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Hi Everyone!

Does anyone out there have a recipe for Pozole/Posole? I found both blue and white posole in my hispanic market, so I am looking for a recipe on how to prepare this dish from scratch and not from canned hominy. I have both dried corns soaking in cold water (as one would for prepping dried beans). From what I have read, posole is both the name for the dried corn "and" the name of the "stew" called posole. Am I correct so far?

There are zillions of posole recipes... red, green, white... chicken, pork, beef, vegetarian, etc. Most all recipes I see online use canned hominy, so this is where I am stuck. I have the "real" stuff -- and I'm kinda scared I could spend all weekend making this and then have something inedible because I prepped the dried corn wrong, etc..

I know, this is totally the wrong time of year to be making this winter comfort stew, LOL.... it's that compulsiveness in me, LOL.

Thanks! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and that's it's not too hot in So-Cal.

Marlene

Hi Marlene, sorry I don't have a recipe but was thinking you might try googling something from Rick Bayless. He's usually a great resource for that type of thing.

How's your weather up there? My sister lives in Seattle and the paper said it was 91 there the other day.

ShyPhaedra in Arizona asked me to post this for her since she cannot post right now.

Posole
2 c. posole, picked over for dirt or stones
1/4 c. vegetable oil
2 c. chopped onion
2 T. minced garlic
1 oz. New Mexico dried red chile pods, 4 or 5 pods,* stems and seeds removed
5 c. chicken broth
1/2 c. coarsely chopped cilantro
2 t. salt, or to taste

Put the posole in a 6-quart pot and cover with cold water by 3 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 to 3 hours, adding water as needed, until the kernels have softened and begin to burst. Drain the posole and rinse well.

Heat the oil in a 6-quart pot and sauté the onions until golden. Add the garlic and sauté for 1 minute. Add the posole, dried chiles, broth and 1/2 of the cilantro. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the salt and continue cooking for 30 minutes. Stir in the remaining cilantro. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Serves 8 to 10

Optional seasonings: This recipe is a favorite of the school. However, there are a number of optional ingredients you could add. For festive occasions, diced pork or smoked pork bones are used to add substance and variety. Bowls of red or green chile sauce served on the side flavor the posole further. Omit the fresh cilantro and add 2 t. of dried Mexican oregano. 2 t. of azafran (Mexican saffron) can be added at the same time and gives the posole a lovely golden color and a wonderful aromatic flavor. Bay leaves, freshly ground coriander seed, chile caribe (crushed red chile), or fresh lime juice may be also added.

Feast Day Posole
1 t. (each) black peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds
2 onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
4 T. lard
3 pounds chicken thighs cut into 1-inch pieces
1 t. ground canela
1 1/2 cup New Mexican red chile powder
6 cups posole
4 to 8 cups chicken Broth
Salt to taste

* Put the posole in a 6-quart pot and cover with cold water by 3 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 2 to 3 hours, adding water as needed, until the kernels have softened and begun to burst.
* Toast the black peppercorns, cumin, and coriander in a small, heavy skillet over moderate heat, stirring until the spices are fragrant and begin to brown, about 2 minutes. Transfer spices to a plate to cool. Once cool, crush the spices in a mortar and pestle.
* In a 6-quart pot, sauté onions and garlic in lard over medium-high heat and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
* Add chicken pieces and cook for 4 to 5 minutes stirring occasionally.
* Add the toasted spices, canela and chile powder.
* Add the cooked posole and broth and bring to a simmer.
* Add salt and continue to simmer for at least and hour.
* Adjust the seasonings and serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, sliced jalapeños and fresh flour tortillas.

Thanks, Leni and Champagne!

Champagne, I took your advice and did a search for Rick Bayless and he has a Posole Verde recipe online that looks very good! I didn't have several of the ingredients but next time I plan to try it. It is very green and would be awesome in the spring when the sorrell is so perfect.

Leni, also thanks for posting the posole recipes from Shy (thanks Shy!) -- they look very traditional and have the instructions for using the posole corn from the dried state, which is what I was looking for. I love both these recipes because they are chicken posole and are more difficult to find than the traditional pork "parts"... I think originally head was used ==--EEEEEk, LOL.

Anyway, I did end up making a version of posole on Saturday and I had mixed results. I had two posole corns to work with -- one was blue corn and the other was the traditional white corn. I didn't boil the white corn long enough to make it "bloom".... so that one never really soften up to where I was looking for. However, the blue corn, bloomed perfectly -- the kernels were smaller and that probably had something to do with it. I used beef chuck for the "meat" portion but I think I would like chicken better. The key is... (unless you are using canned hominy)... you must have the posole corn where you want it texturally before adding the protein.

I used 2 kinds of dried chiles, 2 kinds of fresh chiles and even some ortega canned chiles. The dried chiles made the posole a nice brick red color, although I added no tomatoes! It came our very good, with the exception that the white corn posole is pretty tough. The flavor of the broth was excellent!

Thanks everyone! It's too hot in CA now for posole, but it sure is a great Mexican stew!

Marlene

Myrtle,
Thanks to Leni for posting the recipes for me, I wanted to add
that they are from the Santa Fe Cooking School which has
more good recipes on their website. If you are ever in Santa Fe,
take a class there, lots of fun. I didn't like posole till I made my
own with the dried corn, it makes all the difference.

Micheline,

I love the pozole recipe from the Santa Fe Cooking School! Thank you so much for sharing (their web site is looks great, too). I am planning to make the chicken pozole you posted. For sure I will buy the high end pozole dried corn again. The yellow dried corn I bought from our hispanic market was so old and tough and I cooked it for hours and it never did "bloom". I'll tell ya one thing -- if you do use canned pozole, there is no way you will get the depth of flavor that you get from starting the pozole from dried.

Thanks everyone for the recipes and suggestions!

Have a great weekend!

Marlene