During my “off” week just after Thanksgiving, I picked up a pork loin and gave it the Chili Rubbed Pork treatment in my slow cooker. It made a TON of pulled pork, so I ended up popping a few portions of it in the freezer, one of which was destined to become this super easy 30 Minute Posole.
What is Posole?
Posole, or pozole, is a rich stew, typically made with slow-cooked pork, hominy, green chiles, and lots of delicious toppings. The “posole” I made is definitely not authentic, it’s more of a quickie stand-in for the good stuff. Kind of like ramen you buy in a 15 cent pack versus real ramen. If you want to make real posole/pozole, here is an authentic Mexian Pozole recipe so you can see what it’s really all about.
Using the leftover pork helped my “quickie posole” come together really fast, so this is a great way to take advantage of those leftovers on busy nights. Pork is the typical meat for posole, but if you have leftover chicken or beef I say why not go ahead and use that. I think it would be equally as delicious!
What is Hominy?
Hominy, one of the key ingredients in posole, are large maize grains that have been treated with lye, which softens their outer husk and gives them a wonderfully chewy texture. You can find hominy both dried and canned, like beans, but this quick 30 minute posole recipe below uses the canned version for convenience.
What to Serve with Posole
I would absolutely love this soup with cornbread on the side, so I could crumble the cornbread into the soup and soak up all that wonderful broth! A scoop of cooked rice would also be a great topper for the soup to round out the meal.
Sauce it Up!
I used my homemade red enchilada sauce as a base for this soup, which helped thicken the broth and provide a TON of instant flavor. I kept the toppings for my posole simple to keep costs low, but if you want to splurge I think this soup would be awesome with a little shredded cheddar, pepper jack, sour cream, or avocado. The creaminess of any of those toppings would be an excellent contrast to the spicy broth. There’s a lot of room for customization with this one, so have fun with it!
Love southwest flavored soups? Try my Chicken and Lime Soup, Slow Cooker Tortilla Soup, or Red Lentil Mexican Stew.
Easy 30 minute Posole
Servings 6 (1.33 cups each)Ingredients
- 1 yellow onion ($0.14)
- 2 Tbsp cooking oil ($0.04)
- 2 Tbsp flour ($0.02)
- 2 Tbsp mild chili powder* ($0.30)
- 3 oz. tomato paste ($0.33)
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder ($0.05)
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional) ($0.03)
- 3/4 tsp salt ($0.03)
- 2 cups water ( $0.00)
- 3 cups chicken broth** ($0.38)
- 1 4oz. can chopped green chiles ($0.87)
- 1 15oz. can hominy ($1.09)
- 1.5 cups shredded pork, chicken, or beef (pre-cooked) ($2.04)
- 1 fresh lime ($0.33)
- 1/2 bunch fresh cilantro ($0.85)
Instructions
- Finely dice the onion, then add it to a large soup pot along with the cooking oil. Sauté the onion in the oil over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, or until it is tender and transparent. Add the flour and chili powder and continue to sauté for two minutes more. The mixture will be fairly dry, so stir continuously to prevent burning.
- Add 2 cups water, tomato paste, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and salt to the pot. Whisk the ingredients together until the tomato paste is dissolved. Allow the mixture to come to a simmer, at which point it will thicken.
- Finally, add the chicken broth, shredded meat, diced chiles, and hominy (drained). Stir to combine and then heat through (about 10 minutes).
- Cut the lime into wedges and roughly chop the cilantro. Top each bowl with chopped cilantro and a wedge of lime to squeeze over top.
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
Notes
**I use reconstituted Better Than Bouillon to make my broth.
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?Mention @budgetbytes or tag #budgetbytes on Instagram!Scroll down for the step by step photos!
How to Make Posole – Step by Step Photos
Begin by dicing one small yellow onion and adding it to a large soup pot along with 2 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil. Sauté the onion in the oil over medium heat until it is soft and transparent. Although 2 Tbsp oil seems like more than needed sauté one small onion, that amount of oil is needed to make the roux in the next step, which provides the thickening power for the soup.
Once the onion is soft, add 2 Tbsp flour and 2 Tbsp mild chili powder. Continue to sauté this mixture for two minutes to toast the flour and chili powder. It may be slightly dry, so stir continuously to prevent burning.
Whisk in 2 cups water, 3oz. tomato paste (1/2 of a 6oz. can), 1/2 tsp cumin, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, and 3/4 tsp salt, until the tomato paste has completely dissolved. Allow the mixture to come to a simmer, at which point it will thicken. This is basically my Easy Red Enchilada Sauce (plus an onion).
Drain one 15oz. can of hominy (golden or white, your choice) and add it to the pot.
Also add a 4oz. can of diced green chiles.
And about 1.5 cups of pre-cooked, shredded meat (I used pork, but chicken or beef would also work).
Finally, stir in 3 cups chicken broth and heat through. And that’s about it! Really fast, really delicious 30 Minute Posole!
Toppings are one of the most fun parts of posole, so I chopped up about 1/2 bunch cilantro and cut one fresh lime into wedges. The lime juice adds a really nice tart/fresh flavor to the broth.
Top each bowl of the 30 Minute Posole with the chopped cilantro and a wedge of lime. Other fun toppings include: shredded cheese, avocado, sour cream, thinly sliced radishes, tortilla chips, or fresh salsa.
