No idea what’s going on here, but I made posole yesterday and M. couldn’t eat it. Couldn’t touch it. Couldn’t be in the same room as the pot. Too hot. By an order of magnitude which we have not previously encountered. But I loved it.
Which is so weird because she has always had a higher heat tolerance than I do. As recently as a week ago, we were out having Indian, and she couldn’t get enough of an appetizer that made my head melt, Raiders style. So there’s something going on there, some hemispherical hotness orientation that allows my brain to handle south of the border hotness while she does better with across the pond heat.
The basic guidelines for posole are here. And the recipe I followed yesterday is basically here, plus some pork and swapping out fresh-ish Big Jim chilies for the dried New Mexico chili pods.
Pork: Used a center-cut pork loin filet, chopped into half-inch pieces. Browned in the Dutch oven so that the burnt bits would be there come deglazing time. Seasoned the meat with 1 Tbs chile powder (Savory Spices no salt medium heat)
- 1 onion, chopped.
- 4 chili peppers, finely chopped
- 3-4 bulbs garlic, finely chopped
- couple of Tbs of olive oil
- 1 Tbs cumin
- 1 Tbs Mexican oregano
- 2 cans (15 oz) of hominy
- about 3 cups chicken broth, plus 2-3 cups water once everything is in the pot
Again, basic directions are here and here.
But this is what I don’t get: I started with two chilies, de-stemmed them, and scraped out the seeds before mincing. After I added them to the pot, I gave the knife a lick to test the heat. (Gross, I know, but I don’t know how to check peppers of unknown origin any other way.) And they didn’t seem very hot, so I added two more. That’s about 2 Tbs of minced Big Jim chili peppers, total, in maybe 7 cups of soup. But dang it if the final result wasn’t a metric ton hotter than that knife blade.
highplainsdrifters 
I can’t tell the difference between posole and
pork-and-green chili, but I do know I love them both.
Wow that is some hot soup with all that chili. I would tone it down, boring I know, for my crew but this sounds like a great stew for now. It is soooo cold here! And I love hominy too. I do hope Molly sees her shadow soon so that warmer weather will come soon.
Thanks for your vote of confidence about my market gig. I do like the journey, and I hope never to really be an expert because that means the learning is over, and that my friend is dullsville! The thing that is the drag is when the student *thinks* they are an expert. Argh!
I’m impressed…I have to cut chilis and jalapenos with gloves. I’m THAT sensitive to spice – not saying I don’t like it, I’m just a total weenie.
It looks warm and hearty–I’d try it!
I think I could east posole everyday!
Three meals a day for me!
Interesting! My heat tolerance for food varies too…I wonder what’s the cause of that?
This sounds filling and warming — the perfect meal for a winter’s night!
My husband is the Posole cook in our house. I LOVE it. Unfortunately my stomach doesn’t agree with the hominy.
Yes, I have been buying “Better Than Bouillon” since forever it seems. My favorite is the organic chicken one that I purchase at Costco. I wish I could shop at the commissary, especially around Christmas time when all the foreign goodies are sold.
Yeah, if you have German roots, then Christmas at the commissary is practically home!