Posole is a classic Mexican stew, often served around the holidays. It’s full of chile, high-quality meat, and hominy. It’s one of my favorite things about the holiday season.
As a proud New Mexican, posole and tamales are an important part of my winter holidays. It’s one of my favorite traditions. At this point in my life, I think I care about it more than almost anything else over the holidays.
Some years I don’t put up a tree, but I always make a pot of posole.
Jump to RecipeTraditional Posole
One of my favorite Christmas memories was making posole with a friend in my parents’ kitchen. We decided to take the incredibly traditional route and make the posole out of a pig’s head. So, we went to the local carnicería (meat market) and bought half of a pig’s head. Once we got it home, we couldn’t fit it in a pot. So we went out to the garage and found my dad’s old bone saw. He hadn’t used it since growing up on a farm, but it saved us. He and I took turns sawing the head in half so it could fit in the pot. After stewing for a couple of hours, my friend and I spent forever getting all the good meat off the head.
It was the best posole I’ve ever eaten.
Posole is a traditional Aztecan stew from Mexico. I grew up with the version from northern New Mexico where it’s traditionally made with pork, hominy, and red chile. It’s pretty easy to make if you can find the basic ingredients.
It’s also incredibly tasty. It’s one of my top winter stews alongside green chile stew and kimchi stew.
It can be a little time consuming, so I justify the time spent by making a lot. I tend to make large “batch meals” when making soup and this is no exception. This recipe makes about 6 quarts of posole. You can either eat it for a while as leftovers, freeze it in portions, or take it to a holiday party. If you really don’t want to make that much, just scale it down.
Making Posole
Trimming the Pork
Start by removing the large fat cap from the meat. You can render it into lard or throw it out. You could also just leave it on the meat, but I’m not a huge fan of large, boiled chunks of fat.
After you remove the fat, cut about 3 lbs of pork shoulder into small cubes. This should result in about 6 cups of raw meat.
Cooking the Aromatics
After butchering the meat, dice the onions and mince the garlic. Heat a large pot on medium and add 2 tablespoons of oil to the pot. Add the onions, garlic, and salt to the pot. Stir to combine. Cook onions until translucent and soft, 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Browning the Pork
While the onions are sweating, brown the pork.
Place a heavy pan on medium-high heat and add some oil to the pan. You just want a thin layer on the bottom of the pan.
Next, sear the meat cubes in batches. Do not crowd the pan. You want it to sear, not stew. I did it in 3 batches in my 12-inch pan. The primary purpose of this step is to get the flavor from browning the meat. If you don’t allow it to brown at least a bit, there isn’t much point in doing this step. Once one batch of meat is browned, remove it from the pan and add another batch.
You can also completely skip this step. It’ll have a bit less flavor, but it will still taste great.
Cook until it has at least a bit of a nice sear.
Putting it All Together
Add the seared meat to the onions and garlic along with the herbs and spices. Then stir to combine.
Add the broth and stir again.
Next, add the red chile sauce. You can add more or less of this depending on your taste. Stir and cook for about an hour or so.
Next, drain a giant can of hominy. I got a #10 can of hominy at Costco that weighs 108 oz. If you can find one of these, it’s definitely the easiest way. You could also get about 7 smaller cans or you could buy dried hominy and then make it. Regardless, you want to end up with 8-10 cups of cooked and drained hominy.
Add the hominy to the pot and cook for another hour. All of the hominy didn’t fit in my pot, so I put about 6-7 cups in and then just added the rest to the completed batch in the storage container.
It’s already cooked, so it doesn’t really matter if all of it cooks again. It will absorb the flavor as it sits in the fridge.
After a couple of hours and a little effort, you end up with a massive amount of soup.
Serving Posole
You can garnish it with some minced onion, sour cream, cilantro, and lime juice.
I almost always eat it alongside tamales. Unless you’re feeling exceptionally ambitious, I recommend you buy those. They’re fun to make, but much more work than I’m usually willing to do.
Enjoy at a Christmas Eve party and for the next week. It’s delicious, it freezes well, and the holidays are a time of random unexpected guests. If you don’t want 6+ quarts of soup, definitely scale it down.
Posole
Ingredients
- 2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium onions diced
- 1/2 head garlic minced
- 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
- 3 pounds pork shoulder cubed, heritage breed, see note*
- 2 Tablespoons dried oregano
- 1 Tablespoon ground cumin for better flavor, toast whole seeds and grind them yourself
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup red chile sauce
- 6-8 cups broth or water, see note**
- #10 can hominy 8-10 cups, cooked and drained
Instructions
- Remove the fat from a pork shoulder and cut the pork into small cubes.
- Heat a large pot on medium and add oil, onions, garlic, and salt to the pot. Stir to combine and cook until translucent, about 5-10 minutes.
- (Optional) Heat a heavy pan over medium heat. Add some oil or render some lard into the pan. Add the pork cubes in batches to the pan to get a bit of a sear on the meat. Then add the seared meat to the onions. You can skip this step. You'll lose some flavor but save some time and dishes.
- Add the herbs and spices to the pot and stir to combine. Add the broth and red chile sauce to the pot and stir to combine.
- Cook at a low simmer for about an hour.
- Add the hominy and stir to combine. Cook for about another hour until it reduces into a thicker stew.
- Serve with sour cream, lime juice, minced onion, and/or cilantro.