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Posole – Mexican Pork and Hominy Stew

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Posole is one of my favorite Winter stews.  Pork and hominy slow cooked in a broth of ancho and guajillo chili’s.  Deep and rich, Que Viva Mexico!  This is not a family recipe but one that I found about five years ago from an unknown source and have adapted and changed.  I often think of my Abuela Mita and Grandpa when I start to cook traditional Mexican recipes and the kitchen starts to smell of dried chili’s reconstituting in boiling water.  Or at the Mexican grocer when I run into ingredients that I don’t fully understand how they are used, I wish I could turn to Mita and ask her. Or the smell of freshly baked Mexican sweet bread or crispy pork skin setting off the fresh scent of lard.  My grandpa ALWAYS had fried pork skin, chicharones!  How I miss my grandparents.  However, I don’t understand why I have never thought to ask my Tia Esther, the eldest of 12 siblings for Mita’s recipes.  Look out A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa readers for some authentic family Mexican recipes coming soon!

When making posole, one of the main ingredients is hominy, or field corn that has gone through the process of nixtamalization.  Usually when I make posole, I use canned hominy.  However, this time around I made my own nixtamal using yellow field corn and let me tell you, it takes FOREVER to remove the black tips from the end of the corn.  Yes, the taste was magnificent and fresh, but 2+ hours removing corn tips was just not for me.  I am more than happy finding organic hominy in a can and going that route the next time 😉  I’ll save nixtamal for tortilla’s and tamales as there is no need to remove the tips!

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Before I start on any Mexican recipe, I visit my local Mexican grocer and spend time chatting with the butchers and people that I meet from Mexico.  For this particular recipe, the spinal pieces of pork is what makes a great posole.  These pieces are small and full of cut bone that will impart more flavor to your stew and you will have the nourishing benefits of vitamins and minerals from the bone. 

Posole

Ingredients

  • 3lbs spinal pieces of pork (espina), or a bone-in pork shoulder.
  • 3 tbls extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 onions, chopped
  • 5-6 garlic cloves, pressed or finely minced
  • 6 cups chicken broth, preferably homemade
  • 2 large tomatoes, diced
  • 1 tsp oregano
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 3 cups homemade hominy or 3 cans of hominy 
  • 1 bunch of cilantro, tied
  • 2 dried ancho chili’s
  • 1 dried guajillo chili
  • 1 1/2 cups of boiling water

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

2. Season your pork with salt and pepper.
3. In a large oven safe pot, heat 3 tbls EVOO.  Saute the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and immediately add your pork.  Cook about 5-10 minutes or until both sides of pork are no longer pink.
Add broth, tomatoes, cilantro, oregano, cumin, and hominy if you have made your own nixtamal, salt and pepper to taste.  Bring to a boil.  Lower heat and simmer for a few minutes allowing fat scum to rise to the surface.  Skim off.  If using canned hominy, do not add until after it has cooked in the oven or it will disintegrate!

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Nixtamal

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After making my own nixtamal, removing the black tips, and thoroughly washing away all of the lime in 3 separate rinses, I soaked the corn for another 24 hours without lime.  So the nixtamal actually took 2 nights of soaking before I used it in my hominy.  I could have left it to soak for longer.

4. Once you have removed enough scum, cover the oven safe pot and place in the oven.  Cook for 2 hours or until meat is tender and falling apart.

5. While the stew is cooking in the oven, remove the seeds and stems from the chili’s and soak them in the boiling water for 20 minutes.
6. Puree the chili’s and water in a blender and clean the puree through a fine mesh sieve.  I use a splatter guard 😉

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7. After 2 hours, remove the meat from the pot, simmer the stew on medium heat and add the chili puree and if using canned hominy, the hominy.

8. In a separeate dish, separate the meat from the bones and with two forks shred the meat into small pieces.

9. Remove the cilantro from the stew and add the shredded meat.

10. Simmer on medium-low heat for an additional 30 minutes if using canned hominy or an hour to an hour and a half if using homemade hominy.

11. Garnish with lime wedges, cilantro, and freshly grated cheese!

    Buen Provecho!

      About Diana Bauman

      Diana is a mother of three, proud wife, and humbled daughter of God. She finds the most joy meeting with Jesus in her organic gardens. She is completely blessed to be able to call herself a stay at home mom where she home educates her children, joyfully serves her husband, and cooks nourishing, real food, for her family. She loves connecting with people on facebook, google+, pinterest, and instagram.

