Mely Martínez’s Pozole Rojo

Mely Martínez’s Pozole Rojo is adapted from her 2020 cookbook, The Mexican Home Kitchen: Traditional Home-Style Recipes that Capture the Flavors and Memories of Mexico. We reviewed the book in September 2020, shortly in advance of Mexican Independence Day on September 16. As Martínez told us in a phone interview, pozole is one of one of the foods traditionally eaten on the holiday.

As the headnote in Martínez’s recipe points out, it’s also “one of those dishes that taste even better when you reheat it the next day.” Our only problem, when we made it, is we ate so much of the broth the first day, that it was all pork and hominy on day two, with not enough broth. We added some boxed chicken broth to the mix to stretch it — and it was still porky enough to be pretty darn good.

The recipe includes the traditional garnishes: shredded lettuce, sliced radishes, dried Mexican oregano, dried chiles, chopped onions, diced avocado and limes. Where I grew up, in Southern California, shredded cabbage was a familiar garnish. I always loved that, and asked Martínez about it. “That’s what they use in the northwest part of Mexico,” she said; in the rest of Mexico, lettuce is more prevalent. We offer cabbage as an alternative.

Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients

For the soup: 

4 quarts water

2 pounds pork shoulder, cut into cubes

1 pound pork spare ribs or baby back ribs

1 white onion, cut into quarters

8 large cloves of garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

3 cans (15 to 15.5 ounces each) white hominy, drained and rinsed

For the red sauce:

5 guajillo chiles, sliced open, seeded and veins removed

5 ancho chiles, sliced open, seeded and veins removed 

6 cloves garlic

1 medium white onion, coarsely chopped

½ teaspoon dried Mexican oregano

2 tablespoons vegetable or canola oil

Salt to taste

For garnishing and serving:

1 head iceberg lettuce or cabbage, finely shredded

1 ½ cups finely chopped white onion

Crushed dried piquin chiles

1 bunch radishes, thinly sliced

Dried Mexican oregano

Corn tostadas

Limes, cut into wedges

Diced avocado

Instructions

1. To make the soup: Place the water, pork shoulder, spare ribs, onion and garlic in a very large stockpot over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low, and let simmer, skimming off the foam that forms on the surface, partially covered, for 2 ½ hours, or until the meat is tender and falling off the bones. Season with the salt when the meat is almost done cooking.

2. Remove the pork shoulder and spare ribs from the pot, trim any excess fat and remove any bones. Remove and discard the garlic and onion from the broth. Strain the broth and return it to the pot. Shred the pork with two forks and return it to the pot.

3. While the pork cooks, make the red sauce: Soak the guajillo and ancho peppers in just enough hot water to cover them for 25 to 30 minutes, until they are soft. Drain them and add them to the jar of a blender, along with the garlic, onion, oregano and about 1 cup of cooking broth or water. Blend until smooth.

4. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add the sauce and salt to taste. Bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring constantly, and with care not to splatter. Reduce the heat to medium, and continue simmering for about 25 minutes.

5. Strain the sauce into the broth, using a wooden spoon to force the thick liquid through the strainer if necessary. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium, cover and gently simmer about 10 minutes. Stir in the hominy, season with salt and pepper to taste and simmer until all the ingredients are heated through.

6. Serve the pozole in large Mexican soup bowls and place the garnishes in serving dishes for everyone to add to their own bowls.

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