Posole with Chicken and Tomatillos

With a hectic couple of weeks I have not brought soup for almost two weeks. The last was a White Bean and Ham Hock recipe that I have yet to blog so I'm behind in my work. Anyhoo, this week got to Thursday and I wanted to bring in something so I settled on a good, tasty and pretty easy recipe, Posole with Chicken and Tomatillos. 

As I've mentioned before when a recipe calls for chicken and chicken stock I boil a whole fryer in a tall pot and de-bone the chicken for the meat and use the stock as called for in the recipe instead of store bought. To the chicken pot I add a couple of cut-up carrots and stalks of celery along with an onion, a couple of bay leaves, dried oregano and dried basil. I strain the stock and have plenty for the recipe and usually some leftover to freeze.

Here's the recipe for 8 servings using store bought stock. For the large quantity I bring to Wednesday Soup At Work I double the recipe and use the boiled chicken I note above:

1 pound of tomatillos

6 cups of chicken stock

2 cups of chopped onion

3 pounds of shredded chicken

4 chopped garlic cloves

2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and julienned

1 can of white hominy (30 oz), drained

juice from 1/2 of a lime

salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1/4 cup sour cream

8 lime wedges

Remove the husks and stems from the tomatillos and boil them until they are tender, about 10 minutes. Drain the water and process the tomatillos until they are smooth. An immersion blender is the best tool for this but using a standard blender is fine.

Meanwhile, into the stock add the onion, chicken, garlic, jalapeno and hominy. Bring the mix to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 35 minutes or until chicken is done. Remove the chicken from the bones shred and set aside. Stir in the pureed tomatillos, the lime juice and salt to taste. Cook the stock mixture for 5 minutes until heated. Stir in the chicken and heat the entire mix.

Serve with the cilantro, sour cream and lime wedges.