Quarterlife Adventures: Chicken Posole Soup

For the past few months, I've been obsessively purchasing cooking books and magazines. My most recent purchase? "Best Comfort Food." I had looked through many magazines and finally decided to purchase this one because there's nothing like classic, comforting meals.

I never had chicken posole soup before, but it looked really good. I was in the mood for a tomato type soup, so I thought I'd try this recipe out. It turned out better than I expected.

I had no clue what hominy was before making this recipe. I thought it was some type of bean, but I was wrong. It's actually corn. The magazine states it best: "Hominy, corn that has been soaked in a solution to remove the hulls..." Suprisingly, hominy is really good. I didn't know what to expect. To me, it tastes like corn tortillas. It's really good.

I'm not sure what chicken posole tastes like in Mexico, but I sure would love to try some. In the mean-time, I hope this recipe is close enough. I wouldn't know, but to me it's a good soup I'll continue to make because it's quick and easy.

Ingredients:

2 tspns vegetable oil

3/4 cup chopped onion

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon hot chili powder

4 cups chopped cooked chicken

2 14-oz cans reduced sodium chicken broth

1 28-oz can plum-shape peeled tomatoes in puree, cut up

1 15-oz can yellow or white hominy, drained

1 10-ounce package frozen whole kernel corn

2 4-oz cans diced green chile peppers, drained

Lime wedges (optional)

1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend (4 ounces)

Halved grape tomatoes, snipped fresh cilantro, sliced avocado, and corn tortilla chips (optional)

1. In a 4-quart Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion, cumin, and chili powder; cook until onion is tender. Add chicken, chicken broth, undrained tomatoes, hominy, corn, and chile peppers. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally.

2. To serve, ladle soup into bowls. If desired, squeeze a lime wedge over soup. Top soup with cheese, grape tomatoes, cilantro, sliced avocado, and/or tortilla chips as desired. Serve immediately.

I did have a hard time finding some of the ingredients. I added more hominy than required in the soup, but I loved it. I also had to use other tomato based products to substitute for "plum-shaped" tomatoes in puree. I never even heard of such thing, so I used whole tomatoes and added tomato puree. It worked for me! Iyou can't find certain ingredients, get as close as possible.