Posole!!!!! [moved from L.A. board]

[sophieej]

My wonderful friend is from Mexico, and in liew of payment for wonderful services, she made my family a big pot of Posole. I have yet to pin her down on the exact ingredients,esposote, some tomato, garlic etc,but she mentioned to me that she uses pork neck to give the soup that unctious flavor. Bones and all. My excurisions online have led me to Posole with chicken breasts, with sausage or pork loin. What's the real deal???

[AnnaEA]

I always make pozole with pork, myself. A nice bone in butt or shoulder roast, usually. I've never heard of a variation with chicken -- that sounds like a "let's make it healthier" kind of thing to do.

Of course, I'm not sure how much credit you want to give me on this, what with my being an anglo chick in Ohio. My understanding of pozole comes largely from fiddling with a bad recipe on the back of a bag of hominy. I know what I'm after -- a spicy pork and hominy stew with a thick but not floury gravy.

[paulj]

My understanding is that pozole is, traditionally, a butchery day stew, using parts of the pig like the head that need long cooking, along with the hominy (which takes hours to cook from the raw state). In fact the word 'pozole' may refer more to the hominy itself. As with any meat soup or stew, using bones or bony parts adds flavor and body. If the skin from the head (or a foot or two) is included, you get even more body.

A stew made with lean, boneless parts like chicken and pork loin is not going to have the same sort of body. Obviously you can include the hominy and spices.

As for making the dish 'healthier', if you take the time to skim the fat (easiest by cooling it in the fridge overnight), you can get body without much fat.

One option would be to make the stock before hand, using a mix of parts like neck bones and a foot. Chill that, and finish the dish later with the precooked hominy (canned Mexican style will work) and leaner pieces of meat (which don't need long cooking).

You could check various recipes, but I think the seasonings of pozole often are kept simple, and condiments such as lime, chopped onion, cilantro, Mexican oregano, and hot sauce are added at the table.

paulj

[aelph]

Gad! How I despise the interpolations of the "s" and/or "z" in pozole...makes websearches so much harder. Yes, po(z)ole is typically made with long-stewing pork products....however...there are "green" versions utilizing a base of tomatillos and mild green peppers(both stewed or roasted before being added to the broth---chicken in this case). There are "red" versions utilizing the aformentioned pork...and various chile powders granting it's "red" quality. Also, there is pozole as I make it with dark meat chicken, chicken stock/or both, some tomatillo, some green chile, red chile powders(read: not chili powder...this isn't chili), oregano(I use marjoram), cumin, pinto beans, and hominy. I mediate the hominy with the beans cuz I think hominy can overtake the flavors. It goes without saying that any canned ingredient is first washed of it's can juices. I serve my quasi-red chicken pozole with avocado, cilantro, jalapeno, sour cream, toasted corn tortillas, and hot sauces.

[aelph]

hmm...can't edit my own post for some reason: the above should read: "chicken stock/or broth"

and, I would add iceberg or cabbage and lime to my list of accoutrement

[mscommunikate]

That all sounds right, aelph, though I don't do chicken posole. My mom makes the green stuff, and I make the red, always with a fatty cut of pork. Charred roasted tomatoes and a little chipotle-in-adobo makes it red. I roast some big green onions with the tomatoes if there's room, for garnishes. I also use a mix of hominy and pintos, and often throw in sweet corn at the last moment.

[rworange]

Usually in the U.S, it is red pork pozole. If you ever are in the area of Encinitas, El Especiale Northe makes a chicken Pozole and a pork pozole. I preferred the pork, IIRC ... but its been a few years.

There is even canned chicken and pork pozole
http://www.mexgrocer.com/70132-00750.html

Here's a link from Mexconnect which I've found to have reliable information about food. It talks about soup and the regional differences in pozole
- Pozole Blanco: Basic White Pozole
- Pozole Rojo Jalisciense: Jalisco Style Red Pozole
- Pozole Verde con Pipian de Guerrero: Guerrero Style Green Pipian Pozole
- Pozole con Mariscos: Seafood Pozole

http://www.mexconnect.com/mex_/recipe...