      Comments

      1. NOELLE says

        Looks very delicious and savory. Great job! Being half Mexican there are only so many recipes I know. Funny story. When I call my grandmother iN Mexico for recipes on comoplicated recipes she says, " Oh you do not want to go to all that trouble, it is so much work." Sigh

        Reply

      2. Divina Pe says

        This is so hearty, delicious and wholesome. Hope you can make this for me one day. Those dried chilies are hard to find though. My stomach is growling now.

        Reply

      5. Fresh Local and Best says

        This looks like a wonderfully hearty soup for the current freezing temperatures. I love the smoky flavors of the chili in this recipe.

        Reply

      6. momgateway says

        Hi Diana,

        Can't wait for your Abuela Mita's recipes. Could you ask your Tia Esther for your abuela's recipe for authentic chorizo de bilbao like the one's packed in lard? Unfortunately, I can't eat pork so I'd like to recreate chorizo de bilbao with beef (if that is at all possible!) How I miss them!

        Reply

      9. Velva says

        Diana, I can just smell the dry peppers coming to life in the kitchen. Wow, what a warm and soul satisfying stew. DELICIOUS!!!

        Reply

      11. Tasty Eats At Home says

        Oh wow, I am in love. I am so looking forward to more authentic Mexican recipes. (Is menudo in your future? While so many of my family and friends wrinkle their nose at menudo, I LOVE the stuff!) While I live in Texas, and the Latino population here is huge, there just aren't THAT many sources available to me to learn the real, authentic stuff. Rick Bayless tends to by my go-to guy, for the most part. But this? This sounds so delicious. I think all I need to make this is the hominy and pork – I have everything else!

        Reply

      13. Tiny Urban Kitchen says

        This looks amazing! I can't believe all the work you put into it. Man, if only I were your neighbor! 😉 My husband loves Mexican food, and I'm sure he would love this. But the amount of work & time it takes looks so intimidating to me! 🙂

        Reply

      14. Cookin' Canuck says

        Great tip about the spinal pieces of pork! This looks so comforting and flavorful. I'm looking forward to more of your Mexican recipes.

        Reply

      15. Drick says

        man, this is right to my heart – such a hearty, beautifully flavored dish and you really know how to cook it well. I can't wait for more of your recipes, esp these Mexican….drooling a lot right now…

        Reply

      18. Erica says

        I bought 1 can of hominy last week! I want to make this delicious Mexican stew. I will be making mine pretty soon, maybe your recipe 😉

        Reply

      19. My Little Space says

        Hi Diana, what a great recipe to start the year! Btw, Happy 2010 and hope you've a blissful & prosperous year. And this is absolutely a comforting meal. Love the colour of the sauce. yumm…
        Best wishes, Kristy

        Reply

      21. Fuji Mama says

        Oh goodness, now I'm starving! This looks so delicious. I'm a huge fan of hominy and so I know I would love this. Wait, who am I kidding, I'm a huge fan of anything edible, of course I'll like this!

        Reply

      22. Deliciously Organic says

        THis looks delicious and perfect for winter! I saw your comment about the raw milk and the same exact thing happened with my daughter. AFter 6 months of switching to raw dairy all of her asthma symptoms went away. Such a blessing!

        I have really enjoyed reading your blog and congrats with joining with Real Food Media!

        Reply

      23. Patty says

        I'm happy to hear that I'm not the only one who enjoys fried pork skins! I love them! And your posole looks out of this world. gorgeous photos. Thanks for sharing.

        Reply

      27. Dave says

        I know what you mean about dealing with the tips of the corn. I tried this from scratch with a friend of my mother in law a few years ago, and it seemed like we were at that table for hours just picking at the corn.

        Pozole is probably the perfect winter comfort food. The best thing is that there are hundreds of little regional variations. My favorite version is basic white- just stock, pork, and hominy, then add oregano, lemon, and chile piquin to taste, and crunch up a few tostadas for texture!

        Reply

      30. JoseG says

        Have you found organic hominy? I'd be interested in that although I don't know if any places around me carry it. Nice job though, I'm very impressed you did that yourself!

        Reply

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