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Chicken Pozole Verde is a hearty soup made with shredded chicken, roasted tomatillos, cilantro, and chiles. Add your favorite toppings!
Chicken Pozole Verde
My family loves soups and stews, which is why I love this pozole verde, a traditional Mexican dish that’s comforting yet light. It’s also great for meal prepping and freezing for future meals. Like my pozole rojo, which is made with a rich red chile broth, this green pozole is filled with tangy tomatillos, poblano pepper, cilantro, and baby spinach. Inspired by my salsa verde, I roast the tomatillos, peppers, onions, and garlic before pureeing to add a subtle smokiness that balances the tomatillos’ tanginess.
Why You’ll Love This Pozole Recipe
- Comforting: There’s nothing better than a warm bowl of stew on a cold winter night. It’s hearty and delicious.
- Meal Prep: Pozole verde gets even better as it sits, so it’s perfect for making ahead and reheating as leftovers throughout the week. It also freezes well.
- Dietary Restrictions: Weight Watchers-friendly, gluten-free, high-protein, high-fiber.
If you make this pozole recipe with chicken, I would love to see it. Tag me in your photos or videos on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook!
What You’ll Need
Poblanos, tomatillos, cilantro, and spinach combine to give this easy pozole verde its pretty green color. Here’s the ingredients to make this stew. See the recipe card below for the exact measurements.
- Broth: Chicken broth, bone broth or homemade chicken stock
- Seasoning: Bay leaves, salt, cumin
- Chicken: I prefer boneless, skinless chicken thighs over breasts, but you can use breasts instead.
- Aromatics: Onions and garlic are broiled and pureed to enhance the salsa verde.
- Poblano Peppers are mild and have a smoky flavor.
- Tomatillos mean “little green tomato” in Spanish. And while they resemble tomatoes, they are covered in husks that must be removed first. They also taste tangier and tarter.
- Cilantro: Puree some cilantro into the green sauce for added flavor and color, and garnish individual bowls with the rest.
- Spinach adds fiber and vitamin C and deepens the green color.
- Olive Oil to spritz on the vegetables before boiling them.
- Hominy: Canned hominy is fully cooked and should be drained and rinsed before adding to the stew.
How to Make Chicken Pozole Verde
We infuse the broth with depth and complexity by simmering onion, garlic, and bay leaves in the broth and then pureeing broiled vegetables. The printable instructions are below.
- Simmer: Add the chicken, half an onion, 2 garlic cloves, broth, bay leaves, and salt to a pot. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Remove Ingredients: Take out the chicken and shred it. Discard the bay leaves, and transfer the onion and garlic to a blender.
- Broil the tomatillos, poblano, and remaining onion and garlic on a foil-lined sheet pan for about 5 minutes. Flip over and broil for 3 to 4 minutes, then remove from the oven.
- Blend: Transfer the broiled veggies to the blender with cilantro, spinach, cumin, and a cup of broth. Blend until smooth.
- Combine Everything: Pour the green sauce, hominy, and shredded chicken into the pot. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Taste for salt and add more if needed.
- How to Serve: Ladle the pozole into bowls, top with cilantro and other toppings, and serve with tortilla chips.
Variations
- Broth: Sub vegetable broth or chicken stock.
- Chicken: Swap thighs with boneless, skinless chicken breasts.
- Vegetarian Pozole: Use vegetable broth and omit the chicken.
- Heat: If you prefer spicy pozole, broil a jalapeño and puree with the veggies. (Leave the seeds and ribs in for even more of a kick!)
- Onions: Use red onions.
- Hominy: Traditional pozole contains hominy, but you could use canned or frozen corn if you prefer.
What to Serve with Chicken Pozole Verde
This pozole verde with chicken is a complete meal packed with protein, vegetables, and carbohydrates. To make it even more satisfying and flavorful, I add various toppings, such as avocado, radishes, shredded cabbage, sour cream, and tortilla chips.
Storage
- Refrigerate: Let cool, then refrigerate for 4 days.
- Freeze the soup for 6 months. Storing it all in one large container is great for a fast family dinner, while using smaller containers makes it easy to pull out single servings for quick lunches later on.
- Reheat: Thaw in the fridge the day before and microwave until warm. You could also reheat it on the stove.
More Latin Stew Recipes You’ll Love
- Pollo Guisado
- Crock Pot Carne Guisada (Latin Beef Stew)
- Instant Pot Chicken Stew with Corn (Pollo Guisado con Maiz)
- Slow Cooker Pork and Green Chili Stew
- Sofrito Chicken Stew
Chicken Pozole Verde
Chicken Pozole Verde is a hearty soup made with shredded chicken, roasted tomatillos, cilantro, and chiles. Add your favorite toppings!
Yield: servings
Serving Size: 1 3/4 cups (generous)
Ingredients
- 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 dry bay leaves
- 3 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 cups onion, quartered and divided
- 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 5 whole cloves garlic, divided
- 1 poblano pepper, seeded and quartered
- 2 cups tomatillos, quartered
- ½ tablespoon cumin
- 1 cup cilantro, chopped, plus more for garnish
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 15.5 oz cans hominy, drained and rinsed
- optional 1 sliced avocado, sliced radishes, shredded cabbage, sour cream, tortilla chips
Instructions
- In a large pot, add the chicken, 1/2 onion, 2 cloves garlic, chicken broth, bay leaves, and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer over medium-low heat and cover. Cook for 30 minutes, skimming off any foam, until the meat is tender.
