Green Chicken Pozole is a weeknight soup revelation! If you have never tried pozole, make it right away so you aren’t missing out. It’s so different, and so good! Tender chicken and hominy come together with a gentle spicy broth, flavored with pureed peppers and cilantro. We are taking a few shortcuts to make this pozole verde a weeknight dinner hero that still brings all the flavor!

A wooden bowl filled with green pozole soup, topped with shredded chicken, hominy, and chopped cilantro. Surrounding the bowl are lime wedges, sliced radishes, tortilla chips, and a small bowl of sour cream.
Table of Contents
  1. I’m in love with Pozole.
  2. Weeknight pozole ftw
  3. What the heck is hominy?
  4. Must have ingredients
  5. How to make green pozole
  6. Green chicken pozole toppings
  7. What to serve with pozole
  8. How to store leftovers
  9. Can you freeze pozole?
  10. More weeknight Mexican food favorites
  11. Quick and Easy Green Chicken Posole Recipe

Yesterday, I found out that my 6-year-old actually thought that watching TV was part of the cure for the flu we all have right now. “You take medicine, eat soup, and watch TV. Right?”

Right-o, son, we will just go with that for now I guess!!

Meanwhile, my best friend Sarah sent me this picture:

Six freshly baked loaves of bread in pans on a kitchen counter, shown in a text exchange where one person mentions baking, mopping, working out early.

Okay, even on my most kick-butt day of the year, I have never had 6 loaves of Banana Bread coming out of the oven before 7am AND have mopped and worked out. Sarah is a whole ‘nother level.

How about you? Are you taking names this January?? I hope so! It’s like 2026 hasn’t even happened yet here in our house!

We are slowly turning back into humans. (Maybe all the episodes of Bluey have healed us??)

Or maybe it really is the soup. This week I made Chicken, White Bean, and Kale Soup, and this Green Chicken Pozole!

A bowl of green pozole soup garnished with sliced radishes, fresh cilantro, tortilla chips, shredded cheese, and a dollop of sour cream, with visible pieces of hominy and chicken in a vibrant green broth.

I’m in love with Pozole.

I posted a recipe for Pozole Rojo last year, which is the real-deal recipe, with slow cooked pork and dried chiles. If you’re looking for an everything-totally-from-scratch pozole, definitely plan a time to make it. SO worth it! The flavor is unreal.

But it’s a special occasion soup, too much fuss for a weeknight. I wanted to have a recipe I could make from my pantry, that had the same vibe. The biggest difference is that this recipe is green, and the other one is red. Pozole can be one or the other.

They are both SO good, and if you are new to pozole, today’s verde recipe is a great place to start.

Bowls of green chicken pozole topped with radish slices, tortilla chips, sour cream, and fresh cilantro, surrounded by lime wedges, corn chips, and additional garnishes on a textured surface.

Weeknight pozole ftw

Pozole is a soup with pork or chicken and hominy in a rich broth, flavored with blended peppers and seasonings. Pozole verde uses fresh green peppers like poblano and jalapeño, as well as tomatillos.

Not every day can be a from-scratch day. When you’re cramming dinner between soccer practice, gymnastics, and homework, having a quick and easy weeknight pozole that still packs a flavor punch is the best! Here’s what we’re doing to get the best flavor, while keeping time on our side!

  • pre cooked chicken. You can use leftovers, chop up a rotisserie chicken, or even buy some of the already-pulled-for-you rotisserie chicken in the vacuum pack. Thank you Costco for making my life easier!
  • fresh or canned ingredients both work here. Real minced garlic, fresh jalapeño, poblano, tomatillo, and cilantro are flavor powerhouses. Since we’re blending them, they don’t take much time. BUT! Sometimes that’s still too much. See note on the recipe for even more shortcuts: I’ve made this soup using canned peppers and tomatillos!
  • the blenders is your friend. Normally you roast the peppers for pozole. Not today! Instead we’re throwing ingredients in the blender and then sautéing the green chile sauce to meld and mellow the flavors.

What the heck is hominy?

You may not have heard of hominy, but it’s my one true love! And essential for this soup. It’s made by drying out corn kernels, then soaking and cooking them in an alkali solution (usually water with lye or the mineral lime, not the fruit) to remove the hull and make the kernels get fat, soft, and chewy. If you’re a food nerd like me, definitely read this article about it, it’s called nixtamalization. So cool! This is the same process they use to make corn tortillas.

A close-up of a ladle filled with green stew containing shredded chicken, hominy, onions, and chopped cilantro in a flavorful broth.

