A traditional Mexican Pozole Rojo made with tender pork shoulder and hominy, slowly simmered in the most incredible 3 chile broth, with lots of great Mexican spices and herbs. Serve it with your favorite toppings for the ultimate south of the border dinner.
Pozole Rojo Recipe
Continuing on with my Cinco De Mayo recipes, I might have saved the best for last with this fantastic Pozole Rojo soup. It’s incredibly rich and comforting with melt-in-your-mouth tender pork and hominy which is the key ingredients in this pozole. The soup itself only requires a few ingredients, what takes this soup over the top is the additional toppings such as radishes, onions and shredded cabbage which are added for some extra crunch.
This pozole soup is red from the red chile sauce which is added to the broth. Not only does this sauce add an incredible richness and depth of flavor to the soup but it also makes it a bit spicy with hints of smokiness. There’s also a green version of pozole made with jalapeños and tomatillos.
What Is Pozole Rojo?
Pozole Rojo (sometimes spelled as posole) is one of Mexico’s most popular and oldest soups, dating back to Aztec times. While there are many variations of it, it’s quite a simple soup to make. It consists of pork and hominy with a rich broth spiced with chile sauce and slowly cooked until the pork is tender and falls apart.
Pozole Rojo Highlights
- Incredibly Simple To Make. While this soup may be a tad time consuming, it’s quite easy to make and only requires a few ingredients. This soup truly goes to show you what you can accomplish by keeping things simple.
- Hearty. This soup is a meal on its own, especially with all the extra toppings. No two bowls are alike, so load yours up with your favorite toppings and serve it with some tortilla chips for a truly satisfying meal.
- Perfectly Rich And Delicious. The homemade chile sauce made from 3 different types of dried chiles makes this pozole the type of meal that warms you up from the inside out.
- Gluten-Free. While I don’t follow a gluten-free diet, this soup is indeed gluten-free if you stick to the ingredients outlined.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Pork – I love using boneless pork shoulder or pork butt for this recipe because it provides the most tender, fall apart meat. Another cut of pork you can use is pork loin. I used pork shoulder which I trimmed most of the fat from and cut it into bite size pieces to speed up the cooking process.
- Hominy – The star ingredient in this pozole recipe. Hominy is actually made from corn maize and is also called corn field. It can be white or yellow and it’s actually used for making cornmeal and corn flakes.
- Chiles – Using dried chiles is what makes this broth rich, colorful, spicy and utterly delicious. I used 3 different types of dried chiles here. Ancho chiles which have a mild to medium heat and a lightly smoky, fruity flavor. Chiles de arbol which are significantly spicier than a jalapeño pepper and have a smoky and nutty flavor. I only used 2 chiles de arbol, but if you like a lot of heat, add as many as you like. Gajillo chiles are also mild and have a sweet, fruity, tangy and smoky flavor profile.
- Bay Leaves – You’ll need 3 bay leaves added to the broth to enhance the other bolder flavors.
- Onion And Garlic – You’ll need an onion and lots of garlic for the chile paste.
- Seasonings – Since a lot of the flavor comes from our chiles, you’ll just need some ground cumin, Mexican oregano and salt. I recommend using Mexican oregano in this recipe for a more authentic taste. Mexican oregano has lemon and citrus flavors with some tones of licorice. Regular oregano is slightly sweet with bitter and peppery notes.
- Chicken Broth – I always prefer to use a low sodium broth. If you don’t have any chicken broth, you can use water and add a chicken bouillon cube for flavor.
Toppings
You can, of course, serve this pozole rojo with your favorite toppings but here are some of my favorites:
- Cabbage
- Radishes
- Onion
- Lime Wedges
- Other – Cilantro, chile peppers, avocado, tortilla chips, etc.
How To Make Pozole Rojo
- Cook the pork. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, then add and heat the vegetable oil. Add the pork pieces and sear on all sides until browned. Do this in batches if you have to, for me it took 2 batches. Add all the pork back to the Dutch oven, including any juices, the 4 quarts of water and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 1 hour. Check the broth occasionally to see if there are any impurities at the top, if there are make sure to remove them using a slotted spoon. This is important to ensure we get a nice clear broth.
- Prep the dried chiles. In the mean time, remove the stems and seeds from all the dried chiles. Add the chiles to a pot with boiling water and let them soak for 30 minutes.
- Make the chile sauce. After 30 minutes, transfer the chiles to a blender, along with onion, garlic, oregano, cumin and 1 to 2 cups of the chicken broth. Pulse a few times until completely pureed.
- Stir in chile sauce and cook. After the pork has been cooking for 1 hour, add the rest of the chicken broth and the pureed peppers. Bring to a boil again, cover with a lid and cook for another 30 minutes. If too much of the water evaporates, add a bit more.
- Add hominy and cook. Add the hominy to the pot, give it a good stir and cook for another 30 to 45 minutes. Alternatively you can first transfer the meat from the pot and shred it, especially if you cut the pork in bigger pieces, then add it back to the pot.
- Serve with favorite toppings. Serve with shredded cabbage, chopped onion, radish slices and a wedge of lime.
Where Can I Find Dried Chiles?
There are a few places you can purchase them from. Personally, I get all my dried chiles from amazon, they come within a day or two and I don’t have to leave the house in search of them. You’ll find the amazon links to them in the recipe card. Besides amazon, you can also find them in latin grocery stores, and sometimes even your local grocery store may carry them.
How Spicy Is This Pozole Rojo?
