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My Quick and Easy Chicken Pozole Rojo Soup is full of traditional flavors with a few shortcuts to save on cooking time. Full of tender chicken, hominy, and a red chile broth and topped with crunchy cabbage, radishes, and a squeeze of lime.
Pozole is a traditional Mexican soup that can be made with chicken or pork. It’s served at celebrations such as Christmas, New Year’s, and Mexican Independence Day. Chicken Pozole is perfect for big family get-togethers, and comforting on a cold night.
Be sure to try some of our other favorite Mexican comfort foods, like Caldo de Pollo, Albondigas Soup and Authentic Mexican Rice.
The soup is served topped with sliced radishes, shredded cabbage or lettuce, and slices of lime. For a spicy chicken pozole, use a medium or hot variety of enchilada sauce.
Table of Contents
What are the Three Varieties of Chicken Pozole?
- White Pozole (Pozole Blanco) is basically hominy cooked in a clear broth and topped with various garnishes like cabbage and radishes.
- Green Pozole (or Chicken Pozole Verde) is the white pozole soup with green elements added, like tomatillos, jalapenos or cilantro.
- Chicken Pozole Rojo, which is the variation that my family makes, includes some type of red sauce, often from steeping chiles all day long.
Ingredients for Chicken Pozole
Our shortcut version of pozole uses a canned enchilada sauce to keep it simple and easy (and fast!).
- Chicken Broth – I always use low sodium so I can control the salt level.
- Hominy – Found in the canned vegetable or Hispanic aisle of your market. hominy is corn that’s been soaked in lime juice to soften them.
- Garlic and Onion – for flavor.
- Shredded Chicken – use a rotisserie chicken or make our Instant Pot Shredded Chicken, Slow Cooker method or Poached Chicken.
- Red Enchilada Sauce – I prefer Hatch brand but any brand will work. My family prefers their pozole on the mild side, but a medium or hot enchilada sauce will spice things up.
- Garlic – fresh or jarred.
- Herbs and Spices – Dried oregano and ground cumin.
- Toppings – Sliced radishes green cabbage, cilantro, lime wedges.
How to Make It
Scroll down to the recipe card for the complete ingredients list and instructions.
My recipe is super simple, and surprisingly under 200 calories a bowl! It has chicken broth and enchilada sauce along with lots of onion, garlic, and other seasonings. Use a rotisserie chicken or boil chicken in the broth you plan to use for your soup.
- Prep. Shred some chicken, chop an onion and mince some garlic. Open all of your cans and drain the hominy.
- Cook. Saute onion and garlic in a large soup pot or dutch oven, then add the chicken, hominy, Caldo de Tomat, and seasoning. Finally stir in chicken broth, and enchilada sauce.
- Simmer. Bring the soup to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to low. Simmer on the stove 30 minutes. The longer you can leave this soup to simmer, the better the flavor, but 20-30 minutes will still be fine.
- Garnish. While the soup is simmering, chop the garnishes. We like sliced radishes, green cabbage, cilantro, and lots of lime juice.
Serving Suggestions
Traditionally, this soup is served with thinly sliced radishes and green cabbage for topping. They add a wonderful texture to each bite. Fresh lime juice is my must-have topping – I love the tangy, fresh burst of flavor.
More toppings to try: My kids love to add sour cream, my hubby adds shredded cheese and crushed tortilla chips. It does taste a little like my Easy Chicken Tortilla Soup so it makes sense that they want to put the same things in it. I also like to put diced avocados in mine.
Variations
Spicy: Use “hot” enchilada sauce, or make your own sauce with guajillo chiles.
Slow Cooker: Saute the onions (if using) and add them to a crockpot. Pour in the broth and enchilada sauce and seasonings. If using raw chicken breasts, add them now and cover and cook on LOW for 4-6 hours or HIGH for 3 ½ hours. Remove the chicken and shred it, then add it and the drained hominy to the pot. Cover and cook for 30-45 more minutes or until the hominy is tender. Note – If using already cooked and shredded chicken, add it at the end with the hominy.
Storage and Reheating
Storage: Keep leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4-5 days. Store toppings separately.
Freezing: This soup is an excellent freezer option! Let it cool completely then pour into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 4 months.
