Pozole Rojo (Traditional Mexican Soup)

Submitted by Jalie & Benjamin Craig - added 8/18/26

⏱ About 5 Hours

Traditionally served around Christmas or throughout the year on Sundays, it is a signature dish of Mexican casera-style cooking. While serving in Guanajuato, Mexico, Benjamin fell in love with this soup. To ensure he could reproduce it when he returned home, Benjamin had to get creative. Benjamin would schedule a morning lesson with an investigator and then invite the family that was on the dinner calendar that day to accompany him. If the lesson went short or fell through, Benjamin and his companion could then go back to the members' home and help prepare the soup. He took notes and when he came home, compared them with pinterest recipes until he found one that largely matched what he had been taught. The recipe above is a variation of those efforts. When he returned home and we started dating, he offered to make this soup for my family as a way to impress them (they weren't too keen on us dating). When he did, my mom (who is mexican by heritage, but was not raised in a Spanish-speaking home) was shocked to discover that it tasted exactly like a soup her late mother used to make when she was a little girl. This soup, though it did not alone heal the tension in my family, began to change the dynamic between us and them. It has and has become an annual tradition and way for my family and Benjamin to connect with their shared love for Mexican culture.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup dried "chiles de arbol"
• 4 or 5 dried ancho chiles
• 6 cloves garlic 2 smashed, 4 finely chopped
• Salt to taste
• 2 pounds boneless pork shoulder trimmed and cut in half
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large white onion finely chopped
• 8 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano preferably Mexican
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 15-oz. cans white hominy drained and rinsed
• 1 Diced avocado
• Cabbage, finely chopped
• 1 Package of Guerrero Yellow Corn Tostadas
• Optional:
• Sliced radishes
• Chopped cilantro
• Fresh Limes

Instructions

1. Break the stems off the chiles de arbol and ancho chiles and shake out as many seeds as possible. Put the chiles in a bowl and cover with boiling water; weigh down the chiles with a plate to keep them submerged and soak until soft, about 30 minutes. Transfer the chiles and 1 1/2 cups of the soaked chile water to a blender. Add the smashed garlic and 1/2 teaspoon salt and blend until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, pushing the sauce through with a rubber spatula; discard the solids.
2. Completely rub the pork with cumin and 1/2 teaspoon salt; set aside. Heat vegetable oil in a pot or pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and cook 2 minutes. Increase the heat to medium high. Push the onion and garlic to one side of the pot; add the pork to the other side and sear, turning, until lightly browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.
3. Place the seared ingredients into a large pot. Stir in 2 cups water, the chicken broth, oregano, bay leaf, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of the chile sauce (depending on your taste and tolerance for spice). Bring to a low boil, and then reduce the heat to maintain a simmer. Partially cover and cook, turning the pork a few times, until tender, about 3 hours.
4. Stir in the hominy and turn the heat to a high boil, uncovered, until the pork starts falling apart, about 1 more hour. Add some water or broth if the pozole is too thick or if the ingredients absorb too much of the broth. Serve with lime, cabbage, cilantro, or radishes. If desired, add some of the remaining chile sauce to add additional spice. Eat with a spoon, using the tostadas as soup dippers or scoops.
5. Optional: Prior to serving, transfer the pork to a cutting board; roughly chop into smaller chunks, and return to the pot.