At the suggestion of friends who had made this recipe, I decided to try my hand at chicken posole, or pozole, as my can of hominy spelled it. The recipe was from Real Simple, which always wins me over. And I have been struggling lately to fit protein into my diet now that I've more or less cut out tofu/soy. I know, this is a big deal for the former VP Tofu of my group of friends. My mom mentioned one day that she thinks tofu is kind of hard to digest, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that might be my problem. Lord knows I eat (ate) enough soy... So I've been eliminating it from my diet and I think it might be a good thing. But it does make it hard to find quick vegetarian proteins! Does anyone have suggestions? Lentils may get old fast.
Have I mentioned my meat policy on here yet? I am not a vegetarian by any means, but with my save-the-world-one-cow-at-a-time mentality, I have been trying to eat only socially responsible meats. This obviously goes out the window when I go out to dinner (i.e.: the meat fest that I had at my birthday dinner at Alta, possibly my favorite restaurant... ever?), but I do my best at home, and to be honest rarely cook meat anyway. And that, kids, is how I saved the world. Or not. But I'm trying!
Anyway, I have been dying to try meat from the farmers' market, so I finally got down to it last Saturday, and I bought a whole smoked chicken. I won't tell you how much it cost, but that's because no one will want to save the world anymore after knowing that. But it was pretty damn good and lasted me over a week, so perhaps wasn't so crazy in the end.
Hola, pollo.
I am not a fan of dealing with chicken bones, etc., but I did OK with this guy. The white meat was a little dry, but the dark meat was pretty much perfect. Most of it, however, went into my posole!
I did a lot of modifications on this recipe, and in the end I think it came out pretty well. Always so proud when I do that!
Chicken Posole
adapted from Real Simple
So, I technically followed this recipe, but I think what I ended up making (and what I think my friends were telling me to make) was more like this recipe. So, it's a hybrid. Let's call it Prius Pozole. (Wow, I'm such a nerd.) The original recipe #1 requires making a chicken stock from scratch (hence the onion, celery, parsley, and raw chicken that it calls for). I speeded this up by instead using broth from a box AND a pre-cooked chicken, which, as it turns out, is pretty much what recipe #2 tells you to do. Also, this ended up being pretty spicy. I LOVE spicy, so it was all good, but maybe only use one pepper if you need to tone it down for your taste buds. OOOOOK. Still with me?
Ingredients
1/2 small cooked (smoked, rotisserie, etc.) chicken, pulled (I realize this is a totally unhelpful way of putting it, but I didn't weigh or measure... I would say it was about 2 cups shredded chicken meat?)
6 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 fresh jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 fresh poblano (or any variety, really), seeded and chopped (I think you could also use a whole dried pepper -- just stick it in the pot whole and remove when the soup is done)
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 15-oz can of hominy ("pozole"), drained
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
chopped fresh cilantro, to taste
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
avocado, chopped, optional
tortilla chips, optional
radishes, sliced, optional
Method
1. Add 6 cups of broth to a large Dutch oven or stockpot and bring to a light boil. While the broth heats, shred chicken into bite-size pieces and set aside.
2. Add onion, poblano, jalapeno, and garlic. Return to a boil, and add the chicken, hominy, cumin, chili powder, and oregano. Reduce heat to a simmer and let cook for about 20 minutes.
3. Before serving, stir in cilantro and lime juice. Serve warm and top with tortilla chips, chopped avocado, and sliced radishes, if desired.
Serves 4ish.
I served this with avocado, as suggested, a ton of cilantro (totally made the meal), and a beauuutiful salad. I had never used hominy before. They look like giant white corn kernels, but they have the consistency of a soft, chewy potato. I'm not sure I made that sound appealing, but I really like it!
So, what lesson did I learn? Hot pepper oils can stay on your fingers for a LONG TIME. I managed to still have some on my fingers when I took out my contacts that night (after washing my hands at least 5 times), and my eyes stung for days. Don't say I didn't warn you!
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