Mexican - Chicken Posole Soup

Ingredients
1  tablespoon  olive oil
1  teaspoon  dried oregano
3/4  teaspoon  ground cumin
1/2  teaspoon  chili powder
2  garlic cloves, minced
1  (8-ounce) package prechopped onion and celery mix ( or 2 stalks celery, chopped, 1 large onion, chopped )
4  canned tomatillos, drained and coarsely chopped
2  (14-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium organic / natural chicken broth
1  (15-ounce) can white hominy, rinsed and drained
2  cups  chopped skinless, boneless cooked chicken breast
1  tablespoon  fresh lime juice
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  black pepper
1/2  ripe peeled avocado, diced
4  radishes, thinly sliced
Cilantro leaves (optional)

Preparation
1. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add oregano and next 4 ingredients (through onion and celery mix); sauté 2 minutes. Stir in tomatillos; cook 1 minute. Add broth and hominy; cover and bring to a boil. Uncover and cook 8 minutes. Stir in chicken; cook 1 minute or until heated. Remove from heat; stir in lime juice, salt, and pepper. Divide evenly among 4 bowls. Top with avocado and radish. Garnish with cilantro, if desired.

(This is a clean eating recipe from evewaspartiallyright.blogspot.com)

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This soup was really easy to make, all you do is chop a few things up and throw them in a pot and cook them! Here are the ingredients I used. The recipe called for canned tomatillos, but none of the grocery stores I went to had them, so I bought the fresh ones instead.

Throw in the first 6 ingredients and cook 2 minutes.  Then throw in the tomatillos and cook for a minute.

[Skip this step if  you buy the canned tomatillos]

I simply blanched them. 

Put them in boiling water for up to 5 minutes.

Then put them in ice cold water quickly to stop the cooking process.

If the skins are easy to remove you can take those off, if not, don't worry about it. 

Just cut the middle hard top part out like you would a regular tomato.

After blanching the tomatillos, then...

...add the broth and hominy and cook 8 minutes. Put in the chicken and cook another min.

Add lime, salt and pepper.

Top with the garnishes and you're done!

Muy delicioso!

You can make this as a side dish or as the main course. 

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I was making a recipe every Tuesday night last year with my friend Lou that lives down in Florida. When I lived in FL near her, we always use to make dinner on Tuesday nights together, but now since I moved to NC, we have decided to continue doing it. We're starting it up again now that the holidays season's over and I can't wait to see all the yummy recipes we end up with this year.  You can go to the recipe section of my blog to see some of the ones from last year.

Here's how Lous soup turned out, she said it was really delicious, too.  She couldn't find tomatillos, so she just substituted canned tomatoes instead (I sent her a can of my canned tomatoes I canned myself last year).  Go see Lou's post here.