While you may think this soup is totally spicy because of the 3 different types of dried chiles, both guajillo chiles and ancho chiles are, in fact, quite mild. The spiciness comes from chiles de arbol which can be quite spicy. They are 15 to 30 times spicier than guajillo and ancho chiles. This is why I only used 2 chiles de arbol and with the 2 chiles, the soup is actually more on the spicier side than mild. If you don’t have a tolerance for spice, you can use just 1 or simply just omit them.
How To Serve Pozole
The toppings or garnishes are what makes this soup fun and extra enjoyable, in my opinion. The great thing is that everyone at the dinner table can, in fact, top their pozole with their favorite toppings. I love to serve mine with shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, chopped onion and lots of freshly squeezed lime juice.
Sometimes, if my pozole ends up too spicy, I will even add a spoon of sour cream to cut down on the spiciness a bit. You can also serve this with corn tortillas, avocados, cilantro, jalapeños, etc. Don’t forget to pile them high in your bowl.
Instant Pot Pozole Rojo
Want to make this pozole even quicker? You certainly can, by using an instant pot or pressure cooker. Simply sear the meat with a bit of oil in the Instant Pot on the saute mode, then add the water and bay leaves, just make sure your pressure cooker is big enough. Lock the lid and set it to cook for 20 minutes on high pressure.
While the pork is cooking make the chile sauce as instructed in the recipe card. When the 20 minutes are up, quick release the pressure and carefully open the lid. Add the chile sauce, hominy and remaining chicken broth. Close the lid and cook for another 10 minutes on high pressure. Quick release the pressure when the time is up and season the pozole with salt and pepper as needed.
Slow Cooker Pozole Rojo
You can also make this soup in your beloved crockpot. Sear the pork as instructed in step 1. While the pork is simmering, make the chile sauce as instructed in step 3. Add the pork, water, bay leaves and chile sauce to the crockpot and cook for 6-8 hours on LOW. Add the hominy and remaining chicken broth and cook for an additional 2 hours on LOW.
Expert Tips
- Trim the pork shoulder of most of the fat then cut it up in bite size pieces so that it cooks faster. You want the pork to be melt-in-your-mouth tender and easily shreddable.
- You can also cut the pork in bigger pieces, and just before adding the hominy, take it out of the soup and shred it up with a couple forks, then add it back to the pot.
- Pozole is a soup or stew, so you can customize the thickness of it to your preference. If you follow my recipe, this pozole will come out quite thick, almost with a stew like consistency, so if you’re looking for a soupier version, simply add more liquid such as water or chicken broth.
- Prepare your chile sauce while the pork is cooking, to save on time. Also, while the soup is simmering, you can prep all your toppings.
Storage
Store leftover pozole rojo in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 5 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.
More Must Try Mexican Recipes
- Carne Guisada
- Tacos Al Pastor
- Birria Tacos
- Pollo Asado (Chicken Asado)
- Barbacoa
- Chicken Burritos
- Mexican Street Corn Salad
- Chili Verde
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Pozole Rojo Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 to 4 pounds pork shoulder trimmed of fat and cut into 2 inch pieces
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
- 4 quarts water
- 5 ancho chiles dried
- 5 guajillo chiles dried
- 2 chiles de arbol dried
- 1 medium onion quartered
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and sliced
- 1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
- 4 cups chicken broth low sodium
- 2 teaspoon cumin ground
- 3 cans hominy (15 ounce cans) drained and rinsed
For Serving
- shredded cabbage
- radishes sliced
- onion chopped
- lime wedges
Instructions
- Cook the pork. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat, then add and heat the vegetable oil. Add the pork pieces and sear on all sides until browned. Do this in batches if you have to, for me it took 2 batches. Add all the pork back to the Dutch oven, including any juices, the 4 quarts of water and the bay leaves. Bring to a boil, cover with a lid, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook for 1 hour. Check the broth occasionally to see if there are any impurities at the top, if there are make sure to remove them using a slotted spoon. This is important to ensure we get a nice clear broth.
- Prep the dried chiles. In the mean time, remove the stems and seeds from all the dried chiles. Add the chiles to a pot with boiling water and let them soak for 30 minutes.
- Make the chile sauce. After 30 minutes, transfer the chiles to a blender, along with onion, garlic, oregano, cumin and 1 to 2 cups of the chicken broth. Pulse a few times until completely pureed.
- Stir in chile sauce and cook. After the pork has been cooking for 1 hour, add the rest of the chicken broth and the chile sauce. Bring to a boil again, cover with a lid and cook for another 30 minutes. If too much of the water evaporates, add a bit more.
- Add hominy and cook. Add the hominy to the pot, give it a good stir and cook for another 30 to 45 minutes. Alternatively you can first transfer the meat from the pot and shred it, especially if you cut the pork in bigger pieces, then add it back to the pot.
- Serve with favorite toppings. Serve with shredded cabbage, chopped onion, radish slices and a wedge of lime.
Video
Recipe Notes
- Nutritional information does not include toppings.
- Trim the pork shoulder of most of the fat then cut it up in bite size pieces so that it cooks faster. You want the pork to be melt-in-your-mouth tender and easily shreddable.
- You can also cut the pork in bigger pieces, and just before adding the hominy, take it out of the soup and shred it up with a couple forks, then add it back to the pot.
- Pozole is a soup or stew, so you can customize the thickness of it to your preference. If you follow my recipe, this pozole will come out quite thick, almost with a stew like consistency, so if you’re looking for a soupier version, simply add more liquid such as water or chicken broth.
- Prepare your chile sauce while the pork is cooking, to save on time. Also, while the soup is simmering, you can prep all your toppings.
- Store leftover pozole rojo in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 5 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.
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