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Made with shredded chicken and hominy in a comforting red chile broth, this Slow Cooker Chicken Posole is easy to make and full of authentic Mexican flavors to warm you up! (gluten free)
It finally happened. I made a dish that I never thought I would make without the step-by-step instructions from my parents. I made posole!
If you’ve never heard of posole, you’re not alone. It’s not a dish that is normally found at Mexican restaurants, at least not in the United States. and definitely not in Pittsburgh.
What is posole?
Posole (which translates to hominy in English) is a Mexican chile soup or stew traditionally made with pork and hominy covered in a chile broth. There are countless variations of this dish, such as:
- some made in a red chile broth
- some with green chiles and tomatillos as the base (like this Chicken Pozole Verde)
- some with no chiles at all (why, God, why?!)
- some made with pork (like this traditional Red Posole)
- some with chicken
- some with no meat at all
And just so you know, I plan on making ALL those variations for you at some point. This is only the beginning. I’m getting excited just talking about it.
Posole is kind of a big deal in my house. My parents don’t make it every day, every week or even every month. It’s usually made on special occasions when the whole family is together, like birthdays and holidays so my Mom or Dad can make a huge batch and feed everyone for days. And I mean dayyyysss.
And while I’ve seen my parents make this soup probably hundreds of times by now, I had never attempted to make it myself…until now.
I must say that I’ve definitely taken some liberties with my parents’ recipe.
First of all, they’ve never made posole in the slow cooker. I, on the other hand, wanted to create this dish as easily as possible and so I knew the crock pot would be perfect for the job.
Second, my parents’ usually make the red chile base specifically for their posole. But not me. Again, because I’m lazy, I used a batch of my Red Enchilada Sauce that I had in the fridge. My sauce is still homemade, it’s insanely easy to make and most importantly, it’s still has all the same flavors of the red chile broth that are in my parents’ posole.
But a word of caution – while you could certainly use store-bought enchilada sauce instead of my enchilada sauce recipe, 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 for future recipes like these:
- Red Chicken Enchiladas
- Easy Red Chilaquiles
- Chicken Enchilada Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
- Chicken Enchilada Roll-Ups
The right sauce makes a huge difference.
How to serve slow cooker posole
Once the crock pot posole is ready to go, it’s usually served with radishes, cilantro, finely shredded cabbage, limes, dried oregano, red chile flakes, white onions and even avocados.
For these photos, I just used radishes, limes and cilantro, but I frequently also top it with shredded cabbage. It’s adds a nice crunch that is just delightful.
I truly hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do.
More Mexican recipes you’ll love
Slow Cooker Chicken Posole
Ingredients
For the posole
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into large chunks
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 batch Red Enchilada Sauce (or 2 1/2 cups store-bought red enchilada sauce)
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 25-ounce cans white hominy, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- salt and black pepper, to taste
For the toppings and mix-ins (optional)
- finely shredded cabbage, lime juice, sliced radishes, cilantro
Instructions
- Add the chicken, chicken broth, enchilada sauce, shallot, chili power, minced garlic, cumin powder, and salt to the slow cooker. Mix until well combined.
- Cover and cook for 7 1/2 hours on low or 3 1/2 hours on high.
- Using a slotted spoon, remove chicken from slow cooker and place onto a large plate or cutting board. Shred using two forks.
- Add in the shredded chicken, hominy and oregano. Cover and cook for another 30 minutes.
- Serve posole in bowls with lime juice, radishes, cilantro, finely shredded cabbage and other toppings.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Just made this recipe and it’s almost done cooking! I made with pork instead and my boyfriend and I are so excited to try it! Thank you for the recipe.
You’re so welcome! I hope you love it!
I made this for the first time last year. Even my picky mama liked it. I added avocado, which was a nice compliment. I wish I would have made it with the homemade sauce before my mom passed away in February, though. Gracias for sharing your recipe.
-Mike
Thank you, Mike. I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m so touched to hear that you mama liked it 🙂
I am so glad I found your website! We made this tonight and it was amazing. The depth of the flavors thanks to the homemade enchilada sauce was perfect! I only had chicken thighs on hand, so I browned those in a skillet and made the soup on the stovetop instead of slow cooker and it was delicious.
Thank you so much, Rachel! I’m so happy you liked it! A good enchilada sauce makes all the difference. 🙂
How did you adjust for stovetop? I realized my crockpot is only 4qt. I have all the stuff ready to go though. Thanks!
Hey Jeni, this might be a little too late but if you still have the stuff ready to go, take a look at this post for my classic red posole. It’s made with pork, so just substitute that for the chicken you have. The cooking method should be the same. Since the chicken may cook a little faster, I would check it after the first hour and see whether it’s fall apart tender.
I will be trying this recipe this weekend, I love pozole but not spicy, i will be taking out the seeds in the enchilada sauce preparation and adding 1tsp of chili powder is there anything you recommend as me and my husband do not like it too hot?
Hi! If you don’t want it spicy at all, I would also completely omit the arbol chile when making the enchilada sauce.
Omg- I threw this in the crock pot earlier and my home smells AH*MAZING. Can’t wait for dinner, Thanks for the recipe
I hope you like it!
Made this for my Mexican husband (he gives it a thousand thumbs up)! Authentic for sure!
Yay! I’m so happy he liked it! Thank you.
Found this receipe last night after craving pozole. It’s currently brewing in the crockpot, but from the little sample I’ve taken it’s delicious. I added some cayenne to it to give it more of a kick. I can’t wait to serve it to my boys tonight! Thank you!
You’re so welcome! I hope you like it! 🙂
I found this recipe just in time! I’m having a Mexican potluck to celebrate my 24th birthday and I decided to make this. It’s currently sitting in the crock pot cooking up but it smells so amazing and I can’t wait to try it!!
Thanks so much for this recipe. I am a paediatric urology social worker in Toronto and we started an annual “soup off” in the clinic’ last year in January. I searched for recipes for this year, and came across yours. I tried it out on with my family first two weeks ago (I doubled up on the enchilada sauce as you suggested, so took that step out of the final product:-) ) My son’s girlfriend is Mexican and lives in Mexico city, so he really enjoys when I try out Mexican recipes. It was a hit both with the family and in the clinic.There was a bit left and I took it to Ronald McDonald house to share with a patient from Africa. She loved it too!
I’ll now have to try it with pork. Thanks again
I cook a lot. And this has got to be one of the best recipes I’ve ever made! Thank you thank you thank you! You’ve changed my life! Lol 😉
Aww, thank you so much! You’re so very welcome 🙂
I’m making this again! It’s almost ready! Eeeeeeeeeeeee! 😋
Woo! So happy you’re loving it!
My husband is from Mexico. I made this Pozole last night exactly to the T.. I did not want to make changes because I know that could take away the authenticity of it. He said it was an A++. He loved it better than how his family makes it. It was spicy but he eats everything spicy or with hot sauce. I love spicy but have acid reflux. Honestly, it was so good , I decided to put up with my stomach issues and plan on eating more today. Thank You so much for sharing this recipe.
Thank you sooo much, Dianna! I’m so happy everyone loved it 🙂