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New Mexican Posolé made with pork roast, hominy, chile sauce, and a rich and flavorful chicken broth is a delicious Instant Pot or Slow Cooker soup.
This is a spicy, hearty, filling stew filled with fiber and protein that tastes great and will make you feel fantastic. If you love the flavor of red chile, be sure to check out my homemade enchilada sauce!
Authentic New Mexican cuisine.
New Mexico Posole made from dried red chile, tender pork, and tasty hominy is a spicy authentic soup that I crave.
I lived in New Mexico for a few years in my late teens and early 20s. I didn’t appreciate all that the state had to offer when I lived there. I loved the hot air balloons and the fact that you could watch multiple thunderstorms over a horizon that appeared to never end, but I didn’t fully appreciate the food or the culture until I moved away.
It wasn’t until I moved away that my love for all things chile developed and I started creating all sorts of recipes like Green Chile Stew, Cheesy Green Chile Chicken Lasagna, Green Chile Cheddar Queso, Green Chile Tochos, Green Chile Deviled Eggs… and the list goes on and on.
New Mexican dried chiles are the key ingredient.
I had a friend bring me some dried red chiles direct from New Mexico, but you can find them in most supermarkets in this Hispanic foods section.
I make the chile sauce separately and add just enough to make the posole mild so that my kids can eat it, then I add extra sauce for the adults to take it to a level where our foreheads begin to sweat when we eat it.
What is Posolé?
Posole is basically a soup or a stew that is made with pork and hominy and its flavored with chili sauce.
Posolé is about as traditional New Mexican as you can get. This savory New Mexican stew is almost always served on Saint’s Day feasts at the pueblos and at Christmas and New Year’s gatherings of families and friends.
Posole rojo, or “red” posole, is made with pork shoulder, red chiles, and lots of hominy corn. Since I first started making this recipe, I’ve become quite superstitious that eating it on New Year’s day will bring me good luck, so I will forever more enjoy it on the first day of the year.
I love to top mine with avocado, diced radishes for crunch, and a ton of shredded cheese (not shown). If its wrong to put cheese on Posolé soup, then I don’t want to be right.
If you’ve never enjoyed a Mexican posole soup with hominy, you might be wondering…
What is hominy?
I know I had a million questions swirling around in my head the first time I heard of posole made with hominy. Is hominy good for you? Why do they call it hominy? Is there a difference between hominy and corn? What does hominy taste like?
I will tell you this much – if you can’t find 15 ounce cans like I describe in the recipe, the store will most likely have a huge can of hominy. If there’s ever a zombie apocalypse and I only have $3 and the stores are still accepting cash because the looting hasn’t started, I’m buying hominy. Not only does it pack a lot of nutrition, but you get a ton of hominy for $3.
All of your questions about hominy can be answered with a quick google search as there are a ton of articles written about it, but I found a great Huffington Post article that will explain it to you titled: What the Hell is Hominy, Anyway? If you don’t know what hominy is, read the article.
How do you cook Posolé?
In my opinion, you have three options: on the stove, in a slow cooker (crockpot), or in an electric pressure cooker (Instant Pot).
- To cook this pork posole on the stove, you would follow the same instructions as the slow cooker. It will definitely taste great and your home will smell amazing, but any kind of stove cooking requires monitoring. I originally made this easy posole soup recipe in the slow cooker. I cut the raw pork roast into bite sized pieces, gave them a good sear in a pan, and then transferred the pork and the onion along with the broth, hominy, and chile sauce over to the crockpot. This is a great option if you want to prepare dinner in the morning and have it ready for you 8-hours later.
- I have since fallen in love with pressure cooking. The batch I made last night was made in my Instant Pot. Instead of cutting up the raw roast, I cooked it whole and then shredded it when it was done cooking. I found this method to not only be easier and faster, but the pork in the posole soup was much more tender and flavorful.
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 dried New Mexican red chile pods stemmed and seeded
- 6 cloves garlic chopped
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 2 pound pork roast shoulder, butt or loin, trimmed of excess surface fat
- 30 ounces hominy (2 15-oz cans), drained and rinsed
- 8 cups chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon salt or more to taste
Instructions
- Boil about 2 cups of water. Add your dried chiles (wear gloves!) that have had the stems and seeds removed to a large bowl. Cover with boiling water and weigh down with another plate to ensure they are fully submerged. Allow to soak for at least 30 minutes.
- Transfer softened chiles along with 1 1/2 cups of the soaking water and the chopped garlic to a blender. Process until smooth and set aside.
- To cook in the crockpot: Cut the pork into bite sized pieces. In a large saute pan, cook the onion and pork on high heat, turning only once, for a total of about 8 minutes to brown. Transfer onion and pork to a slow cooker. Add chicken broth, hominy, salt, and 1/4 – 3/4 cup of the chile sauce to the slow cooker. If you are unsure about how spicy your sauce is, start out with a small amount. You can always add more. Cook on low 6-8 hours. Shred pork, if desired, before serving.
- To cook in the Instant Pot: Brown the whole roast along with the onion for 3-4 minutes on each side in order to get a nice sear. Add all 8 cups of the chicken broth, 1/4 – 3/4 cup of the chile sauce (again, less is more if it is super spicy), and the salt. Cook on high pressure for 90 minutes. You can slow or quick release the pressure (I usually do quick release because I'm in a hurry). Remove the meat and transfer it to a cutting board. When cool enough to handle, shred the meat, discard the fat, and add the meat back to the soup. Add hominy to the hot broth and allow everything to heat through before serving. Add additional chile sauce and/or salt, to taste.
- To serve, top with fresh cilantro, avocado, chopped radishes, shredded cheese, and additional chile sauce for extra spice.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I want to know if I can use chicken instead of pork?
You can. I’m a big fan of pork, though, especially in this recipe.
I like to use dried hominy. Can I use that in the crockpot?
Dried hominy? I would say yes but you most likely will need to increase the amount of liquid I would imagine.
So I’m diabetic and I would like to know the total carbs in this, considering it says “low carb” I love Posole, I grew up eating it in Albuquerque.
Hi Seraphina, Unfortunately I don’t have an accurate way of calculating this, but I do know that the main source of carbs in the posole is the hominy. Everything else is basically broth, meat, etc. I would say there’s about 1/2 cup in each serving which, alone, would equate to about 12g of carbs. I also found this: While hominy is a relatively healthy option for diabetics, cooking hominy with butter, bacon or other fatty or sugary foods may cause problems in people with diabetes. Large portions of hominy combined with other carbohydrates may also increase the glycemic index of your meal. Hope that helps!
You never mention when to add the hominy…
Doh! With the chicken broth. I updated the recipe. Thanks! Krissy
I spent almost a year in St. Anthony’s Home for Boys Orphanage in Albuquerque, NM as a child of 10. I remember eating a lot of New Mexican pasole and growing to adore it. Finding this recipe I am reminded of those days. Thank you. I will try your recipe and see how well it joggles my taste and smell memory.
One thing I will not do; however, is add cilantro to it. I am one of the roughly 10% of the population in the United States who cannot stand the taste of cilantro. I haven’t had to make the choice; however, I might well starve before eating something with cilantro in it. Many people tell me cilantro has always been in Hispanic cooking. I tell those folks that they are mistaken. I don’t know where cilantro’s inclusion in Hispanic food began; however, I suspect it was with some hipster chef in California… along with Valley Girls, Pet Rocks, and the bean sprout craze of the early 70s.
Nevertheless thank you for the recipe. 9-)
Your comment cracked me up, Nelson! If you make the posole, please do come back and tell me if it reminded you of your childhood! -Krissy