Mexican Chicken Pozole

I always get a taste of new soups before I order them when I'm at Hale and Hearty. This is a way for me to determine if trying a new soup is worthwhile, and that should also explain why I'm always raving about the soups I get. I was a bit concerned, though, because when I tasted the Mexican Chicken Pozole I wasn't blown away. Part of the problem, I'm sure, is that my only other real experience with pozole was at Chef Rick Bayless's restaurant Xoco. Chef Bayless is one of the pre-eminent chefs of Mexican cuisine, but I also knew going in that this most likely would not meet those lofty standards. This pozole is described as "[...] a traditional and authentic Mexican holiday soup made with hominy, white meat chicken and lots of wonderful seasonings." I don't know which Mexican holiday it is they were celebrating on the 15th (if any) but I do like their soup.

Mexican Chicken Pozole

While this was a good offering, it wasn't nearly as good as any of the other soups I have tried before. I really wanted to like this more, but it just didn't jump out at me. The soup base is a chicken stock, and the hominy provides a wonderful bite and nutty taste. It contains shredded chicken, onions, celery, and chopped green chilis. The soup overall seems to lack the sourness and acidity from lime. I'm not saying the soup needs to pucker my mouth with sourness, but one of the key ingredients from what I recall from Xoco was a nice tartness and freshness from the lime. In the end, this soup sort of fell flat in that department. The chilis also didn't add much heat of any sort to the dish. I'm not sure if they were supposed to or not, but they seemed to just be there. In the end the pozole was still a good, warming soup, but I probably won't get it again.