And I’ll openly admit, this is my first time eating hominy. It’s DELICIOUS! It has that really nice corn flavor, but the big kernels have a an awesomely chewy texture. They are, without a doubt, my favorite part of this stew.
Tried to plug the nutrition facts into spark recipes. Leaving it here in case it helps anyone else!
Nutrition Facts
6 Servings
Amount Per Serving
Calories 235.2
Total Fat 9.6 g
Saturated Fat 2.1 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g
Monounsaturated Fat 3.5 g
Cholesterol 24.4 mg
Sodium 708.7 mg
Potassium 202.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate 27.8 g
Dietary Fiber 3.5 g
Sugars 11.3 g
Protein 10.4 g
Vitamin A 6.3 %
Vitamin B-12 0.0 %
Vitamin B-6 4.0 %
Vitamin C 19.4 %
Vitamin D 0.0 %
Vitamin E 3.3 %
Calcium 3.1 %
Copper 4.4 %
Folate 5.2 %
Iron 11.0 %
Magnesium 5.1 %
Manganese 6.7 %
Niacin 3.8 %
Pantothenic Acid 1.8 %
Phosphorus 4.7 %
Riboflavin 2.8 %
Selenium 5.6 %
Thiamin 2.7 %
Zinc 6.0 %
HI,
So I had smoked a pork butt and had leftovers I needed to use. Boy am I glad I found this recipe. We live in south east Colorado and get the hatch chili’s every year, roasted and frozen. Last year they were the hottest we have ever had…. but I seeded them and took out the ribs. While this was HOT it was fantastic. Thank you!!!
So I use Hatch chilies instead of the green chilies. Like once a year my local grocery store (I live in Texas) sells Hatch chilies under a dollar a pound and you buy a whole bunch of them and you roast them in your oven and freeze them for when you need them. I believe it may be a cheaper alternative to canned chilies. I have Hatch chilies left over from last year as well as the batch that I saved from this year.
I totally need to do that! They sell them like that once per year, too (Louisiana) and they even roast them at the grocery store and sell them that way. I love green chiles so much.
Do you think it would still turn out the same if I add some mexican noodles at some point, maybe during the simmering process?
I think that would taste nice. :) Yes, add them towards the end and then just simmer until the noodles are tender.
This was sooo good! My husband and I both liked it, and now I’m wishing I’d made more. I used leftover pulled pork and also used up the end of a leftover jalapeno. We ate it with plain yogurt and some shredded cheese for dinner but I had leftovers plain for lunch that were still just as tasty. Thanks!
As my husband came back into the kitchen to get his 2nd bowl of this…he told me he had really doubted this recipe but it was really phenomenal. He asked to have it put in our monthly rotation😂
(Side note, I didn’t have any premade meat, so I followed another posters suggestion of cooking up some chicken breasts with the seasonings prior to starting the onions . It added about 10 min to the recipe)
This recipe is AMAZING. I made it last night with leftover pork and both my husband and I absolutely loved it. We now have a go-to recipe for our overabundance of pork when we make a big crock pot batch. Thank you!!
I was speechless after my husband and I whipped this up New Year’s Day. This recipe was spot on and even better than some of the homemade versions we’ve had! Keep being amazing!!
I made this last night with a cup of shredded pork that was gifted to us. It was delicious! For the leftovers today, I added a spoonful of sour cream. It made it taste so luxurious (and helped take away some of the heat from a cayenne pepper mishap). We will definitely be putting this in our regular rotation.
I just made this a few hours ago. Only alteration I made was with the precooked crock pot pork (since I didn’t have this at hand). Instead I just cooked two pork loins with the spice blend listed and they were super tender in less than an hour. Instead of chicken stock I used the broth from the pork loins (ok, guess that’s 2 alterations). Anyways, it was super delicious!! First recipe I’ve tried from this blog and I’m very impressed!! Topped mine with cilantro, lime, avocado, shredded iceburg lettuce, and sliced radishes (these last two are mandatory toppings for authentic pozole!). Thanks for the recipe, Beth! ;)
Made this with chicken tonight as I’m not a big fan of pork. Just cooked the chicken breasts whole in the same pot I used for the posole prior to cooking the onions. Pulled the chicken apart with 2 forks while the soup simmered and thickened and added back in when the recipe said to add the meat. Only added about 10 minutes of cook time to the whole meal AND best of all no additional dirty pots/pans. Delicious recipe, will definitely make again.
As a full time graduate student with an internship AND a job I have to say how much I love your blog. Affordable, simple, and tasty recipes that I can manage given my limited budget and time.
I made this for my husband and myself for dinner tonight. I will be making this again! I will add a second can of hominy to it since we like a soup that’s closer to a stew. Great fresh flavors and simple, one pot meal. We added crushed tortilla chips on top when I served it. It tastes better than our local Mexican restaurant’s posolé.
Posole is one of our favorite dishes to make! We normally do it in the crock pot and brown the chunks of pork before. But I love quick and easy and can’t wait to try this. Thanks, Beth!
I absolutely love hominy but only ever really see it in Posole. I have always really wanted to try to make a vegetarian version of Posole. Any suggestions on how to make this delicious without the pork?
Deborah Madison, in one of her cookbooks, offers a really good New Mexican vegetarian Posole. She makes it with dried chilis which are very affordable and you cannot duplicate that flavor.
I love this idea! Whenever I make pulled pork, it makes a ton. But there are only so many times you can eat pulled pork sandwiches and carnitas. So excited for a new idea to use up the leftover meat.