Red Chicken Pozole (Pozole Rojo de Pollo) 🍲 is a traditional Mexican soup made with tender shredded chicken, hominy, and a rich red chile sauce made with guajillo and ancho chiles. This comforting soup is served with fresh toppings like cabbage, radishes, onion, and lime.
For a pork version, try my Pozole Rojo.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe ❤️
- Authentic Flavor: Made with a rich, from-scratch guajillo and ancho chile sauce that delivers bold, traditional Mexican taste in every spoonful.
- Made with Chicken: Tender chicken, hominy, and a homemade red chile sauce make this a comforting alternative to pork pozole.
- Make-Ahead Friendly: Break the cooking process down into stages so you can whip up this impressive feast without spending all day in the kitchen.
- Completely Customizable: Loaded up with fresh, crunchy toppings like shredded cabbage, radishes, lime, and avocado, everyone can customize their own bowl.
-Maggie
📖 Family Story
In Durango, Mexico, pozole is traditionally made with pork. But one Christmas, when my family couldn’t find pork at the store, we made it with chicken instead. I remember traveling from Los Angeles to Durango and noticing how different grocery shopping could be. Sometimes, if an ingredient wasn’t available, you had to visit another store or find a substitute.
That Christmas, chicken became our substitute for pork, and the result was just as comforting and delicious. This Red Chicken Pozole is a reminder that some family recipes come from making the most of what you have.
🐓 Ingredients
We are using a 4-pound whole chicken, with the skin removed and cut into pieces. You can also use your favorite cuts of chicken if you prefer.
In Mexico, there is NO waste. We use every cut, bone, and inch of the chicken.
Please note that we will be using A LOT of water, and the measuring cup above with water is only there for reference.
🥣 Instructions
🌶️ How To Make The Red Chile Sauce
- Remove the stems from the dried chile peppers.
- Open them up lengthwise and remove the seeds and veins.
- Place in a stock pot and cover with water.
- Bring to a boil. Cover and turn off the stove.
- Let sit the chile soak for 5 minutes, or until pliable.
This chile sauce is very similar to the sauces used in Enchiladas Rojas and Caldo de Camaron.
- Add the rehydrated chiles, garlic, onion, salt, water to a blender.
Discard the water that is used when rehydrating the chiles.
Chiles can collect dust, and you don’t want dirt in your sauce. Use fresh water to make the sauce.
- Blend until smooth.
Make this sauce ahead of time so you won’t spend all day cooking.
What makes this pozole “RED” or “ROJO” is the sauce.
🍗 Cooking the Chicken
- Add the chicken, onion, garlic, bay leaf, and salt in a large stockpot.
- Cover with the liquid. About 2 inches above the chicken.
- Cook for 1½ hours. The chicken should simmer gently until fully cooked and tender.
- Once the chicken is cooked, remove everything in the pot except for the broth.
- Reserve the chicken broth in the pot.
- Strain the chile sauce directly into the pot.
Use a cooking spoon to strain the sauce into the pot.
Throw away any chile bits that remain in the strainer. That’s the stuff we don’t want to go into our soup.
- Shred the cooked chicken.
The onion, garlic, and bay leaf go into the trash. Remove all the bones and throw those away too.
🍲 Assembling the Soup
- To the chile pot, add the bay leaf, salt, oregano, rinsed hominy, and shredded chicken.
- Give everything a stir.
If you can’t find hominy at your local store, buy it online.
👩🏼🍳 Pro Tips for the Best Red Chicken Pozole
- Use the Largest Pot You Can Find: You want plenty of room for all 10 cups of water and the whole chicken so you can generate as much rich, flavorful chicken broth as possible.
- Make It in Stages (The Ultimate Time-Saver): Cooking a whole chicken and making the sauce from scratch can feel like a lot for one day. Break it up! Cook the chicken and make your broth on Day 1. On Day 2, make the red chile sauce and shred the chicken. On the day you want to serve, simply combine everything and let it simmer.
- Never Skip Straining the Chile Sauce: Dried guajillo and ancho chiles can collect dust and grit during drying and shipping. Rehydrating them in fresh water and straining the blended sauce through a fine-mesh sieve ensures a silky-smooth broth completely free of tough chile skins and seeds.
- Customize Your Heat Level: Guajillo and ancho chiles are naturally mild and earthy with a touch of sweetness. If you want a spicier kick, leave a few seeds in the chiles or toss in a couple of dried chile de árbol when blending the sauce.
