Pork Posole

Courtesy of Rosie and Rosie’s Mom!  (I only changed a few things)

Serve with very finely chopped green cabbage, lime wedge, and a little sour cream.

Serving Posole on Xmas Eve is a New Mexico tradition that is supposed to bring good luck! 

10 pounds pork butt plus pork backbone if you want to go to butcher

8 onions, rough chopped or quartered

5 heads garlic, or 50 pieces, smashed

8 bay leaves

10 pounds posole corn or hominy, frozen or canned (if canned, rinse thoroughly)*

1 large bag New Mexico whole red chiles or guajillos, rough chopped**

1 cup oregano (plus more to taste, although I did not use more than that)

1 cup salt (plus more to taste)

In a large stockpot combine pork butt and backbone if you have it, onions, garlic and bay leaves, half your salt quantity and cover with water (I’d say around 15 quarts).  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for about three hours, until the meat is very tender and you have a nice broth.  

Strain and reserve pork broth and reserve pork butt.  Cool and shred meat.  

Return broth to a pot and bring to a simmer.  

Make chile paste:  in a pan toast your red chiles with some oil, careful not to burn them.   Put in a blender with some broth and blend to a puree.  Pass this puree through a strainer.   You should have 2 ½-3  full blenders of chile/broth, before blending.  

Add strained chile mix, posole, oregano, meat and salt to the soup.   Bring back to a simmer and heat through.  Reduce if broth feels a little bleh.  Adjust seasoning and spiciness as needed.   

*Be mindful of what kind of hominy  you are buying. There are two kinds, the frozen par cooked kind which we use here, and the uncooked kind.  If you get the frozen uncooked, it will take three hours to cook and that is not the method I used here. 

**If  you are in a bind, you can buy frozen red chile puree, but that takes some of the fun out of it.