Reheating: Thaw in the refrigerator completely if frozen. Reheat in the microwave or simmer in a pot on the stove.
- Don’t omit the toppings. The crunchy cabbage and radishes add a beautiful contrast to the soup, plus they give some relief from the heat if you go with a spicier pozole.
- Onion and garlic: These are traditional boiled with the chicken to add flavor, like you would with my Poached Chicken recipe. If you don’t want bits of onion in your soup, I recommend just placing large chunks in your simmering soup to add flavor, and removing them before serving.
- Make sure to drain the hominy really well.
- This recipe make A LOT of soup. If you’re feeding a lot of people, this is perfect. If not, you can cut the recipe in half, or freeze the leftovers.
More Delicious Mexican Recipes You’ll Love
- Mexican Sopes Recipe
- Slow Cooker Mexican Beans
- Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Soup
- Refried Beans Recipe
- Loaded Chicken Nachos Recipe
Red Chicken Pozole
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic about 5-6 cloves
- 4 cups shredded cooked chicken like from a rotisserie
- 2 25- ounce cans hominy drained
- 64 ounces chicken stock
- 1 15 ounce can enchilada sauce
- 2 teaspoons Caldo de Tomat tomato bouillon
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- Sliced radishes green cabbage, cilantro, limes
Instructions
- In a large soup pot, heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Add diced onion and cook until beginning to soften. Stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds, then stir in oregeno, cumin and Caldo de tomat. Cook, stirring often, for one minute.
- Add the hominy and the chicken to the pot. Stir to coat and cook for a couple of minutes to flavor the chicken and hominy.
- Pour in enchilada sauce and chicken stock. Stir to combine, then turn heat up to medium-high bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for at least 20 minutes or up to 2 hours.
- Serve hot with garnishes like sliced radishes, chopped green cabbage, cilantro, lime wedges and tortilla chips.
- Store in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container for up to 3 days, or freeze for 3-4 months.
Notes
- This recipe make A LOT of soup. If you’re feeding a lot of people, this is perfect. If not, you can cut the recipe in half, or freeze the leftovers.
- If you don’t have Caldo de Tomat on hand, you can add a teaspoon of tomato paste.
- Storage: Keep leftovers in an airtight container for up to 4-5 days. Store toppings separately.
- Freezing: This soup is an excellent freezer option! Let it cool completely then pour into a freezer bag and freeze for up to 4 months.
- Reheating: Thaw in the refrigerator completely if frozen. Reheat in the microwave or simmer in a pot on the stove.
I was introduced to posole when I lived in New Mexico many years ago (they spell it with an “s” instead of a “z”). Just today I introduced it to my husband. We had the white variation, but I want to try your recipe for red next time. I wanted to point out that hominy is not corn soaked in lime juice. It’s corn that has been soaked in a solution of slaked lime – calcium hydroxide – which comes from limestone. It’s a powder, and then water is added to it, before using it for soaking hominy, among many other uses. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hominy#:~:text=To%20make%20hominy%2C%20field%20corn,(calcium%20hydroxide%20from%20limestone).
Love this easy version, and enchilada sauce is perfect for copying the taste. Thank you!
You are so welcome ruthmary! Love the feedback.
I put some pork stew meat in the crock pot with water, onion, and Fagundez seasoning- used that instead of chicken and chicken broth.
Came out amazing with this recipe!!!
Love the feedback Brigitte! Thanks for stopping by.
K.
What do you serve as a side with this?
Made this pozole for our Halloween afternoon. So amazingly good! Rotisserie chicken really saved time. Thank you for the recipe. It’s a keeper!
You are so welcome Cathy! Thanks for stopping by.
K.
Thanks for the great recipe! We have made it many times with many variations. A family favorite!
Love the feedback Heather! Thanks for stopping by.
Is there anyway to make this more spicy? Any peppers we can add?
Sure, you can use a spicier enchilada sauce, add a little cayenne or add some hot sauce.
Wonderful. I halved the recipe and used tomato paste as a sub for the caldo de tomat.
Awesome feedback Shawn! Thanks for stopping by.
Love this recipe, easy, quick and delicious ?
Thank you MWahab!
Super easy and super ?
Thank you!
Such an interesting chicken recipe. I think I will it a try this weekend. Thank!
Looks so hearty and comforting. YUM!