Must have ingredients

There’s so much goodness in this recipe, but there are a few ingredients that are absolutely essential for the traditional green pozole flavor.

  • fresh peppers In this recipe we’re using poblano and jalapeño peppers for flavor and kick. You can use other green peppers like anaheim or cubanelle in place of poblano, and if you like things super spicy you can try serrano instead of jalapeño! I don’t recommend using green bell pepper, the flavor is not the same. SEE NOTE in the recipe if you want to try using canned peppers! I tried it, it’s still really good.
  • hominy No, you can’t just use canned corn! Hominy is this whole other thing (see above) and the nutty taste and chewy texture are absolutely essential to pozole. I prefer Juanita’s Mexican Style, but any brand should do.
  • tomatillos are not to be confused with normal tomatoes. If you’ve ever had a salsa verde, that tangy, punchy flavor mostly comes from the tomatillos and we’re going for that same flavor in our pozole. In the store, it will look like a small green tomato in a little husk. SEE NOTE in the recipe if you want to try using canned tomatillos! Sometimes they are harder to find than fresh ones, though.

How to make green pozole

First things first, gather up all your ingredients! This spread may look intimidating, especially if you have never cooked with tomatillos before, but I promise it’s not that bad. See below for some canned options, especially if you can’t find fresh tomatillos!

A wooden table displays fresh vegetables, canned goods, spices, and seasonings. Below, chopped onions and garlic are on a cutting board, ready for cooking.

Chop up your onions and start sauteing them in a big pot. Don’t add the garlic yet. But do add in all the spices: salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, oregano. Yummm.

A bowl of assorted spices sits on a wooden surface above a pot containing chopped onions, spices, and a wooden spoon, ready for cooking.

Once the onions are translucent, add in the garlic and let it cook for about 1 minute, until fragrant.

Chopped onions and minced garlic are being sautéed with spices in a white pot, stirred with a wooden spoon, on a wooden surface.

At this point, turn off the heat and move the pot off the stove while we prep the blender ingredients.

Here is what tomatillos look like. It’s like unwrapping a present!!

top: hand peeling tomatillos, bottom: hand holding peeled tomatillo.
Chopped and whole green tomatillos on a wooden cutting board next to a kitchen knife.

Chop them up and add to the blender. Then start on your poblanos:

Two images show hands slicing a green poblano pepper on a wooden cutting board. The top image shows slices being made around the stem, and the bottom image shows cutting down the side of the pepper.

We don’t want any of the seeds or inner membranes, it makes it too spicy. We just want the dark green flesh.

Two images: Sliced green poblano peppers on a wooden cutting board, with seeds and pepper cores set aside. A close-up shows a knife removing seeds from a pepper slice.

Prep your jalapeño the same, take off the stem and the seeds and membranes. Add to the blender.

A split image shows chopped green peppers on a cutting board in the top half and the peppers placed inside a blender jar with other vegetables in the background in the bottom half.

Then, blend it up with the cilantro!

A side-by-side view shows a blender with whole green ingredients on the left and the same blender with the ingredients blended into a smooth green mixture on the right.

It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth, but do make sure there are no big chunks.

If you are short on time, you can skip all the steps of chopping tomatillos and peppers! Use canned tomatillos (drain the liquid!) and canned green chilies. I tried it, it works great! The flavor is not as fresh but it’s still a really great soup. Sometimes it’s actually harder to find canned tomatillos than fresh ones, so use what you can find!

A can of whole tomatillos and two cans of diced green chiles sit on a wooden surface; below, olive oil is being poured into a pot with sautéed onions or garlic.

Now, back to the soup pot. Put it back on the stove and add a bit of oil to the center of the pot. Then pour in the blended sauce. Careful! It’s spicy! It might make you cough or sting your eyes, so stand back.

Two images: the top shows green liquid being poured into a pot with sautéed onions and garlic; the bottom shows the contents mixed into a thick green sauce being stirred with a wooden spoon.

Simmer the green sauce with the onions for about 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to low if it starts popping at you.

Then add in the chicken broth,

A hand holds a jar of Better Than Bouillon chicken base over a pot of green soup. In the next image, water is being poured into the pot with a spoon and a dollop of bouillon base visible in the soup.

hominy,

A can of Juanitas Mexican Style Hominy is shown; in the next image, hominy is being poured from the can into a pot of green soup with a wooden spoon inside.

and cooked chicken.

A hand pours cooked, shredded chicken from a bowl into a pot of green soup with a wooden spoon inside, preparing a homemade meal.

Then, let it simmer for 10 minutes or up to an hour, and voila! Pozole!

A bowl of soup with meat and vegetables.

