Pozole Verde is a comforting Mexican stew filled with shredded chicken and hominy in a delicious green chile broth made from tomatillos, jalapeños, and cilantro. It’s easy to make, hearty, and ready in only one hour!
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Pozole verde is one of my favorite traditional Mexican dishes to make when I’m craving something comforting yet light and bright.
Unlike pozole rojo, which is made from succulent shredded pork in a rich red chile broth, or pozole blanco, which is made completely without any chiles at all, this green pozole is filled with tender shredded chicken in a tangy tomatillo green chile broth.
It’s also ready in half the time, making it perfect for busy weeknight meals. If you have an Instant Pot, take a look at my Instant Pot Pozole!
What is Pozole?
Pozole (or posole) is a traditional Mexican stew made with pork and hominy cooked in a flavorful chile broth. There are three main variations of the dish:
- pozole verde – made with a green chile broth
- pozole rojo – made with a red chile broth
- pozole blanco – made without any chiles at all
Pozole is served year-round, but is popular during the fall and winter months, as well as celebrations like birthdays, Christmas, New Years, and other holidays.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Hominy: It’s a type of maize that’s been soaked and treated with lime. Hominy looks like big puffy corn kernels and can usually be found in the Hispanic foods section of your local grocery store, or in the canned vegetables section near the yellow corn. Learn more about hominy.
- Chicken: I used boneless skinless chicken thighs for lots of flavor without too much fat, but you can use chicken breasts or any other chicken cut that you prefer.
- Tomatillos: These green tomato look-alikes add a great tanginess and brightness that really makes the chile sauce pop. Make sure to remove the papery husks and rinse off the sticky residue before cooking with them. Learn more about tomatillos.
- Chiles: I used jalapeños for a medium heat level, but you can use poblanos for milder spice or serranos for hotter spice. Or a combination of all three!
- Onions, garlic, oregano, and cilantro: For added flavor in the green chile sauce.
- Broth: Chicken or vegetable are best. If you’re in a pinch and don’t have any, you could use water instead.
- Toppings: I recommend lime wedges, sliced radishes, Mexican oregano, thinly shredded cabbage, diced onions, cilantro
How to Make Pozole Verde
1. Cook: Add chicken thighs, tomatillos, onion, garlic, jalapeños, broth, oregano, and salt in a large dutch oven. Bring it to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover partially, and cook for 40 minutes.
2. Blend: Remove the cooked tomatillos, onions, jalapenos, and garlic with a slotted spoon and transfer to a blender. Then add a large handful of fresh cilantro, a cup of the cooking liquid, and blend until completely smooth.
3. Shred: Remove the cooked chicken from the pot, transfer it to a cutting board or plate, and shred.
4. Combine: Add back the shredded chicken, blended green chile sauce, and hominy to the pot.
5. Simmer: Simmer for 15 minutes, give it a taste, and season with more salt as desired.
How to Serve Pozole Verde
Toppings are a huge part of serving pozole. Here are some ideas of what to add to your bowl:
- chopped onions
- lime wedges
- sliced radishes
- fresh cilantro
- Mexican oregano
- thinly sliced cabbage
Storing and Freezing
Storing: Pozole verde can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Freezing: To freeze, cool pozole in the refrigerator. Once cooled, transfer to a freezer safe container or bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
More Mexican Recipes
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 pound tomatillos, husks removed and rinsed
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 jalapeño peppers, halved (seeds removed if you don't want it spicy)
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano (Mexican oregano preferred)
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 cups broth (chicken or vegetable)
- 1 handful cilantro, stems and leaves
- 2 (15-ounce) cans white hominy, drained and rinsed
- Toppings: lime wedges, sliced radishes, Mexican oregano, thinly shredded cabbage, diced onions, cilantro
Instructions
- Cook: In a large pot or dutch oven, add chicken thighs, tomatillos, onion, jalapeños, garlic, oregano, salt, and broth. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low, cover partially, and simmer for 40 minutes until chicken is fall-apart tender.
