New Mexican Posole Rojo
New Mexican Posole Rojo recipe shared by Samuel Lu from RawSpiceBar.
The star of this month’s spice box, this classic New Mexican posole is a light brothed, deeply flavorful and moderately spicy stew perfect for January. Made with hominy, large kernels of puffed white corn (posole just means “dried corn” and hominy means “cooked posole”), for body and traditionally made with pork shoulder for flavor. Our ground chile powder blend of New Mexican chili peppers, ancho and guajillo chiles and arbol chiles provide fruity, peppery depth with a bit of heat.
| Prep Time | Cook Time | Total Time |
|---|---|---|
| 15 mins | 3 hours, 15 mins | 3 hours, 30 mins |
- RawSpiceBar's Ground Chiles
- RawSpiceBar's Posole Spices
- 2 pounds pork shoulder (or beef shank, whole chicken; omit for vegetarians)
- 2 onions
- 6 cloves garlic
- 1 pound dried or canned hominy (can also substitute garbanzo beans or frozen corn)
- 24 oz canned whole tomatoes in puree
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 6 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon honey or sugar
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Sliced radishes, chopped avocado, fresh cilantro or lime wedges for serving
- Bring meat to room temperature. Pat meat dry to remove all excess liquid, generously salt.
- Heat vegetable oil in a Dutch oven or pot over medium high heat, until the oil is near smoking. Add and sear the meat, until well browned on each side. Try not to move the meat while it's searing. Remove meat from pot and set aside.
- Add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil to dutch oven over medium heat.
- Add chopped onions, scraping up the brown bits into the mix. Allow onions to begin to brown, about 10 minutes.
- Add minced garlic and cook until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add RawspiceBar's Ground Chiles and Posole Spices in thirds until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
- Increase heat to medium. Add chopped tomatoes (juice removed) and let brown, about 5 minutes. Add vegetable oil as needed to keep contents moist.
- Add reserved tomato juice and sugar (or honey) & combine. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer.
- Add seared meat back to pot. Cover and put in conventional oven at 275 degrees Fahrenheit. Allow to braise for 2 hours until meat is fork tender.
- When tender, remove posole from Dutch oven and temporarily remove meat. Chop meat into bite size pieces, about 1 inch each, set aside.
- Puree pot contents into a sauce with an immersion blender (or leave chunky, if preferred).
- Add chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Add canned hominy (or garbanzo beans) and chopped meat back to the pot and allow to cook for another 40-50 minutes on stovetop over medium-low heat until hominy is softened (if using dried hominy or garbanzo beans, soak over night first).
- To serve, top each bowl of posole with traditional ingredients such as peppery radishes, avocado, chopped cilantro or a squeeze of lime. Enjoy!
Recipe Rating: 4 / 5
KEY TIPS
Choosing, Browning & Braising the Meat: The type of meat cut is important for this stew focused dish. Because the posole is a stew meant to cook at a low heat for a long period of time, we recommend using a piece of meat with collagen. If you’re using lamb, there is collagen in the shanks and they will cook down to a delectable meat. Same goes for pork shoulder and beef chuck. And if you’re going the chicken route, make sure to use a whole or quartered chicken, bone-in and skin on. For vegetarians & vegans, you can skip this altogether.
The most important step to browning your meat is to get rid of surface moisture. We like to use a paper towel to thoroughly blot the meat as dry as possible. A dry surface on your meat means that you’ll get a nice, flavorful crust once it hits your hot pan, thanks to the Maillard reaction.
Cut meat into 1 pound chunks (we bought 2 pounds and cut it in half) and season heavily with salt and pepper. Next, add your vegetable oil to your Dutch oven and turn up to medium high until the oil is lightly smoking. Add your meat and let it sit there until just the bottom side is deeply seared, about 5 minutes on each side. The key trick here is not to move the meat around and don’t worry about searing every edge- just focus on the top and bottom.
Braising the meat will take about 2 hours if braised whole. The braising process entails turning tough connective tissue (primarily the collagen) into gelatin- a process that relies both on time and temperature. We cook our meat in a Dutch oven on an oven setting of 250 degrees Fahrenheit for about 2 hours.
Using Freshly Ground, Dried Chile Powder:We’re biased, of course, but the star of any great posole is, arguably, the chiles- specifically freshly ground, dried chiles.Chiles fall into 4 main categories: sweet & fresh (New Mexicos, Castenos), smoky (chipotles, guajillos), hot (Cascabels, Arbols, Pequins) and deeply rich & fruity (Anchos, Mulatos, Pasillas). The best ground chiles taken into account at least one pepper from each category, in the correct proportions.
RawSpiceBar’s ground chiles is a blend of New Mexico Chile Powder, Ancho Chile Powder, Guajillo Chiles & Arbol Chiles for the perfect mix of each flavor from the chile pepper spectrum. We’ve toasted them whole and freshly ground them- all you need to do is add them right after you’ve browned your onions and tomatoes.
Layering Aromatics: Like any good soup or stew, depth of flavor is created through layering- not dumping all of the ingredients in a pot. Treating each ingredient individually is the key to bringing out the unique flavor of each. For our posole, we start with chopped onions. Add your oil, turn the Dutch oven to medium hot and add the onions. The key is to allow the onions to “sweat down” in a bit of oil, before adding and browning whole, chopped tomatoes. Once these have browned, add in RawSpiceBar’s spices and allow to toast for 2 minutes as well before adding your liquids.
Adding Texture With Hominy or Garbanzo Beans: Hominy’s large, puffy, chewy corn kernels are a unique taste owing to the way they are treated. Early Native Americans used calcium oxide (lime) to break down corn kernels, loosening touch cellulose hulls, creating hominy and actually improving the nutritional value of the corn.
Hominy is very much a part of a traditional New Mexican posole and can be easily found dried or canned in the southwestern US. For you Northeners who have never heard of hominy, you can typically find it canned in the international section of any grocery store. Otherwise, we find using garbanzo beans or frozen corn as a substitute will do the trick. Canned hominy can be added directly to your posole dish but dried hominy will need to be soaked over night (about 8 hours) and cooked separately for about 3-4 hours before adding to your posole.
Braising & Simmering: On a cold winter day (or night), it takes about 30 minutes to prepare this dish before you’re ready to put it in the oven and let it simmer away. All in all, letting the posole cook in the oven for about 2 hours and then on the stove top for another 2 hours allows the flavors to fully develop and concentrate, while the meat will be falling off the bone.