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Pozole Rojo de Res: A twist on the guajillo- and ancho-flavored pozole rojo, with beef. An adaptation of a family recipe.

Originally Posted: Oct. 29, 2024

Pozole Rojo de Res, garnished with diced raw onion, radish slices, shredded cabbage, and sliced avocado.

Total Time: 4 hours, not counting the beans

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Intro

Pozole, traditionally made with pork rather than beef, is often made in one of three styles: pozole blanco, with nothing added in; pozole verde, flavored with tomatillos and green chiles such as poblano, and pozole rojo, flavored with dried red peppers like guajillo and ancho.

This was my first time taking my family’s pozole blanco de res and making a rojo version, adding a great depth of flavor and a beautiful color.


Background

My family’s recipe for pozole blanco de res is the one I grew up eating; I found out within the last couple of years that it was a recipe that my grandma discovered posted somewhere at San Juan Capistrano. However, it’s a bit of an oddball compared to many pozole recipes out there.

A bowl of my family’s pozole blanco de res, which I think was the first recipe I ever posted here. I’ve always wanted to make rojo or verde versions of it for more depth of flavor.

Firstly, we’ve always made pozole de res or beef pozole, as opposed to the more common pork pozole or the health-conscious chicken pozole. Secondly, we add beans to ours; I’m not sure how or why beans were first added to this version.

Perhaps they were a vegetarian alternative to meat during Lent, or a way to stretch out a budget. Either way, their starchiness adds to the texture of the finished soup, and they also add a lot of fiber. These days, I’d tell people reading this recipe that they’re optional, but I always add them when I make pozole.


Ingredients

Some beef short ribs we picked up at QFC.
  • 2 lbs. Beef Short Rib (about 4)
    • Using a bone-in cut of beef is important in this recipe, as the marrow gets drawn out during the cooking process, creating a thick and flavorful soup not unlike Japanese tonkotsu.
  • 1 lb. Beans, dry
    • Optional, but I always add them because I always have.
  • 1 White Onion, quartered
  • 4 Guajillo peppers (can be ordered here)
  • 3 Ancho peppers(can be ordered here)
  • 25oz can White Hominy
  • 5 – 10 cloves Garlic
  • 2 – 3 Bay Leaves
  • 1.5 tsp Mexican Oregano (can be ordered here)
    • Note: Regular oregano (Origanum vulgare) is fine; although completely unrelated, it has similar aromatic compounds to Mexican oregano (Lippia graveolens) and can be used similarly in cooking.
  • Salt, to taste
  • Water to cover beans by 1in, plus more as needed as it evaporates

Optional Garnishes

  • Raw diced white onion
  • Sliced radishes
  • Shredded cabbage
  • Lime wedges for squeezing
  • Avocado
  • Cilantro (my girlfriend made fun of me for this)

It is commonly said that pozole is really about the toppings.

Some garnishes for pozole.

Equipment

  • Large pot or Dutch oven
  • Blender (I use a Ninja)
  • Sieve or food mill
    • I highly recommend a food mill, it makes the job much easier

Written Instructions

Total Time: 4 hours, not counting the beans

Prepping the Beans

Parboiling and soaking the beans for an hour really speeds up the process.

I tell people the beans are optional, but I always add them because I always have.

Either way you prep your beans, remember to drain and rinse them.

Start by either soaking the beans overnight and rinsing, or parboiling them, leaving them in the hot water with the heat off for an hour, and rinsing. Add back to the pot or Dutch oven and add enough water to cover the beans by at least 1 inch.

Return them to the pot and add enough water to cover them by around 1 inch.

Adding the Ingredients, Simmering

Add beef shortribs, quartered onion, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and oregano to the pot. Take off the stems and remove the seeds of the guajillo and ancho peppers, then add them to the pot as well.

Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cook for 3 hours before the next step. Check periodically and add more water if too much has boiled away.

Here you can see scum forming.

Also you’ll want to skim any scum that floats to the surface for the first 30 to 45 minutes.

Skim that scum.

Blending the Chiles

Pozole shortly before removing the chiles, onion, garlic, and bay leaves.

At the 3 hour mark, remove the bay leaves and set them aside. Remove the chiles, onions, and garlic cloves and place them in a blender.

I used a spider to get the chiles and onions out, but a slotted spoon works, too.
Add the chiles, onion, and garlic to the bell of a blender.

Blend until a smooth paste forms, adding some of the cooking water if needed to get it to a more liquid-y consistency.

