Recipes

Jalisco Red Pork Pozole

Posted by daniel sinclair on

Pozole is a holiday mainstay for Mexicans, especially those from the state of Jalisco. Pozole is like a Mexican version of chili, with pork instead of beef, and hominy instead of beans. And it’s pretty delicious.

Note that you can’t complete this meal in the 8qt InsantPot, we cook the meat (Ingredients 1 below) and then transfer to at least a 12 qt pot (see picture to right of 8qt pot, 16qt pot, and 8qt Instantpot). And this is a half recipe.

Ingredients

Part 1: The Meat

  • 1-2 lbs pork loin (I like less meat)
  • 1 lb beef spine pieces
  • 1 lb pierna (pork leg) (use more pork loin if not available)
  • 1 pig’s foot (optional – how auténtico do you want it?)
  • 10 sprigs of green onion
  • 5 garlic cloves, large, whole
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion, whole
  • 1 T salt
  • 1 t oregano
  • 3 qt filtered water

Part 2: The Chili Paste

  • 4 c hot pork broth (from Ingredients 1)
  • 8 dried California peppers (use Guajillo if not available, but taste will suffer)
  • 8 dried Guajillo peppers
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 t salt

Part 3: The Corn and Broth

  • 6 lb 14 oz can of Hominy (one big one)
  • 4 qt chicken broth
  • 1 T chicken bullion (preferrably Knorr Caldo de Pollo)

Part 4: Garnishes

  • 2 limes, wedged
  • 1 bottle Tapatio hot sauce
  • 1/2 head shredded cabbage
  • 1 bunch radishes sliced
  • 1 medium sweet onion, chopped

Part 5: Toastadas

  • 1 pkg toastadas
  • 16 oz our cream
  • 2 tomatoes, sliced

Instructions

Part 1: The Meat

  1. Cut the meat into 2 inch squares
  2. Combine Ingredients 1 in your instant pot
  3. Pressure cook on high for 45 minutes (90 minutes if on stovetop without pressure)
  4. Manually release pressure
  5. Open and discard green onions and garlic cloves
  6. Transfer to larger pot (at least 12 qt)

Part 2: The Chili Paste

  1. Combine *half* of the ingredients in a blender and blend until deep orange in color (may take a couple times – I use the “sauces” setting on my Blendtec, running it twice)
  2. Pour the results into a strainer, blend the other half of the ingredients, use a spoon to push the sauce through the strainer
  3. Use a ladle and pull some broth out of the pot, pouring into the strainer a couple of times to get all the life out of the paste
  4. Throw away the seeds and other material left in the strainer.

Part 3: Hominy and Simmer

  1. Add Ingredients 3 to the pot. Cover and simmer for at least an hour.
  2. Place pozole in bowl, garnish with items from Ingredients 4 (see Note below)

Notes

  1. Garnishing: Place a generous amount of shredded cabbage on top of the bowl of pozole. Add radishes, onion, and lime juice, sour cream, and Tapatio to taste (I don’t add sour cream or Tapatio, adding sour cream is not traditional, but some people garnish pozole like a chili)
  2. Toastadas: Put a thin layer of sour cream across the entire toastada, add a couple of slices of tomato, sprinkle some Tapatio on it, serve on the side with the pozole.
  3. Alternate Cuts of Meat: For more authentic flavor, add a pig’s foot and/or a pig’s ear. You can replace the pork loin with pork butt. But I  don’t prefer the taste. If you do any of these, add a bay leaf to moderate the flavor.
  4. Alternate Chilis: You can skip the Guajillo peppers and just use California chilis, it will taste fine but less complex.