Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Pozole Verde
Hominy and chicken in a bright green broth of tomatillos, pepitas, and herbs, Guerrero’s Thursday ritual bowl.
Mexican (Guerrerense) · medium · serves 5
prep 25 min · cook 60 min
~577 cal · 57g protein · 32g carbs · 25g fat · 7g fiber · 5g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Pozole is one of Mexico's most ancient and ceremonial dishes, a stew whose roots reach back to the Aztecs, for whom the swollen corn kernels carried sacred meaning. Today it is festive, communal food served at celebrations and weekend gatherings.
The green version, especially associated with Guerrero, builds its broth from , pepitas, cilantro, and green chilies blended and fried into a vivid, herby sauce, then simmered with chicken and nixtamalized corn until rich.
The real joy is the ritual of the garnish table, where each person tops their bowl with shredded cabbage or lettuce, radish, onion, lime, oregano, and crisp tostadas. Bright and built for sharing, pozole verde is a bowl that gathers people around it.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 5
2 lbs chicken thighs, bone-in
4 cups (canned or cooked)
1 lb , husked
Hard to find? green tomatoes with a good squeeze of lime, or tinned tomatillos - tinned are far closer than fresh green tomatoes, which lack the tartness; the lime is there to make up some of the difference
1/2 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds), toasted
2 jalapeños or serranos
2 poblano chiles, roasted and peeled
1 onion
4 cloves garlic
1 bunch cilantro
a few sprigs (or extra cilantro)
a full board garnishes: shredded lettuce, radish, onion, lime, oregano, avocado, corn tostadas
Instructions
1
Simmer the chicken (or mushrooms) with half the onion and garlic in 8 cups water for 30 minutes.
2
Lift out and shred the chicken, keeping the broth.
3
Boil the tomatillos and chilies for 8 minutes, until soft.
4
Blend them with the pepitas, remaining onion and garlic, cilantro, and epazote into a smooth green sauce.
5
Fry the green sauce in a little oil for 5 minutes, until it darkens and thickens.
✎ Chef’s note
Frying the blended salsa before it goes into the broth deepens and rounds the flavour. It should darken from bright to olive green.
6
Stir the fried sauce into the broth with the hominy and simmer 20 minutes.
7
Return the shredded chicken to the pot to warm through.
8
Serve with a garnish board, shredded cabbage, sliced radish, lime, oregano, and tostadas, so everyone builds their own bowl.
Guerrero Thursday tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Guerrero. Green pozole is the state's own, thickened with ground pumpkin seed and tomatillo and scented with hoja santa and epazote, then loaded with chicharron, avocado, radish and sometimes sardines. Chilpancingo and Chilapa are the towns usually credited with it, and mezcal is the drink beside it.
🗺️
Mexico. Underneath almost everything is nixtamalization: dried maize simmered and steeped in lime water, then hulled and ground. It softens the kernels into a masa that will hold together as a tortilla, adds calcium, and releases the tryptophan the body turns into niacin, which is why maize-eating Mesoamerica escaped the pellagra that later maize cultures suffered.
🌍
North America. Almost every regional cooking here records who arrived and on what terms. Enslaved West Africans brought rice, okra, black-eyed peas and the techniques behind Lowcountry and Creole food; Chinese railway labour and later Italian, Jewish, Mexican and Vietnamese arrivals built the way the cities eat; and Indigenous foodways sit underneath all of it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mexico
Cochinita PibilPork marinated blaze-orange in achiote and sour orange, wrapped in banana leaves and roasted until it shreds itself.
EnfrijoladasCorn tortillas bathed in silky black-bean sauce, folded and finished with cheese, crema, and onion.
BirriaJalisco’s chile-marinated slow braise, served as a rich consomé with tortillas, or griddled into dripping quesabirria tacos.
Browse all Mexico recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Blender.
Storing it: Soup keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes well. Reheat gently and loosen with a little water or stock if needed.
Make it a Mexico meal
HorchataDrink
Calabaza en TachaDessert
Tlayuda OaxaqueñaLunch
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Cuisine
Diet
Frequently asked questions
What is Pozole Verde?
Hominy and chicken in a bright green broth of tomatillos, pepitas, and herbs, Guerrero’s Thursday ritual bowl.
Where does Pozole Verde come from?
Pozole Verde is a Mexican (Guerrerense) dish from Guerrero, Mexico.
Can Pozole Verde be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Pozole Verde recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Pozole Verde safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Pozole Verde take to make?
About 85 minutes total (25 minutes prep, 60 minutes cooking), serving 5.
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