

The best part, was my pickiest eater, Mark thought this was wonderful! Yeah!

This soup makes ALOT! So it will be nice to have for my leftovers at lunch this week!

I loved it! I loved the hominy, and all the mix-ins, I was so excited when it was done, because it was an all afternoon kind of soup to make. The only thing I would do differently next time is try it with boneless/skinless chicken breast. The pork ribs were easy to get the meat off of, but of course its got a little more fat to it than chicken breast.

Has anyone had this kind of soup before??