Whatever you do, don’t sleep on the garnishes. The toppings MAKE this soup! Cabbage, radishes, sour cream, fresh lime, tortilla chips, a bit of queso…MM. It’s so good! See the official list below.

Green chicken pozole toppings

Similar to Ramen, there are essential toppings that go with this soup to truly make it pozole. Do NOT skip them or you are missing out! Pick and choose what you like from any of the following:

  • lime, cut into wedges
  • shredded cabbage
  • radishes, very thinly sliced
  • white onion, finely diced
  • cilantro, chopped
  • queso fresco
  • tostadas, or tortilla chips
  • sliced avocado, optional
  • sour cream
A bowl of green chicken pozole topped with sliced radishes, crumbled cheese, tortilla chips, and a dollop of sour cream, with a spoon resting inside the bowl.

What to serve with pozole

One of the best parts about pozole is that it’s basically an entire meal in a bowl. It already has healthy meat, grain, and veggies. But, if you really need another side or are trying to stretch the soup to feed a lot of people, here are some simple options.

hero?? A close-up of a bowl of green chicken pozole, featuring shredded chicken, hominy, tortilla chips, fresh cilantro, sour cream, a lime wedge, and sliced radish. The soup has a rich green broth.

How to store leftovers

Wait for the soup to cool a bit, then transfer to a container with an airtight lid and put in the refrigerator. Be sure to store all of the toppings separate from the soup and from each other so they don’t get soggy and weird. The soup will last in the fridge for about 4-5 days. You can reheat a bowl at time in the microwave at 50% power for a few minutes until hot, or you can warm all the leftovers in a pot on the stove over medium heat. Once it’s as hot as you like, serve and add all the toppings you saved!

Can you freeze pozole?

Yes, and I do it on the regular! Wait for the pozole to completely cool, then carefully ladle it into a ziplock freezer bag. Try to get as much air out of the bag as possible, and seal. You can put it straight into the freezer, where it will be good for about 3-4 months. The toppings that go with pozole (cabbage, radishes, lime, cilantro, onion) should not be frozen. The quality will not be the same, it’s definitely best to prepare those fresh when you serve again.

To use frozen pozole, put the bag in a bowl and leave it to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Add it in a large pot on the stove over medium heat. Or, add the completely frozen block of soup into a slow cooker, put it on low, and let it heat over several hours. It should take about 15-20 minutes to heat on the stove, and 3-4 hours on high or 4-6 hours on low in the crockpot. While the pozole warms, prepare your toppings. Once the soup is hot, ladle it into bowls and serve with fresh toppings!

A close-up of a bowl of green pozole topped with sliced radishes, shredded cabbage, tortilla chips, fresh cilantro, a dollop of sour cream, and crumbled cheese. The soup contains hominy and chunks of chicken.

More weeknight Mexican food favorites

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Quick and Easy Green Chicken Posole

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Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 20 minutes
Total: 40 minutes
Servings: 8
A wooden bowl filled with green pozole soup, topped with shredded chicken, hominy, and chopped cilantro. Surrounding the bowl are lime wedges, sliced radishes, tortilla chips, and a small bowl of sour cream.
Green Chicken Pozole is a weeknight soup revelation! If you have never tried pozole, make it right away so you aren't missing out. It's so different, and so good! Tender chicken and hominy come together with a gently spicy broth, flavored with pureed peppers and cilantro. We are taking a few shortcuts to make this pozole verde a weeknight dinner hero that still brings all the flavor!

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 large white onion, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt, use only 1 and 1/2 teaspoons table salt
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon chili powder
  • 1 tablespoon oregano
  • 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced (about 1 tablespoon)
  • 2 poblano peppers, seeded and roughly chopped (sometimes called Pasilla peppers*)
  • 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 12 ounces tomatillos, about 10-12 small/medium tomatillos
  • 1 cup cilantro, about 1 small bunch
  • 1/2 cup water, for the blender
  • 2 teaspoons oil, for sauteing green sauce
  • 1 (28-ounce) can hominy
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 3 cups cooked chicken, shredded or chopped

To Garnish:

  • 1 10-ounce package angel hair coleslaw, or slice your own green cabbage
  • 6 radishes, very thinly sliced
  • 1/4 white onion, chopped (optional)
  • 1 avocado
  • sour cream
  • fresh lime wedges
  • tortilla chips
  • queso fresco, or any shredded cheese