- Remove the chicken, shred it, and set aside. Discard bay leaves and use a slotted spoon to transfer onions and garlic to a blender.
- Meanwhile, preheat the broiler and position the oven rack about 6 inches from the heat source. Place the tomatillos, peppers, onion, and garlic with a pinch of salt on a baking sheet lined with foil for easy cleanup and spritz all over with olive oil.
- Broil for 5-6 minutes, keeping a close eye on them. When the tomatillos and peppers are charred and blistered, and the onion has softened, flip them over and broil for another 3-4 minutes. Remove from the oven once everything is charred and tender.
- Transfer the broiled vegetables to the blender with fresh cilantro, spinach, cumin and a cup of the broth. Blend until smooth.
- Add the green sauce, hominy and shredded chicken to the broth. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 to 10 minutes to meld the flavors. Taste for salt and adjust as needed.
- Ladle the pozole into large shallow bowls and top with cilantro and optional toppings. Serve with tortilla chips on the side for crunch, if desired.
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.Nutrition
Serving: 1 3/4 cups (generous), Calories: 241 kcal, Carbohydrates: 23 g, Protein: 21 g, Fat: 7.5 g, Saturated Fat: 1.5 g, Cholesterol: 80 mg, Sodium: 577.5 mg, Fiber: 5 g, Sugar: 7 g
I’ve never made pozole before, and it turned out amazing. My toddlers are happily eating it (with a cup of water on the side!), and my husband—who’s from Mexico City—absolutely loves it too. This recipe is definitely going into our regular rotation.
Awesome!
I made this Saturday after work. It was easy, amazing, and delicious. I added more chicken thighs to have more protein. If you like salsa verde.. you will love this! My husband does not like soup, next time I will poach a few chicken breasts with the thighs and serve it to him like chicken with sauce.. and my self like soup. So good
I first had chicken pozole in Mexico City and it was amazing! Stumbled across your recepie and it is spot on! Thank you so much for sharing as ill be making this again and again. Also, the whole family loved it.
Delicious! My 3 year old can’t stop eating this! I love that it’s full of healthy ingredients. My husband is Mexican and didn’t feel like it tasted like traditional pozole but he loved it as well. It was surprisingly easy to make as well!
I really loved this recipe! It was simple to make and blending all the charred veggies along side the spinach and cilantro to add to the soup was divine! Loved how healthy, delicious it was. I will make this again and again!
I tweaked the recipe a bit and made it in instant pot. Had to change the directions around a bit but it was so delicious and full of flavor. Used boneless skinless thighs instead of breasts.
Broil peppers etc first and make salsa following directions. Use saute function on instant pot to saute onions. Then throw salsa, broth, cumin and seasonings with chicken into instant pot. I used “meat/stew” setting for 20 min. Let it natural release for 15 min. Remove and roughly chop chicken. Return to IP with hominy and close lid for another 5 min. Enjoy!
Thank you for the conversion to Instant Pot! Going to try it this way tonight.
This was so tasty and even my picky kids liked it! They called it “chip dip soup” because they ate it dipping tortilla chips in it. It’s zero points on WW now 🙂
Love kid approval! 🙂
So good!! I was a little nervous about making this just because I had never used/heard of tomatillos but it was easy and really good. My whole family loved it (and my husband is super picky). I have been eating this for the last 2 days and it gets better and better each time I have it. Thanks for another great recipe and dinner idea 🙂
I am so happy to hear this!!
Great recipe. Maybe the best I have made. My oven is broken so I grilled the tomatillos, poblano, onion, celery on my BBQ. Definitely added a smokiness to the soup. I love hominy but DW doesn’t, so I used canned corn that I sauteed and spiced up. Another ST winner!
Great idea using corn!!
Outstanding! This turned out absolutely amazing. Made a double batch to eat for lunch through the week.
I am so thrilled!!
Tonight’s dinner was excellent! This recipe will be one to keep. The soup’s flavor and texture were amazingly delicious. It was easy and relatively quick to make. Thank you!
Just fyi it’s not supposed to have cabbage in the original recipe is iceberg lettuce. Love this version!
This recipe was pretty good. I used three poblanos because I wanted to be sure we could taste it. This is very flavorful. It also had a lot of steps and I felt like I got every dish in my kitchen dirty while making it. Because of that, I likely won’t make it again. But my family all said it was good.
I just made this and wonder if it is supposed to be bitter. We’re going to add avocado, sour cream and chips with it and hope it isn’t so bitter. I did add a touch of sugar which I do when I make my spaghetti sauce when the tomatoes make the sauce bitter, Thanks.
Hi! Thanks so much for making it! Since the tomatillos and peppers are roasted, that usually helps mellow the bitterness, but sometimes if the tomatillos are extra tart or underripe, a little bitterness can still come through. Adding avocado, sour cream, and chips is a perfect way to balance it out — and adding a pinch of sugar, just like you would with spaghetti sauce, was a smart move too! Next time, you could also try using slightly riper tomatillos or adding a little more cilantro or spinach when blending to soften the flavors even more. I hope it still turned out tasty in the end!
Really delicious! At least as good as what we get in Mexico!
Thank you so much!! That’s the best compliment I could hope for, I’m so happy you loved it!
Making now… the house smells lovely! But Gina, why is the recipe 3pts/serving but the 6 serving ingredients TOTAL is only 5pts (oil & chicken broth) per WW App??? Am I missing something?
Delicious! I used 6 chicken thighs! A new family favorite
I have been making this soup from your recipe for years It is a family favorite and I like how I can make the vegetables the first day and make the soup the following day