Guerrero · 70 min · Meat · Soup · For beginners
Pozole Verde
In German: Grüner Pozole · In English: Green Pozole
For 6 servings · US units
Green hominy soup with tender chicken and roasted tomatillos and poblanos
Pozole Verde comes from Guerrero, and its heart is a green sauce of oven-roasted tomatillos, poblanos, jalapeños and fresh cilantro, with plump hominy and shredded chicken swimming through it. It's exactly what you want when autumn and winter turn cold outside and you need a bowl to warm up with. The toppings are what turn the soup into a meal: lime wedges, thinly shredded cabbage, radishes, onion and a pinch of oregano, with everyone building their own bowl.
Ingredients
- 1⅓ lbchickenboneless skinless thighs or breasts; cooked and shredded
- 14⅛ ozhusked and rinsed; for the green sauceA green, tomato-like fruit wrapped in a papery husk, firm and distinctly tart, and the base of many green salsas.Substitute: Unripe green tomatoes with a little lime juice come closest in acidity and colour, but the flavour is flatter and less fruity, and the sauce turns out more watery. Physalis are too sweet to serve as a substitute.Read more
- 1onionroughly chopped for the sauce; extra diced for garnish
- 2stemmed, seeded for less heatMedium-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
- 2roasted, peeled and seededA large, dark green, heart-shaped Mexican chili with thick walls, usually mild to medium hot and almost always roasted and peeled before use.Substitute: Anaheim or Hatch chilies come closest, being similarly mild and fleshy, though with somewhat thinner walls. A green bell pepper, roasted and peeled, holds its shape for stuffing but tastes sweeter and flatter; adding a jalapeño restores the heat, but not the earthy depth of the poblano.Read more
- 3 clovesgarlicpeeled, for the sauce
- 1 bunchleaves and upper stems for the sauce; extra chopped for 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
- 2½ lbcanned (can weight), drained 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
- 6¾ cupsstockfor cooking the chicken and as soup base
- 1½ tspOreganodried; also for sprinkling
- 1 tspsaltadjust at the end
- black pepperfreshly ground, to taste
- 1 tbspoilfor frying the green sauce
- 2limecut into wedges, for serving
- cabbagethinly shredded, for garnish as desired
- radishessliced, for garnish as desired (optional)
- 1avocadosliced, tossed with lime juice, for garnish (optional)
- 1thinly sliced, for garnish (optional)A small, slender green chile from Mexico, crisp and fresh-tasting, noticeably hotter than a jalapeño.Substitute: Jalapeños come closest in flavour but are milder and thicker-walled, so use about twice as many and expect a slightly juicier result. Small green chiles from an Asian or Turkish grocer match the heat but taste less grassy and can be considerably hotter, so add them cautiously.Read more
- 1 pinchcuminground, added to the soup (optional)
Method
- Roast tomatillos and poblanosHeat the oven to about 390 °F. Pull the husks off the tomatillos, rinse them and spread them on a baking sheet with the poblano peppers. Roast for around 30 minutes, turning the poblanos once along the way.
- Poach and shred the chickenMeanwhile, put the chicken in a pot with the stock, bring it to a boil, then let it simmer gently for 20 to 40 minutes depending on the cut. Lift out the chicken, shred it with two forks and be sure to keep the cooking liquid.
- Peel and seed the poblanosLet the roasted poblanos cool slightly, then peel off the skins and remove the stems and seeds.
- Blend the green saucePut the tomatillos, poblanos, roughly chopped onion, jalapeños, garlic and the cilantro leaves and upper stems into a blender and blend until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add a splash of stock.
- Fry the sauce in the potHeat the oil in a large soup pot, pour in the green sauce and fry it for a few minutes, stirring, until it darkens a little and smells wonderful.
- Add hominy and stockDrain the hominy and rinse it well. Add it to the sauce along with the stock from the chicken pot, the Mexican oregano, salt and freshly ground black pepper; if you like, stir in a pinch of ground cumin now too.
- Simmer with the chickenStir in the shredded chicken and let everything simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Taste at the end and add more salt if needed.
- Serve with the toppingsLadle the pozole into deep bowls and serve with lime wedges, shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, chopped cilantro, diced onion and a sprinkle of oregano. If you're in the mood, add avocado slices tossed with lime juice and thin rings of serrano chile.
Tips and variations
For a vegetarian pozole, just leave out the chicken and cook it with vegetable stock. For a quicker route, simmer the tomatillos, onion, jalapeños and garlic raw with the chicken in the stock instead of roasting them, and skip the poblanos. Using only one can of hominy, or a bit more stock, gives you a thinner, brothier soup. The chicken stock gets more depth if you simmer half an onion, some cilantro stems, salt and pepper along with it. And if you're really hungry, put a cheese quesadilla next to your bowl.
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.
