Jalisco · 2,5 h · Meat · Soup · For beginners
Pozole Rojo
In German: Roter Pozole · In English: Red Pozole
For 8 servings · US units
Red chile soup from Jalisco with pork, hominy and a pile of fresh toppings
Pozole Rojo from Jalisco is a soup everyone at the table finishes for themselves: a deep red broth of ancho and guajillo chiles, tender pork and plump hominy, piled high with shredded cabbage, radishes, raw onion, avocado and a good squeeze of lime. It's just the thing for chilly autumn and winter evenings, and at eight servings it's made for feeding a crowd.
Ingredients
- 5stemmed and seeded, soaked, for the chile puréeA dried ripe poblano pepper, broad, wrinkled and nearly black-red, with mild heat and a sweet flavour of raisins and cocoa.Substitute: The closest match is mulato, a darker, more chocolatey dried form of the same poblano; pasilla or guajillo also work, pasilla being more bitter, guajillo brighter, tangier and a little hotter. Ground ancho powder gives the flavour but not the smooth body of a puréed pod. Sweet paprika with a little mild chili powder is only a stopgap: the colour and warmth are roughly right, but the raisin sweetness and body are missing.Read more
- 5stemmed and seeded, soaked; New Mexico chiles work as a substituteA dried, deep red Mexican chile with smooth, glossy skin, mild to medium hot, fruity and slightly tart.Substitute: The closest match is dried New Mexico or California chiles, which are similarly mild and red but less tart and complex; outside North America they are just as hard to find. Sweet paprika with a pinch of chile flakes matches the colour but not the fruity acidity or the body of soaked, puréed pods, so the dish turns out flatter.Read more
- 2for extra heat; seed them for a milder result (optional)A small, slender, bright red dried Mexican chile, clearly hot, with a nutty, slightly grassy note.Substitute: Dried cayenne chiles or the thin dried red chiles sold in Asian shops match the heat and colour fairly well but lack the nutty note. Chilli flakes will do in a pinch, though they give less flavour and cannot be toasted or dosed in the same way.Read more
- waterhot, for soaking the chiles
- 2¼ lbPork shouldercut into large chunks, excess fat trimmed
- 2 tbspoilfor searing the meat and sweating the onion
- 1onionfinely chopped and sweated, half into the purée, half into the pot; also diced raw as a garnish
- 5 clovesgarlicminced, briefly cooked or added raw to the purée
- 8½ cupsstockchicken, vegetable or beef; part of it for blending the chiles
- 3⅓ lbdrained and rinsedLarge white corn kernels cooked in an alkaline lime solution and hulled, so they burst open as they cook. Soft yet slightly chewy, with a mild, distinctly tortilla-like flavour.Substitute: There is no real substitute, because its characteristic flavour and texture come only from the lime treatment. Canned sweetcorn is too sweet and falls apart. As a stopgap, cooked chickpeas give a soup a similarly hearty, firm bite, but they taste nutty rather than of corn, and the dish is no longer really pozole.Read more
- 1 tbspOreganoin the soup, plus extra for sprinkling
- 1 tspcumin
- 1 pinchCloves
- 2 tspsaltpartly for the meat, adjust at the end
- black pepperfreshly ground, to taste
- ¼ ozblended into the chile purée (optional)Coarsely ground chocolate made from cacao, sugar and usually cinnamon, pressed into tablets or discs with a noticeably gritty texture.Substitute: Dark chocolate with about 60 to 70 percent cacao, supplemented with a little sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and, if you like, some ground almonds, comes close in flavour; for mole, unsweetened cocoa powder with sugar and cinnamon also works. Neither reproduces the gritty texture or rustic character, and drinking chocolate made this way turns out smoother and heavier.Read more
- cabbagefinely shredded, as a garnish; iceberg lettuce as an alternative
- radishesthinly sliced, as a garnish
- chopped, as a garnishThe fresh leaves of the coriander plant, with a bright, citrusy and slightly peppery taste.Substitute: There is no true substitute. Flat-leaf parsley, perhaps with a little lime zest, adds colour and green freshness but not cilantro's distinctive citrusy note.Read more
- limecut into wedges, for squeezing
- avocadosliced, as a garnish
- as a garnish (optional)Narrow strips of corn tortilla, fried or oven-baked until crisp and lightly salted.Substitute: Roughly broken plain tortilla chips come closest, though they are thicker and usually saltier; strips cut from flour tortillas puff up more and taste less of corn.Read more
- thinly sliced, as a garnish (optional)Medium-sized green chilli from Mexico, thick-fleshed and juicy, with a fresh, moderate heat.Substitute: Other fresh green chillies of medium heat work well, such as serrano, which is somewhat hotter, or sturdy green chillies from an Asian grocer used more sparingly. Mild Turkish long green peppers give a similar freshness but little heat.Read more
Method
- Stem and seed the ancho and guajillo chiles (plus the árbol chiles, if you're using them). Toast them for 1–2 minutes in a 390 °F oven or briefly in a dry pan, taking care not to let them burn. Then cover them with hot water and leave to soak for 10–30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cut the pork shoulder into large chunks, trim off any excess fat and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large pot and sear the meat in batches until browned all over, then lift it out and set aside.
- Finely chop the onion and sweat it in the pork fat until soft, then add the minced garlic and cook briefly. Spoon half of the onion and garlic into the blender and leave the rest in the pot.
- Taste the chile soaking water: if it's bitter, use some of the stock instead. Add the chiles and liquid to the blender, along with the Mexican chocolate if you like, and blend until completely smooth. For an extra-silky soup, push the purée through a sieve.
- Add the stock, the drained and rinsed hominy, the chile purée, the pork with any juices, the Mexican oregano, cumin, clove, salt and pepper to the pot and bring to a boil.
- Cover and let the pozole simmer for about 2 hours, until the pork is tender enough to fall apart.
- Shred the pork with two forks and return it to the soup. Skim off any excess fat if you like, then season the pozole to taste with salt and oregano.
- Ladle it hot into deep bowls and set out the garnishes: finely shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, diced raw onion, cilantro, avocado, lime wedges and oregano for sprinkling, plus crispy tortilla strips and sliced jalapeño or serrano if you're in the mood.
Tips and variations
Short on time? Use a pressure cooker: sear the pork right in the pot, then add the purée, stock and hominy and cook for 45 minutes at high pressure. For a quick version, swap the pork shoulder for bacon fried until crisp, sweat the onion in the bacon fat, simmer the soup for just 10–15 minutes and save half the bacon for topping. New Mexico chiles stand in nicely for guajillos, a pinch of cinnamon adds warmth, and doubling the hominy gives you a chunkier, less brothy pozole. Serving tip: toss the cabbage with lime juice and salt ahead of time for a fresh, tangy topping, or bring out hot sauce or something pickled instead. Leftovers keep in the fridge for a few days; thin them with a splash of stock when you reheat.
Allergens
Not every ingredient in this recipe has been checked, so nothing is promised as free from.
These notes follow from this recipe's ingredient list. Ready-made products and brands may contain further allergens — please check the packaging yourself.
Something not right?
This recipe was put together from independent sources and checked before publishing. Even so, a mistake can slip through — an amount that does not add up, a step that does not work as written. If you spot something, write to us: we will look into it and put it right.