🙋🏻♀️ Frequently Asked Questions
Pozole Rojo (Red): Features a rich red sauce made from dried chiles like guajillo and ancho.
Pozole Verde (Green): Made with a vibrant, herbaceous blend of tomatillos, green chiles, and cilantro or pumpkin seeds.
Pozole Blanco (White): A simpler broth made without red or green chiles, letting the natural flavor of the meat, garlic, and hominy shine through.
Yes! While making your own homemade broth by boiling the whole chicken gives this soup an unbeatable, rich flavor, you can easily use store-bought chicken broth and leftover or rotisserie shredded chicken for a quick shortcut version.
Pozole is the proper Spanish spelling used in Mexico. Posole (with an “s”) is frequently used in Tex-Mex cuisine and U.S. border towns. Both spellings refer to this exact same delicious hominy stew.
Ideas for Pozole Toppings
- Shredded cabbage
- Shredded lettuce
- Diced onion
- Cilantro
- Radishes
- Mexican Oregano
- Lime Juice
- Jalapeno slices
- Toasted Chile de Arbol
- Avocado
A combination of these toppings (or all of them) is what makes pozole an amazing recipe.
🫙 Storing and Reheating Instructions
Pozole actually tastes even better the next day as the flavors continue to meld together!
- To Store: Place any leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
- To Freeze: Pour the cooled pozole into a sealable, freeze-able bag, remove as much air as possible to prevent freezer burn, and freeze for up to 4 months. (Good news: Hominy freezes and thaws exceptionally well!)
- To Reheat: Thaw overnight if frozen. Simmer on the stovetop over medium heat for about 10 minutes until hot, or warm individual portions in the microwave on high for 2 to 3 minutes.
Pozole vs. Menudo: What’s the Difference?
Both are iconic Mexican stews, but they use different main ingredients. Pozole is made with pork or chicken and hominy, while menudo is made with beef tripe and may or may not include hominy depending on the region. Craving the classic weekend tripe soup? Try my favorite Menudo Recipe!
🥄 More Pozole Recipes
- Instant Pot Pozole Verde (Green Pozole)
- Pozole Blanco (White pozole)
- Shrimp Pozole
- Green Chicken Pozole
- Bean Pozole
- Vegan Pozole
- Pork Pozole Verde
- Red Beef Pozole
Whether you make this Red Chicken Pozole for Christmas, a family gathering, or a cozy weekend meal, I hope it becomes a recipe you come back to again and again. Serve it with plenty of fresh toppings and enjoy it with family and friends.
Red Chicken Pozole (Pozole Rojo de Pollo)
Ingredients
To Cook the Chicken:
For the Red Chile Sauce:
- 6 guajillo chiles (stems, seeds, and veins removed)
- 2 ancho chiles (stems, seeds, and veins removed)
- 4 cups water (for rehydrating)
- ½ onion
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups water (for blending)
Instructions
To Cook the Chicken:
- In a large stock pot, add the water, chicken, onion, garlic, salt, and bay leaf.
- Cook for 1 ½ hour.
- Once the chicken is cooked, take out the chicken and let cool slightly.
- Set the chicken broth aside.
- Remove and discard the onion, garlic, and bay leaves from the pot.
- Shred the chicken and set aside.
For the Red Chile Sauce:
- Remove the stems from all the chiles.
- Open the chiles lengthwise.
- Take out all the seeds and veins.
- Place the chiles in a pot and cover with 4 cups of water.
- Bring to a boil.
- Cover and turn off the heat.
- Let sit for 5 minutes, or until pliable.
- Discard the water used to rehydrate the chiles.
- Place the rehydrated chiles in a blender.
- Add onion, garlic cloves, salt, and 2 cups of clean water to the blender.
- Blend until smooth.
To Make the Pozole:
- Strain the red chile sauce into the pot with the chicken broth.
- Discard any bits of chile remaining in the strainer.
- Add the oregano, salt, bay leaf, and hominy.
- Return the shredded chicken to the pot.
- Give everything a stir and taste for salt.
- Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy.
I thought I still had dried guallio and ancho chiles in my pantry, but I didn’t so I substituted what I had – Amarillo and New Mexico chiles. It was still yummy. I will make this again with the guallio and ancho chiles.
Instead of using fresh onion and garlic for the sauce, I used what I had cooked with the chicken – just to make my life easier.
Anyway, it was delicious and everyone loved it.
Sounds great! Hope you and your family enjoy this recipe again.
Great recipe!
Thank you. Glad you liked it!