- Shred: Transfer chicken to cutting board and shred with a fork. Set aside.
- Blend: Using a large slotted spoon, carefully transfer the cooked tomatillos, onions, jalapenos, and garlic to a large blender. Add in a cup of the cooking liquid and the cilantro, and blend until completely smooth.
- Simmer: Pour the blended mixture back into the pot and stir in the shredded chicken and hominy. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Taste and season with more salt, if necessary.
- Serve: Serve with toppings such as fresh lime juice, thinly shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, cilantro, diced onions, and Mexican oregano.
Video
Isabel’s Tips:
- Storing: Pozole verde can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
- Freezing: To freeze, cool pozole in the refrigerator. Once cooled, transfer to a freezer safe container or bag and freeze for up to 3 months.
Nutrition Information
My family and I make this every other month and it’s absolutely the best recipe out there! Thank you so much for sharing your talents
Hi TJ! Thank you so much for the compliment! We are glad you and your families enjoy this recipe.
I made this tonight and it was delicious!
Easy to follow recipe. Prepared as written other than reducing the ingredients to two servings. Very tasty. We’ll make this again.
Great recipe – Keep them coming!!!!
The Chicken Pazole was absolutely delicious! I added 4 cloves of garlic to the pot and puréed them with all of the other veggies. I used about 2.5 lbs chicken thighs and 3 cans of hominy (2 white and one yellow). Served it up with shredded cabbage, sliced radishes, cilantro, diced onion & sliced jalapeños. The veggies cool the soup down quite a bit so I found heating it up super hot to not be an issue.
Hi Michele! That sounds delicious! We are glad you enjoyed this recipe.
This is a keeper.
We LOVE a good Pozole and this is the best.
Light, delicate yet very tasty. and easy to cook.
Thank you for sharing.
<3 isabeleats
This was so yummy! Even my picky eater went for more and husband asked this to be part of my soup rotation. Next time I’ll leave more seeds to up the spice. I was a little nervous it would be too spicy with 3 peppers but it wasn’t! So good and really healthy!
I have made this countless times, so much flavor for not a lot of effort. It’s a favorite in my house, thank you for sharing the yum!
Hi Jenn! Thank you so much! We are glad you enjoy our recipes.
I’ve made this several times now and my family loves it!! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Delicious!! This recipe is perfect for anytime, but also loved how quick and easy it was for a weeknight meal.
Definitely need to try this recipe!
Easy and yummy! Made this for my pregnant wife and she loved it! It’s in my recipe favorites for sure! Thank you for it!
Ugh not so good. Taste is not right and recipe needs adjustments for sure. Other reviews confirm this but gave it 5 stars still. No flavor no taste.
Hello! Thank you for your feedback. We will consider this when moving forward.
I almost can’t even find the words to describe how amazing this is! So simple and absolutely fantastic! I used three poblanos instead of jalapeños, just because that’s what I had. My poblanos obviously had a little kick because the soup had the perfect amount of spice. This will become a staple in my house, thank you so much!
Thank you Karalee! I’ll have to try it with poblanos next time!
This recipe was so easy to make and it’s so good. Will be making it often for me family.
How many servings does this recipe make
Hi Lizette! This recipe makes 6 servings, with a serving being two heaping cups.
Want to make it with Pork….would I cook all the same way?
Hi Marcell! We suggest cooking the pork like our red pozole recipe, but you can substitute the red sauce or the green sauce on this recipe. Hope this helps!
Great recipe, making it for the third time right now!
I’m forgetting what I did previously, are you supposed to add the blended veggies and chicken back into the cooking liquid, or discard that (minus the cup that goes into the blender)?
Hopefully someone sees this in the next 5.5 hours, lol
Wow!!! I made this recipe and it was amazing very authentic tasting. Only difference for my family is we love hominy so I add a huge can of hominy and a small can and I also used chicken breast instead but everything else was the same except I also used additional chicken broth about 18 cups total.
Thank you for this recipe. I finally feel like a true Mexicana en la cocina 🙂