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This easy chicken pozole has all the rich, comforting flavors of traditional pozole rojo – savory red chile broth, tender shredded chicken, and hearty hominy – but with the convenience of a slow cooker. It’s the perfect cozy meal for family dinners, hosting, or even a potluck since it can stay warm and ready to serve.
If you love this traditional Mexican dish, then you’ve got to try these other versions – pozole rojo, pozole verde, pozole blanco, and Instant Pot pozole!
A Note from Isabel
Pozole has always been one of those dishes that instantly takes me back to family gatherings and holidays. My mom’s pozole rojo, usually made with pork, was rich, comforting, and always the star of the table.
For me, the real magic of pozole is in the sauce – the deep, flavorful broth made from dried chiles. That combination of earthy, smoky, and slightly sweet flavors gives the soup its heart and soul. In this slow cooker version, I use my homemade red enchilada sauce (packed with dried chiles and a touch of Mexican chocolate) to recreate that same authentic depth of flavor.
This dish is pure comfort and nostalgia for me. And the best part? It all comes together with almost no hands-on time, so I can enjoy a bowl of pozole even on busy weeknights.
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Chicken breast: Traditional red pozole is made with beef or pork, but I used chicken here for a lighter twist. You could also use boneless skinless chicken thighs.
- Red enchilada sauce: The key ingredient in this pozole is my authentic red enchilada sauce. It’s made from dried chiles, garlic, tomato, and Mexican chocolate that pack the broth with authentic flavors.
- Spices: Chili powder, cumin, garlic, and salt for warmth and savoriness.
- Hominy: You’ll need two large cans of white hominy for this recipe. Yellow hominy also works in a pinch. Make sure to rinse and drain the hominy before stirring it into the pozole.
- Oregano: Adds that signature pozole aroma and flavor. It’s used both in the stew and as a garnish. I always recommend Mexican oregano here, but regular oregano also works in a pinch.
- Toppings: Pozole wouldn’t be complete without all the delicious toppings like shredded cabbage, lime wedges, radishes, diced onions, and chopped cilantro.
(This is an overview of the key ingredients I used and why. See the recipe card below for the full recipe.)
How to Make Easy Chicken Pozole
Load the slow cooker. Add chicken, broth, enchilada sauce, shallot, chili powder, garlic, cumin, and salt. Stir to combine. Cover and cook on low for 5 ½ hours or high for 3 ½ hours.
Shred. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it with two forks.
Add hominy. Stir the chicken back in along with the hominy and oregano. Cook for another 30 minutes.
Serve. Ladle into bowls and top with cabbage, radishes, cilantro, lime juice, and your favorite garnishes.
Recipe Tips
- Shortcut. If you absolutely don’t have time to make my homemade authentic sauce, you can use your favorite store-bought enchilada sauce. But a word of caution – I don’t recommend it. It truly doesn’t have the same depth of flavor and just isn’t as tasty as the real stuff. If you’re hesitant to make enchilada sauce just for this recipe, I suggest making a double or even triple batch and storing it in the freezer so you can use it again in future recipes like my chicken enchiladas, chicken enchilada soup, or enchilada meatballs.
- Swap the protein. You can use beef chuck roast or pork shoulder for a heartier and more traditional taste.
- Use different hominy. White is classic, but yellow hominy works fine if that’s what you can find.
- Spice it up. Add an extra dried chile de árbol or two to the sauce for more heat.
Serving Suggestions
Serve your slow cooker posole with warm corn tortillas, bolillo bread, or tortilla chips for the full authentic experience. You can also pair it with warm traditional beverages like atole or champurrado during the colder months.
Frequently Asked Questions
Red pozole features a rich red chile broth made from dried chiles like guajillo, ancho, pasilla, or árbol, and usually features proteins like beef or pork. Green pozole features a more tangy broth made from ingredients like tomatillos, cilantro, jalapeños, and usually features chicken. Both are traditional Mexican stews that include hominy and are topped with shredded cabbage, lime juice, onions, radishes, and oregano.
You can adjust the spice level by adjusting the amount of árbol chiles used in the red enchilada sauce. For a milder pozole, you can omit them completely, or for a spicier version, you can add an extra 1-2.
I recommend using canned hominy for extra convenience; plus, hominy from scratch can be hard to make and find at most grocery stores.
