In our home kitchens, the Instant Pot is an ever-reliable weeknight workhorse. Its all-in-one superpowers make dinner not only quick and easy on busy evenings, but also super tasty. Here, we use it to make pozole — the Central Mexican soup known for its chewy, pillowy, supersized kernels of hominy. Typically, it’s made with shredded pork, but we’ve swapped in shredded chicken thighs for a lighter meal that’s still full of juicy flavor. Also in the mix: smoky chipotle peppers and sweet, sweet summer corn.

There’s a lot to love about this pozole, but for us, the star of the show is the broth. We use the adobo sauce from the chipotle peppers, the cooking juice from the chicken thighs, and chicken broth as the base — and then work some aromatic magic with onion, garlic (eight whole cloves!!), cumin, and oregano. We could drink the stuff: it’s so rich and flavorful, with a nice hit of spice at the end of the slurp. You’d think it had been simmering on the stove for hours and hours. The kicker? It’s only in the Instant Pot for about 20 minutes.

With pozole toppings, we’re in “the more, the better” camp. We top ours with shredded cabbage, avocado, queso fresco, onion, and fresh cilantro — the perfect combination of crunchy, creamy, punchy, and herby to balance out the heat of the broth. And the only side you need with this wonderful soup is a handful of tortilla chips; their salty crunch is awesome dipped in the broth.

Our tip: You’ll open a whole can of chipotle peppers to make this recipe. You can adjust the spice level in the soup by increasing or decreasing the number of peppers you add — and then freeze the remaining peppers until you need them.

Servings: 4 to 6

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 large yellow onion, diced small
• ½ tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 7-oz can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1 tsp Gelson’s onion powder
• 1 tsp Gelson’s garlic powder
• 1 tsp Gelson’s ground cumin
• ½ tsp Gelson’s ground oregano
• 2 ½ lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 5 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup frozen corn kernels
• 2 15-oz cans hominy, rinsed and drained
• Freshly squeezed juice of 1 lime (about 2 Tbsp), plus more to taste
• For toppings: shredded cabbage, diced avocado, crumbled queso fresco, minced onion, and chopped cilantro

Directions

1. In a 6- to 8-quart Instant Pot on the sauté setting, heat the vegetable oil. Add the yellow onions. Season with kosher salt, to taste, and cook, stirring often, until the onions are softened and translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the garlic and cook, stirring continuously, until slightly softened and fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Meanwhile, open the can of chipotle peppers and remove the peppers, reserving the adobo sauce.

4. Mince 2 peppers and add them, along with all of the adobo sauce, to the Instant Pot.

5. Add the onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, and oregano. Cook, stirring continuously, until fragrant and heated through, about 1 minute.

6. Stir in the chicken thighs until coated, scraping the bottom of the pan clean. Add the chicken broth and ½ teaspoon kosher salt.

7. Close the lid and cook on high pressure for 18 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes, then release the remaining pressure manually.

8. Using a ladle, skim the excess fat from the surface of the soup if desired.

9. Return the Instant Pot to the sauté setting. Using two forks, coarsely shred the chicken in the pot. Add the corn kernels and hominy, and simmer until warmed through, 3 to 5 minutes.

10. Add the lime juice, taste, and add more salt or lime juice if desired. Serve the soup in bowls with the toppings of your choice.

Recipe source: The New York Times

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