it doesn’t get much better than this …

One of my favorite meals to make is posole.  It’s a Mexican stew.  Some people spell it pozole and some people (me) spell it posole.  Either way, it’s delish.  It’s also very easy to make (at least the way I make it) and I make so much of it when I do that I eat it for days for every meal.

I thought I’d share my recipe with you but then I realized I don’t really have a recipe per se.  I mainly throw together the same ingredients each time in somewhat varied quantities.  It kind of drives Ray crazy because each batch is an experiment and may not ever be repeated, but that’s the way I do things around these here parts.  Here’s how I make it and feel free to substitute, add, change or completely ignore my recipe and find your own!

Start with a few fresh jalapenos.  I dice up between 6 to 8.  This time I used 8.  Notice my lovely cutting board.  I just got it and I luuurve it!

I throw it in the most gianormous pot I have and add a butt load of chili powder.

Hominy is by far my favorite part of this soup.  You really can’t add too much hominy.  I use the biggest can I can find which is around 208 ounces from Costco.  I rinse it out and get it all umclumped.

On medium high heat I start boiling chicken stock.  You can use either chicken stock or broth.  Our Costco only sells chicken stock in large quantities so that’s what I use.  I’ve used both and really, can’t tell the difference.  I used four 32 ounce boxes of chicken stock for this batch.

Another reason why Costco is so awesome: they sell already shredded(ish) rotisserie chicken breast in vacuum sealed bags.  Sometimes they’re in the premade meal section and sometimes you have to ask for them.  They use it in their chicken salads and whatnot, but they’ll sell it to you if you ask nicely.  It’s already cooked so you’re really just warming it up.  You can shred it more or just leave it as is like me (lazy).  If you can’t get it from Costco you can either buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it or buy a whole chicken and cook it yourself.  To do that I would pour in the chicken stock and whatever kind of chicken parts I bought and boil it until the chicken pieces were cooked.  Then I take them out and get to shredding.  It is the only difficult or annoying part of the process so that’s why I buy it already done for me.

Now add 3 to 4 cans of diced tomatoes.  You could use fresh tomatoes, but again, I’m lazy and this works for me.

Heat to boiling and stir occasionally.  Here’s where I’ll add some hot sauce.  You can use whatever you like, but I use Lime Cholula.  It’s my fave.  Once it’s boiled for a bit I turn it down to low-medium, cover it and let it simmer.  I’ll check the broth after about 20 minutes to see if it’s spicy enough or if it needs anything else then I just let it simmer for as long as I can stand waiting for it.  Sometimes I’ll start it in the morning for dinner just so it simmers all day and makes my house smell yummy.

While simmering I listen to some tunes.  Right now I’m obsessed with the second Country Strong soundtrack that has the rest of the songs Garrett Hedlund & Leighton Meester sang in the movie. 

You can garnish your bowl with all kinds of stuff.  My father-in-law likes his with shredded cabbage, my hubby likes his plain but he wouldn’t complain if I had some tortillas.  I like mine with lots of lemon juice and cilantro.

Doesn’t that look purty??  Enjoy!