What to make with Leftover Pork Loin- Pozole. A Mexican Pork and Hominy Stew

Too often, for leftovers, my freezer becomes an oubliette. A place of forgetting. I remember the frozen puff pastry. And I remember the bag of shrimp and the crawfish- But what is this frozen, unidentifiable lump?

Only when it thaws will I see it is a cooked marinaded piece of pork loin. I was uncertain what to do with it.

Until I bought a Better Homes and Gardens "Special Publication " at the grocery. It was titled "Mexican", and it was an astoundingly detailed look into real Mexican food that Americans might prefer to the grease and cheese of Mexican restaurant food. The magazine studied gastronomic regions of Mexico and had a primer on chiles. And its recipes called for ingredients I have always hesitated to add on this site since they were not mainstream enough. Crema, achiote,Queso-

Then I saw their recipe for Pozole- Hominy and Pork Stew. It had a long list of ingredients I did not have, but I had pork and I had hominy, and I would make my own version. I made it last evening, and I ate it in 24 hours, for I am a hominy lover.

The first photo shows half a yellow onion sauteed in a little lard and sweated with some sea salt. Then I dusted the onions with a half packet of Sazon Culantro/Annato seasoning. The rest of the ingredients went in a sauce pan, and when the onions were done, I spooned them in. I cooked the mixture for 15 minutes, enough to take the bitter out of the diced garlic. I spooned it into a bowl, crushed up fried pork cracklings called "Mexican Wagon Wheels , and put them and some crema on top.

Here is what I put in the sauce pan:


1 14 oz can of hominy
1 canned mild green chile-diced. The other half of the packet of Achiote seasoning
1 diced garlic clove
1 cup cooked diced pork loin
1 chicken bouillon cube
1 cup of water
Juice from one key lime
1 tablespoon of orange juice


To garnish one serving, I used half a dozen fried wagon wheels and a dollop of crema, though sour cream could be used instead.

I plan to make this again to use up the breakfast cut pork chops I bought at a Managers' Special. I will dice them up and brown them well in a little lard, the add them to the next Pozole I make.

This should feed two or three, and could easily be doubled.


To fry the wagon wheels drop them into a deep large sauce pan with an 2-3 inches of very hot corn oil. They will puff up as I have shown in the photo.