Instructions

  • Heat a large (6-quart) soup pot over medium heat.
  • Chop 1 white onion. (Here's a handy onion chopping guide!)
  • When the pot is nice and hot, add 2 tablespoons olive oil. It should shimmer right away. Add the onions immediately and stir with a wooden spoon. Let the onions saute for about 5 minutes.
  • During the 5 minutes, add in the spices: 2 teaspoons kosher salt, 2 teaspoons cumin, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1 teaspoon chili powder, and 1 tablespoon oregano.
  • Smash and mince 4-5 cloves of garlic, enough to make about a tablespoon. Add it to the pot with onions. Add another teaspoon or two of olive oil if the pot is looking dry (if the onions are sticking.) Saute the garlic and onions for 1 minute. Turn off the burner and remove from heat.
  • Chop the poblano: Remove the stems of 2 poblano peppers. Slice the peppers in half and discard the seeds and membranes. Roughly chop the pepper.
  • Prepare 1 jalapeno: remove the stem, seeds and membranes.
  • Add the poblano and jalapeno peppers to a blender.
  • Peel and wash 10-12 tomatillos (see note for using canned tomatillos!) Cut each tomatillo in half. Add to the blender.
  • Wash 1 bunch of cilantro. Use a chef's knife to cut the stems off. Add the leaves to the blender. (You need about 1 cup cilantro)
  • Add 1/2 cup water to the blender. Puree for about 30 seconds until mostly smooth.
  • Move the pot with the onions back onto the burner and set the heat to medium. Use a spoon to shove the onions to the edges of the pan.
  • Add 2 teaspoon oil to the center of the pot and let it get hot for a minute. Then pour all the green liquid from the blender into the hot oil.
  • Stir it all together and let the green liquid simmer, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Turn the heat down to medium low or low, if it starts to pop hot liquid at you.
  • Add the 28 ounce can of hominy (don't drain it, add all the can liquid to the soup.)
  • Add 4 cups of chicken broth*, and 3 cups of chopped cooked chicken.**
  • Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat. As soon as it boils, turn the heat down to medium low and let simmer for about 10 minutes, or up to an hour, whatever you have time for!
  • Prepare the garnishes. The toppings for this soup are not optional. They are part of what make the soup pozole, especially the cabbage and radishes. Open the bag of angel hair coleslaw and place in a bowl. Slice the radishes paper-thin. Chop 1/4 of a white onion. Chop 1-2 avocados. Slice a few limes into quarters, for easy squeezing.
  • Serve with garnishes. Ladle the soup into bowls, and top each one with plenty of garnishes: A handful of sliced cabbage, several slices of radish, a sprinkle of white raw onions, avocado (or a scoop of guacamole), a scoop of sour cream, a squeeze of fresh lime juice, a few crumbled tortilla chips, and a sprinkle of queso fresco cheese.
  • Storage: Store leftovers in the fridge. Keep all garishes separate.
  • Freezing: Wait for the pozole to completely cool, then carefully ladle it into a ziplock freezer bag. Try to get as much air out of the bag as possible, and seal. You can put it straight into the freezer, where it will be good for about 3-4 months. The toppings that go with pozole (cabbage, radishes, lime, cilantro, onion) should not be frozen. The quality will not be the same, it’s definitely best to prepare those fresh when you serve again.

Notes

Poblano peppers: Sometimes these are labeled as pasilla peppers. Pasilla is also the name of a dried pepper, but that’s not what you want. You are looking for a very dark, forest-green fresh pepper from the produce section.
*CHICKEN BROTH: I always use water + Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base. So for this recipe, I used 4 cups of water and 4 teaspoons chicken base. 
**CHICKEN: If you don’t have cooked chicken, you can use raw chicken! Chop up about 3 raw chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs into bite size pieces. Add to the soup at the same point in the recipe, and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Lower to a simmer over medium low heat and cook for about 10 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. (Take out a piece and cut it in half to check for doneness.)
SHORTCUT RECIPE: If you are short on time, you can use a 27-ounce can of whole tomatillos in place of the fresh tomatillos. (Drain the liquid!) Use two (7-ounce) cans of green chilies in place of the poblano peppers. (No need to drain). Use the fresh jalapeno, or use one of those tiny 4-ounce cans of sliced jalapenos. I would drain the jalapenos too, unless you like it pretty spicy. 

Nutrition

Calories: 205kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Protein: 15g | Fat: 13g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Trans Fat: 0.004g | Cholesterol: 42mg | Potassium: 459mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 338IU | Vitamin C: 11mg | Calcium: 44mg | Iron: 2mg
Course: Main Course, Soup
Cuisine: American, Mexican
Calories: 205
Keyword: chicken, Poblano Peppers, pozole, soup
Did you make this? I’d love to see it!Mention @thefoodcharlatan or tag #thefoodcharlatan!

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