Posole Recipe

What Is Posole & How to Make It At Home

Posole, a traditional Mexican dish with roots in ancient culinary traditions, is a hearty, flavorful stew beloved for its versatility and comforting warmth. Made primarily with hominy and meat—typically pork—this dish comes alive with various vibrant toppings like cabbage, radishes, cilantro, lime, and a touch of spice.

Posole is the perfect example of a meal that brings people together, often served during family gatherings, celebrations, and cold evenings when something filling and soulful is needed. This recipe embraces the deep flavors of traditional posole while offering some tips for easy preparation at home.

Whether you're familiar with posole or trying it for the first time, you'll appreciate the layers of texture and taste that come with each bite. The hominy's chewy texture, the tender meat, and the bright garnishes create a balance that's hard to resist.

Plus, with various ways to adjust the spice level and customize toppings, it’s a dish that can suit any palate. Get ready to dive into the essence of Mexican comfort food with this posole recipe that will quickly become a favorite at your table.

Check out my friend Paula's Posole recipe below. It's another excellent variation. And please be sure to check out my Chicken Posole recipe here.

What is Hominy?

Hominy is a type of corn (maize) that has undergone a process called nixtamalization. The corn kernels are soaked and cooked in an alkaline solution, usually limewater (calcium hydroxide), then hulled. This process removes the outer hull of the kernels, softens them, and increases their nutritional value by making nutrients like niacin (vitamin B3) more bioavailable.

The result is a chewy, puffy kernel, a staple in many Latin American dishes, including posole. Hominy can be found in two primary forms: dried (which needs to be rehydrated and cooked) or canned (already cooked and ready to use). It has a mild, slightly earthy flavor and is used in various dishes, from stews like posole to side dishes such as grits or masa for tortillas and tamales. Hominy adds texture and heartiness to dishes, making it a beloved ingredient in traditional Mexican and Southern U.S. cuisine.

UPDATE Notes: 2/28/99 - My wife and I made this last night for some friends and came up with some additional ideas. We didn't add the optional jalapenos because we mistakenly purchased a couple of milder Anaheim chili peppers.

One of our guests suggested roasting them on our gas stove, slicing them, and adding them to the Posole. Great idea. Added another layer of flavor.

The next night, we had the Posole leftovers, and it was tastier than the night before, which leads me to suggest you make this dish the day before you are going to serve it. Not a conventional idea but how many times have you had leftovers that were better than the first night?

Serves 8 to 10, depending on who's eating.

A Simplified Recipe for Posole

This is a simplified version of posole that is incredibly easy to prepare and has a mouthful of flavor with every spoonful AND gets better the next day. My friend Paula who is from Mexico and a wonder in the kitchen shows me how to prepare this dish and I'm amazed how simple she makes everything she does look.

She never measures anything out and uses what she can find in the refrigerator or in the pantry not depending on a recipe. Of course there are a few ingredients you must have like hominy and pork to make this dish, but then she gets creative and uses whatever ingredients she can find in the house.

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5 from 2 votes

Posole Recipe

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time1 hour hr 45 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: posole

Servings: 8 - 10 servings

Ingredients

• ½ onion stuck with 2 cloves
• 2 cloves garlic peeled
• 1 cup green chilies canned, chopped
• 1 whole jalapenos canned or fresh, chopped (optional)
• 1½ pounds pork shoulder
• 5 peppercorns
• ½ teaspoon whole cumin seed
• 1 pince oregano
• 1 onion peeled and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 tablespoon oil
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• ½ teaspoon cayenne
• 31 ounces hominy 2 - 15.5 ounce cans
• 4 cups pork broth from cooking pork shoulder

Instructions

• Prepare the ½ onion with the 2 cloves. Chop the green chilies and jalapenos if you are using them. Drain the hominy and rinse. Now you are ready to start cooking.
• Place the pork in a large saucepan and just cover with lightly salted water.
• Add the clove studded onion, 2 cloves of garlic, peppercorns, cumin seed, and oregano.
• Bring to a boil over medium heat, skim off any foam that rises, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 45 minutes. Remove meat and broth, reserving both.
• Sauté the chopped onion and garlic in oil until translucent. Add the remaining spices, stir for a minute. Cut the reserved pork into 1 inch cubes and add to the pan.
• Stir in the canned hominy, pork broth (if there is not enough pork broth, add chicken stock), green chilies and jalapenos (optional).
• Cook at a simmer, covered, for 45 to 60 minutes until the meat and hominy are tender. If necessary, cook for up to an additional 60 minutes until the chilies and onions are well blended into the broth.
• De-grease the posole, taste for salt, and serve in soup bowls.

Notes

This is a delicious recipe and well worth the effort to make.

Classic Mexican Posole Recipe

The above posole recipe is from years ago, but now I want to share Paula's posole recipe with you. Paula is a native Mexican and a wonderful cook. She has been teaching me some of her favorite Mexican dishes and cooking techniques, and this is one of my favorites.

From watching Paula cook, I have learned that simpler is often better. She adds essential ingredients but doesn't believe that more is better. Although her recipe and the one I posted earlier use many of the same ingredients, she uses fewer spices but serves with more garnishes. I've come to learn that garnishes are very important to this dish.

Posole also spelled pozole, is a Mexican soup (stew) from pre-Columbian times made with hominy, peppers, and some meat. Most of the time you see posole made with a tough cut of pork like the shoulder, but Paula tells me she sometimes makes it with chicken or turkey, which greatly cuts the cooking time.

