Red Chile Pozole Recipes

POSOLE WITH RED CHILI

Steps:

• Garnishes.
• Chopped avocado, fresh cilantro, and white onion; thinly sliced cabbage, jalapeños, and radishes; lime wedges.
• Ingredient Info.
• New Mexico chiles are sold at Latin markets, specialty foods stores, and some supermarkets. Look for dried hominy at natural foods stores and ranchogordo.com.
• Preparation.
• Red Chile Purée.
• Preheat oven to 400°. Rinse and dry chiles; place in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast, turning occasionally, until puffed, fragrant, and a slightly darker red, 5-6 minutes. Let cool.
• Wearing gloves, use scissors to stem and halve chiles lengthwise. Discard seeds for less heat. Transfer to a medium saucepan and cover with 6 cups water. Add onion and garlic; season with salt. Bring to a simmer. Cook until chiles are soft, 25-30 minutes.
• Drain chile mixture, reserving liquid. Purée mixture and 1 1/2 cups liquid in a blender until smooth, adding more liquid if needed for a sauce that can coat a spoon. Strain through a medium-mesh sieve into a medium bowl. DO AHEAD Purée can be made 5 days ahead. Cover; chill.
• Posole.
• Season pork shoulder and ham hocks with 1 tablespoon salt. Rub garlic, chili powder, and cumin all over pork; set aside. DO AHEAD Pork can be marinated 1 day ahead. Cover and chill.
• Drain hominy. Transfer to a large heavy pot; add 12 cups water. Stud each onion with 1 clove; add to pot with 2 tablespoons salt and bay leaves. Cover; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, covered and stirring often, until hominy begins to soften, about 1 hour (hominy takes longer to cook than pork, so give it a jump start).
• Add pork shoulder and ham hocks to hominy; pour in water to cover by 1 inch. Cook, uncovered, stirring occasionally and adding more water as needed to keep ingredients submerged, until hominy is tender and pork is very tender and falling apart, 2-2 1/2 hours. Remove onions, bay leaves, and hocks. Discard onions and let hocks cool slightly; pick meat from bones and discard any cartilage, skin, and fat. Return meat to pot and stir in 3/4 cup red chile purée. Season to taste with salt and more red chile purée, if desired.
• Divide posole among bowls. Serve with remaining red chile purée and garnishes.

RED CHILE POZOLE

Steps:

• Heat a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil, then onion, celery and garlic. Cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add the zucchini. Cook 5 more minutes, until zucchini is slightly softened, then remove from heat. Transfer vegetables to a plate and reserve.
• Return pot to medium heat. Add remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil, then Protein Starter. Using a wooden spoon, break apart into pieces about 1/2-inch big. Cook 8 to 10 minutes or until Protein Starter is lightly golden. Add ancho chile, adobo sauce, ground cumin, and chile powder. Cook 2 more minutes, breaking up ancho chile with spoon.
• Add vegetable broth, hominy, bay leaves, oregano, and reserved vegetable mixture. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium-low heat and cook 10 to 12 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Season with kosher salt, if desired.
• To serve, top with cilantro leaves, diced avocado, and radishes. Serve with lime wedges and tortilla chips, if desired.

RED POZOLE

Steps:

• Place pork shoulder in the refrigerator. Transfer pork shanks and feet into a large pot on the stove. Add onion, carrot, and celery, salt, pepper, cumin, and bay leaves. Pour in 3 quarts water. Turn heat to high and bring to a simmer.
• Skim foam from the surface and add Mexican oregano, rubbing it between your hands as you drop it into the pot. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer gently until pork is tender and will easily come off the bone, about 3 ½ hours.
• While the pork is simmering, place unpeeled garlic cloves in a dry pan over medium heat. Roast the cloves, shaking the pan occasionally over the heat, until slightly charred on the outside and just starting to get soft on the inside. Remove from the heat and transfer into a bowl to cool.
• Place guajillo and ancho chile peppers into a 4-cup liquid measuring cup and set a strainer over the top. Ladle some simmering broth from the pot into the strainer until chiles are covered. Let soak until the pork is finished simmering.
• When pork is finished cooking, set a strainer over a large bowl. Remove pork and vegetables with a slotted spoon and place in the strainer.
• Meanwhile, peel the cooled garlic cloves and add them to the chile pepper and broth mixture. Puree chile mixture with an immersion blender until smooth.
• Pass pureed chiles through a strainer into the pot of broth. Add a spoonful or two of the broth to the pureed chiles to help it pass through the strainer if needed. Pour the remaining 1 quart of water through the strainer, then add the pork shoulder to the pot. Simmer over medium-low heat.
• While the pork shoulder simmers, remove bones from pork shanks, then cut shanks and feet into smaller pieces.
• Once the pork shoulder has simmered for 1 ½ hours, add diced shanks and feet to the pot. Stir in hominy and continue to simmer until pork is very tender, about 1 more hour. Skim any fat from the surface as it cooks and season with more salt if needed.

RED CHICKEN POZOLE

Steps:

• Season chicken with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a pot over medium-high. Add chicken, skin-sides down, and cook, flipping once, until browned all over, 7 to 9 minutes (do not crowd pan; brown in batches if necessary). Add 2 onion wedges, broth, and 3 cups water.
• Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook at a bare simmer (small bubbles sporadically emerging at surface) until chicken is just cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate. Strain broth and return to pot.
• Meanwhile, heat a heavy skillet (preferably cast iron) over medium-high. Add dried chiles and cook, turning a few times, until blistered in places and fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and add enough hot tap water to cover; let stand 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to skillet. Add 1 onion wedge, jalapeño, and garlic; cook, turning a few times, until golden brown in places and beginning to soften, 7 to 9 minutes.
• Transfer mixture to a blender (do not wipe skillet clean), along with reconstituted dried chiles and 1/2 cup soaking liquid, oregano, cilantro, cumin, lime juice, and 1 teaspoon salt. Purée until smooth. Return mixture to skillet and simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced and darkened slightly, 8 to 10 minutes.
• Remove and discard skin and bones from chicken; shred meat into bite-size pieces (leave drumsticks whole, if desired). Return chicken to pot with puréed-chile mixture and hominy. Simmer, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes. Season to taste. Chop remaining onion wedge and serve soup with onion, radishes, cabbage, tostadas, cilantro, and lime wedges.

RED CHILE CHICKEN POSOLE

Steps:

• Soak the ancho chiles in hot water for 1 hour. Discard soaking water. Remove stems and seeds from chiles and puree them with the honey.
• Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper and dredge them in flour.
• Heat olive oil in a stock pot over med-high heat until hot. Saute chicken breasts until golden, about 3 minutes on each side, and remove from pot (chicken will not be cooked through).
• Add onion to pot along with additional 2 T oil. Saute about 5 minutes or until onion is soft. Add garlic, chile powder, cumin, and 1 T of the dredging flour, and saute for an additional minute. Deglaze the pan with wine.
• Add chicken broth to pot, along with the basil, oregano, vinegar, hominy, and chicken breasts.
• Bring to a boil and simmer uncovered over medium-low heat for 15 minutes. Stir in the pureed chile mixture and simmer an additional 15 minutes.
• Remove chicken from pot and turn heat up to high. As the liquid reduces and thickens slightly, shred the chicken with two forks. Stir chicken back into the liquid. Taste and adjust seasonings. Ladle posole into bowls and serve with warm tortillas.