Chicken Posole

I received an email requesting this soup. It is actually quite easy to make, there is just allot of steps. When making this soup you can actually go in a few different directions. I took me a while to master my basic chicken soup recipe and then i took it to the Posole, which is traditional made with pork. But lets get started;

Chicken Posole

Ingredients

1 4lb whole chicken
4 leg and thigh quarters
4 medium onions - two quartered leaving the root attached and 2 diced
8 stalks of celery, 4 quartered and 4 diced
3 to 4 poblano peppers, diced
8 sprigs of Italian parsley
3 to 4 jalapenos minced
12 to 18 mini sweet peppers, cut into quarter rings
1 medium Jicama shredded
4 15oz cans hominy, drained
6 cloves or garlic minced
1 1/2 table spoons of cumin seeds
1 table spoon fennel seeds
2 table spoons ground cumin
1 table spoon chili powder
1/2 cayenne pepper
2 table spoon oregano
3 limes, zest and juiced
6 radishes, shredded
1/2 red Cabbage shredded
bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped stems removed
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
Place quartered onions & celery, parsley, funnel and cumin seeds, all of the chicken, salt and pepper in a large soup pot. Add water until chicken is covered, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for about an hour or so, or until chicken falls of the bone. Once at this point remove chicken and let cool so that you can shredded it. Now at this point you can either strain the stock to remove the cooked veggies or what i do is used a wonton screen to just scoop at the onions, celery and parsley and any small bones that fell off the chicken.
Next add the balance of the ingredients with the exception of the radishes, cabbage and cilantro. Cover and simmer for an additional 45 minutes. Also once chicken has cooled enough to shredded add that to the pot as well. Taste for time to time and adjust seasonings per taste.
Once you are close to the end of the cooking place the cabbage and radishes in the bottom of soup bowls. Ladle the soup on top and sprinkle with the cilantro and serve with tortilla chips.
If you are going to freeze the soup for later, you can add the cabbage to the cooled soup prior to freezing, but i would not add the radishes or cilantro.

Now as stated up until the cooking of the chicken you have chicken soup, you can omit all the Mexican spices and add noodles, carrots and the like and you have a nice chicken soup.

Enjoy Cooking