We made this posole with pork shoulder, but at the end, I added some cut-up boneless chicken thighs to make it a little thicker. I think of posole as a soup, but it can easily be transformed into a stew by adding less water or more ingredients.

Peppers

I've been learning a lot about peppers from Paula since they are essential ingredients in Mexican cooking. I did not know that ancho chile peppers are dried poblano peppers or California chile peppers are dried Anaheim chiles. Both of these chiles are not very hot. Paula calls them sweet.

She chose to use this chile in her Posole for us, but she told me if she were making this at home, she would use Chilcostle or Arbol chiles, both of which are very hot. She didn't think we could handle it, but she's right!

Garnishes

According to Paula, the garnishes are very important to this dish. Not only do they add additional flavors to the dish, but they allow individuals to add what they like and skip what they don't. There was no way my kids would add radishes to their posole, but they contribute greatly to the overall flavor.

I like the flavor of the lemon so much I would consider adding it right into the pot but Paula says some people do not like the lemon so let them choose for themselves. She also said the lemon can help if the dish is too spicy and hot. Good to know.

Pork Shoulder to Start Posole Recipe

Grate the 4 Cloves of Garlic

Brown the Pork Shoulder

Adding 3 Quarts of Water to the Pot

Anaheim Peppers for Posole

Removing the Seeds from the Anaheim Peppers

Prepping the Radishes for Posole Garnish

Prepping the Lettuce for Posole Garnish

Garnishes for Posole Recipe

Dicing Onion for the Posole

Sliced Lemons for Posole

Blend the Peppers in a Blender or Food Processor

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5 from 2 votes

Best Posole Recipe

How to make authentic Mexican posole.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time3 hours hrs

Total Time3 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Mexican

Keyword: posole

Servings: 8 people

Ingredients

• 3½ pounds pork shoulder cut into 4 pieces
• 4 cloves garlic grated
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 small onion quartered
• 4 dried Anaheim chiles you can substitute ancho chile peppers which are dried poblano peppers
• ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
• 46½ ounces hominy 3 - 15½ cans
• 10 radishes for garnish
• 1 head iceburg lettuce for garnish, Romain or green leaf works fine too
• 1 medium onion for garnish
• 1 lemon for garnish

Instructions

• Place the 4 pieces of pork shoulder into a 6 or 8-quart soup pot.
• Grate the garlic over the meat. (We used a microplane grater.)
• Season with salt and add the small quartered onion.
• Heat the pot over medium-high heat and brown the meat on all sides.

  Using some kitchen tongs, keep turning the meat and pushing it down to speed up the process. This should take about 3 - 4 minutes.

  Note: I say brown the meat, but the pork isn't going to brown like beef does so maybe I should say "sear" the meat. Just saying.
• Add 3 quarts of water to the pot, cover and bring to a boil. Once the water comes to a boil, remove the cover, lower heat and bring to a low boil.

  This is more than a simmer but not a full boil.
• Let this low boil for 3 hours. After just 10 minutes, notice the wonderful aromas filling up your kitchen.

Prepping the Peppers and Garnish

• While the meat is cooking, it's time to prep the peppers and garnish ingredients. Under running water, tear the dried peppers in half and rinse out the seeds. You may need a knife to help open them up.
• Put the peppers into a small saucepan, add some water and let them simmer for 20 minutes.

  After simmering, drain the peppers, puree in a blender or food processor and reserve.
• While the peppers are simmering, start prepping the garnishes by washing, trimming and slicing the radishes into thin slices. When finished, place the cut radishes into a container.
• Slice the lettuce into strips, wash if necessary and add to the container with radishes. Top with water, cover and store in the refrigerator.

  The radishes and lettuce will stay fresh for days this way.
• Peel and finely dice the medium onion and place in another container.
• Slice the lemon into six wedges, add to the onions, cover and store in the refrigerator until needed.

Finishing the Posole

• When the pork is done cooking, remove and place onto a cutting board. You're going to find some large pieces of fat because pork shoulder has a lot of it. Find these pieces and remove what you can find.
• Shred the remaining pork using your finger or a fork if too hot to handle. Add back to the pot.
• Drain the cans of hominy and add the hominy to the pot.
• Add the reserved pureed peppers into the pot and stir.
• Add the ¼ teaspoon of dried oregano, stir and simmer for 5 minutes to let the flavors meld together.
• Skim off any fat that may be floating along the top but if you are not serving until the following day, you'll be able to easily skim off a layer of solidified fat with a spoon after being refrigerated over night.
• I also think the posole tastes better a day after you make it.

Serving

• To serve, ladle some of this delicious posole into a soup bowl and garnish with lettuce, radishes, onion and a squeeze of lemon depending on your personal tastes.

  My kids didn't want any garnishes but I convinced them the lemon really added to the flavor.
• We served the posole over basmati rice to make more of a meal out of it but you can serve it over any of your favorite rice, pasta or by itself.

Notes

We enjoyed this posole the day it was prepared but I swear it tasted even better the next day for lunch. I'll probably freeze some for one of those nights when I don't feel like cooking and want something Quick and Easy and I'm sure it will taste just as good.

This is a good one so give it a try. Thanks Paula for teaching me how you make Mexican Posole.

Some of My Favorite Pork Recipes