Pass the paste through a sieve or (more easily) through a food mill. Pour this smoothed out sauce back into the pot and stir.

Passing through a sieve removes any skin or seeds. A food mill does the same, just faster.
Chile sauce stirred in. Just look at that color.

Shredding the Meat, Adding the Hominy

Pictured: a previous batch of pozole blanco, but the technique is the same. Shredding the cooled beef with fingers makes it easier to remove excess fat.

At the 3.5 hour mark, remove the meat and allow to cool. Once it’s cool enough to handle, shred it with fingers or forks; using fingers makes it a little easier to remove excess fat.

At the 4 hour mark, return shredded meat to the pot and add the 25oz. can of hominy, and allow both to get warmed through. Add salt to taste.

Pozole rojo with the beef and hominy added in.

Serve with optional garnishes. Like the pozole blanco de res version, the flavors and textures improve overnight and make great leftovers.

A finished bowl of pozole rojo de res.
Finished bowl of pozole rojo, with garnishes.

A finished bowl of pozole rojo de res.

Pozole Rojo de Res

Pozole Rojo de Res: A twist on the guajillo- and ancho-flavored pozole rojo, with beef. An adaptation of a family recipe.
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 4 hours
Optional Overnight Soak 12 hours
Total Time 4 hours
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 8 people
Calories 850 kcal

Equipment

  • 1 Large Pot or Dutch Oven
  • 1 Blender
  • 1 Sieve or food mill a food mill is much faster and easier

Ingredients
  

Main Ingredients

  • 2 lbs. Beef Short Rib
  • 1 lb. Pinto Beans optional, but I always add them
  • 1 White Onion quartered
  • 5 –10 cloves Garlic
  • 2 – 3 Bay Leaves
  • 1.5 tsp. Mexican Oregano
  • Salt to taste
  • Water to cover beans by around 1 inch
  • Water to top off periodically if too much boils away

Garnishes

  • White Onion raw, diced
  • Radishes sliced
  • Cabbage shredded or thinly sliced
  • Lime to squeeze
  • Avocados sliced
  • Cilantro my girlfriend made fun of me for this

Instructions
 

  • Soak beans overnight and rinse them.  Alternatively, parboil them, remove from heat, allow them to soak for one hour in the hot water, and then drain and rinse them.
  • Add beans back to the pot or Dutch oven and add enough water to cover the beans by at least 1 inch.
  • Add beef shortribs, quartered onion, garlic cloves, bay leaves, and Mexican oregano to the pot. 
  • Take off the stems and remove the seeds of the guajillo and ancho peppers, then add them to the pot as well.
  • Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Cook for 3 hours before the next step.  Check periodically and add more water if too much has boiled away.
  • At the 3 hour mark, remove the bay leaves and set them aside.  Remove the chiles, onions, and garlic cloves and place them in a blender.
  • Blend until a smooth paste forms, adding some of the cooking water if needed to get it to a more liquid-y consistency.
  • Pass the paste through a sieve or (more easily) through a food mill.  Pour this smoothed out sauce back into the pot and stir.
  • At the 3.5 hour mark (or when the meat is fork-tender and fall-off-the-bone), remove the meat and allow to cool.
  • Once it’s cool enough to handle, shred it with fingers or forks; using fingers makes it a little easier to remove excess fat.
  • At the 4 hour mark, return shredded meat to the pot and add the 25oz. can of hominy, and allow both to get warmed through. Add salt to taste.
  • Serve with optional garnishes.  Like the pozole blanco de res version, the flavors and textures improve overnight and make great leftovers.
Keyword soup

Variations

At the time of writing this, I still need to do the same pozole as a pozole verde. I’ve researched a little about it, and it seems slightly easier because you can roast the tomatillos and peppers like poblano separately before blending, instead of having to fish them out of the pot your meat is cooking in.

Naturally, this made me wonder if I could make both rojo and verde sauces on their own ahead of time, which would allow me to split the same batch of blanco and add different sauces to each.

Cooking the chiles, onions, and garlic for a chicken pozole rojo separately. This wound up being a good test recipe.

I wound up doing an accidental test of this, because my mom went low-carb a while back and made a separate batch of chicken pozole for herself. This meant that we cooked the same chiles, onions, and garlic on their own in chicken stock before blending them.

The chicken “pozole” after blending the peppers and onions and adding shredded chicken. No beans, no hominy, so as to be low-carb.

Hoping to do more tests along these lines in the future.


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