More Easy Mexican Recipes
Easy Chicken Pozole
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 batch authentic red enchilada sauce (about 2 cups)
- ½ small yellow onion, finely diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste
- 2 (25-ounce) cans white hominy, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano
- For topping: thinly shredded cabbage, cilantro, diced onions, lime wedges, sliced radishes, Mexican oregano
Instructions
- Add the chicken, broth, enchilada sauce, onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and salt to a large slow cooker. Stir to combine.
- Cover and cook for 5 ½ hours on LOW or 3 ½ hours on HIGH.
- Transfer the chicken onto a large plate or cutting board using a slotted spoon, and shred with two forks.
- Add the shredded chicken back to the slow cooker along with the hominy and oregano. Cover and cook for another 30 minutes.
- Serve the posole in bowls with lime juice, radishes, cilantro, finely shredded cabbage and other toppings.
Notes
- Storing and reheating: Store any leftover pozole in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. To reheat, warm it on the stove over medium heat until hot, or microwave individual portions until warmed through. Pozole also freezes well. Just transfer it to a freezer-safe container and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge before reheating.
- Chicken: Boneless skinless chicken thighs also work.
- Enchilada sauce: If you absolutely don’t have time to make my homemade authentic sauce, you can use your favorite store-bought enchilada sauce. But a word of caution – I don’t recommend it. It truly doesn’t have the same depth of flavor and just isn’t as tasty as the real stuff.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Photography by Ashley McLaughlin.
This post was originally published in December 2016 and has been updated with new photos and more helpful tips.
I’ve always used Las Palmas brand red chili sauce. It works n tastes as good as any homemade sauce. Taste varies with people but in menudo or posole it is bomb n easy to use.
Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe, we have made this twice and just love it! Tastes just like the posole we enjoyed in Ajijic. Would give this 12 stars out of 10 if I could.
I plan on making this for Christmas and doubling the recipe.
Question?
Should I also double the Enchilada sauce recipe you have for the posole? It’s my first time making this dish and I’m excited and nervous! Don’t want to mess it up. Thank you!!!
Yes, you should double the enchilada sauce since that acts as a broth. I hope you love it and Merry Christmas!
I love your recipe! My husband doesn’t eat pork for cultural reasons and we’ve only ever made pork pozole so this was great for him. He loved it as well! Also I want to just add that if someone doesn’t want to make the red enchilada sauce, to use las palmas red Chile sauce but NOT the enchilada version. It’ll work in a pinch. My grandma used it in her pozole when she had to make more for surprise guests and didn’t have time to make her own sauce!
This is the best most easy pozole recipe. It’s delish. My go to meal. Thank you!!
I made this recipe yesterday for friends that adore posole. The enchilada sauce was key to this five star recipe. I’m fortunate to have a super market that carried everything I needed to make it. My only advice is to roughly chop the chocolate triangle called for before blending or processing. It got stuck under the blade of my processor and caused a mess with the sauce spitting out of the top and all over the backsplash. Thankful I didn’t lose much before I figured out what the problem was. I just chopped it up more and everything blended up great. Thank you Isabella for a recipe I’ll use again and again!
I’m about to make this recipe and was wondering what size crock pot you used.
I used a 6-quart slow cooker.
Easy and delicious! Do you have the calorie count per serving? Thank you.
Hi Barb, I just added the nutritional information to the recipe. Hope that helps!
I have made this recipe multiple times for my household, friends, co-workers, new mothers… The only variation I made was preparing and using the dry hominy from Rancho Gordo. The texture is much better than canned hominy.
(In Durham, NC it is easy to gather all the ingredients.)
The enchilada sauce really makes this dish. I expanded the use of the enchilada sauce to soups, stews, beans and rice…
So happy I found your recipe–it helps me appear a better cook than I really am.
Note: I used the left over water from soaking the chilis to steam collards.
My go-to pozole recipe now! Next time I hope to find the chiles in Maine to make the enchilada sauce from scratch, but until then I’ll have to use canned. I also used frozen chicken breasts and pulled out the whole breasts to shred. So easy. So delicious. So happy!
Yay! That makes me so happy to hear! Thank you so much for your comment 🙂
can i make it without thw shallot never used that or idk were i can find it
Hi! You can buy shallots at most grocery stores but you can omit them for this recipe if you’d like!