Chicken (and pork) Posole

A nice easy night that only involved defrosting our leftover posole and preparing all the loverly toppings. I need to figure out what I did to make this concoction, since I married several recipes for posole as well as throwing in some leftover roasted pork from the carnitas we had a few weekends ago.

Posole is a Mexican thick, hearty soup made with pork, or chicken meat and broth, hominy, onion, garlic, chilies, etc. My photo just shows the toppings, but just under the surface lie a ton of goodies...big hominy kernals, tart tomatillos, and chunks of roasted chicken. Comfort food that's filling and easy to make. Freezes very well too.

Posole:

2 Tbs canola oil
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
1 Tbs cumin
a pinch of dried thyme or a few sprigs of fresh if you have it
kosher salt and pepper
1 cup beer
1 lb (I used about 14) tomatillos, peeled and coarsely chopped, or coarsely processed in food processor
1 can hominy (original recipe called for 15 oz. can, but I used a 30 oz. can...look for hominy without any weird preservatives.)
~6 cups chicken stock
1 1/2-2 lbs of cooked chicken (roast whole breasts coated with olive oil, s & p at 350 for ~40 min. debone and remove skin after cool, then pull apart with your fingers)
I threw in ~4 oz. of leftover pork just cause I had it.
1 lime, juiced


Optional toppings:
cilantro
2% Greek yogurt
diced avocado
crumbled cotija cheese (or shredded jack, etc.)

Heat a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add canola oil, then onions, garlic, jalapenos, cumin, thyme, salt and pepper (to taste). Cook 5-6 minutes to soften onions then add beer and cook it off, ~3-4 min?. Stir in tomatillos and cook 5 minutes more, then stir in the hominy, chicken stock, and chicken. Heat through, adjust salt and pepper and simmer the posole 10-15 minutes over low heat. Stir in the lime juice and remove from heat. Garnish soup with cilantro and any other optional toppings.