Posole (Pozole) is a traditional Latina American stew of chilies and pork slow cooked for tons of flavor. Traditional recipes for Posole use cheaper cuts of pork like necks and dry chilies to give the stew lots of fat and flavor. This is not that kind of recipe; this is a modern shortcut version. It features a very inexpensive cut of meat and uses a few short cuts to get you lots of good flavor without the work of traditional Posole. Simple Posole is a great weekday dinner, toss everything in the slow cooker first thing in the morning and let it go all day, come home to a house that smells so good and a hot dinner that is ready to eat.
The fresh ham or picnic ham is a huge bone-in hunk of meat! It’s cheap and flavorful, cooked low and slow you can use the meat for a million things, here are two ideas. After eating at the fresh ham for a few days I always had stubborn bits of meat stuck to the bone and I did not want to throw the meat away, so I started thinking about how to bet use the picnic ham bone and any leftover meat. My husband loves anything with Tex-Mex flavors so Posole was one of the first things to come to mind, after playing with a few different ideas my simple Posole for the crockpot was born.
Simple Posole is a recipe that I had been wanting to share even when my blog was inactive, I love how simple it is and how inexpensive. The taste is out of this world and it requires no special abilities or equipment. My simple Posole epitomizes what I want CookBetterThan to be about: good food, easy to make and better than what most casual dining restaurants are serving up. I make this so often that my shorthand notes from developing the recipe for simple pozole live on my cell phone for easy reference.
Slow Cooker Simple Posole with Pork and Hominy
Ingredients
- 1 Cooked fresh ham bone with some meat
- 2 large onions chopped
- 4 stalks of celery chopped
- 3-5 cloves of garlic diced
- 1 can Rotel Original with green chilies 10 oz can
- 1 can tomato paste 6 oz can
- 6 cups chicken stock
- 1 can of hominy 15.5 oz can
- Salt to taste
Garnishes (any or all of these can be served along with the soup)
- Lime wedges
- Hot sauce
- Fresh salsa or pico de gallo
- Cilantro
- Thin sliced radish
- Diced tomatoes or onions
- Cheese
- Thin sliced cabbage
- Fresh or roasted jalapenos
- Avocado
- Tortilla chips
Instructions
-
Sauté the onions and celery in a drizzle of olive oil until soft. Add the can of Rotel, tomato paste, and garlic; continue cooking until garlic is fragrant. Don’t let the garlic burn. Transfer everything to the slow cooker.
-
Add in the pork bone and broth, and set the slow cooker on high if you want soup in about 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. If you are not using a slow cooker set on low simmer stirring occasionally until the meat is falling off the bone.
-
Thirty minutes to an hour before you want to eat drain the hominy and add it to the soup. Remove pork bones and any fatty bits from the soup.
-
Serve with any or all of the above garnishes. I feel like the lime and fresh pico de gallo are absolute must haves.
Recipe Notes
Tips: If you are not using a pork bone, any chunks of cooked pork from fatter parts of the animal will work like butt or shoulder. Or chunk up some raw pork and cook it in the pan before adding the veggies, fat is your friend in this recipe so go for a cheap cut.
I have a slow cooker with a stove top safe insert, so I mix all the soup on top of the stove and get it boiling before moving to the slow cooker, this helps get everything started cooking especially if the stock is cold.
Homemade stock vs. store bought: for simple Posole use what you have! It’s going to have a ton of flavor and the fat and cartilage on the fresh ham bone is going to make rich broth so store bought is fine.
This sounds amazing!?? And I know fresh ham is on sale at Winn Dixie. I haven’t made it gray but it sounds amazing.