I love pozole ... any kind

[rockycat]

<Usually in the U.S, it is red pork pozole.>

Not necessarily. It depends mostly on from where the Mexican community in your area emigrated. I see both the white and the red versions fairly often.

We don't usually cook with pork at home so we make a white chicken version. I would recommend using dark meat and Mexican oregano which is different from your standard supermarket oregano. I could see, though, where neck bones would be a good addition.

Standard condiments include shredded cabbage or lettuce, lime wedges, and fried tortillas. Chicken may not be the most traditional version but when we made a large pot as a "thank you" for a group of Mexican employees they didn't leave much over.

[paulj]

Again you could make a richer base by starting with a chicken carcass or two, or even include some chicken feet.
paulj

[jackrugby]

We have a couple of mom & pop Mexican resturants here in Dayton, that cater to the growing Hispanic population. They make a soup/stew usually on the weekends, they call it posole, but instead of the usuall pork they make it with tripe (cow's stomach). I alway thought this was menudo, but they do call it posole. Any comments?

[rworange]

Does it have hominy in it? That seems to define posole, but I could be wrong. You should ask them where they are from in Mexico to get an idea if this is a regional variation. It might also point you to some regional dishes they might serve out of the norm.

[paulj]

Bayless in Authentic Mexican mentions that the Menudo Rojo is often made with the addition of hominy in the Northern (Mexican) states. Mondongo is another name that is used for a tripe soup/stew, though in Ecuador it is also used for a cow foot and hominy soup. And cow foot is a secondary ingredient in most menudo in Mexico. So there is some variability in the names and ingredients of these soups.

paulj

[jackrugby]

Yes, it does have hominy in it and they advertise it as posole on the menu board. I tried it once and was turned off a little bit by the tripe and haven't tried it since.

[Sam Fujisaka]

Yes, it is the choclo that defines the dish as posole.

[bklyngrl]

I spent some time in Mexico and lived with a local family in Cuernavaca for 3 weeks. Knowing how much I loved posole, they made a point once a week to go to the local woman who made it for the 'neighborhood' and buy a batch (they were the sweetest family!). Here's what we would do:

Walk through the colonia a couple of blocks to a home with a garage door as the entrance to the living room/kitchen. Tables set up with two big pots, one with the hominy stew, the other with the pigs head and feet. We brought our own tin containers and the woman scooped some posole (in broth) into the container and then shredded some meat from the pigs head on top. Also included, a bunch of small baggies filled with: chopped onion, mexican oregano, lime wedges, crushed red pepper.

When we got home they made sure to heat up the soup extra hot to get rid of any potential stomach problems for me, and we would sit down and each it a bowl with an ice cold beer. YUM!

[DiningDiva]

Your story brings back memories <sigh>. 20+ years ago I did the same thing; attended language school and lived with a local family. My birthday rolled around while I was there and we celebrated it with pozole. That was my first exposure to it and I've loved it ever since.

[paulj]

Here's a good illustrated pozole recipe, Dona Martha's version

http://www.rollybrook.com/pozole.htm

[Mr. Cookie]

When I did the Cuernavaca language thing 10 years ago we used to regularly go to a pozoleria for lunch. You could get pork or chicken pozole, either one green or red, the color coming from the types of chiles used to spice up the broth. Both versions had hominy, which I believe always has to be an ingredient in pozole. And they served fresh sliced onions and oregano on the side so you could sprinkle them in to taste.

I was introduced to this place by Mexican residents of the city and I have always used it as my yardstick for "authentic" pozole.

[blueberrygirl]

Many have snickered at the thought of a chicken posole but I tried this recipe from Epicurious.com http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/rec... and it is DELICIOUS. I grew up with pork posole so I was skeptical but this is easier to make, full of flavor and healthy. It also freezes nicely. I include thinly sliced radishes along with the cabbage and lime as condiments.