Instant Pot Chicken Posole Verde

From the roundup: 22 Instant Pot Soup Recipes for Easy Weeknight Dinners

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This instant pot chicken posole verde has become my cold-weather rotation staple, mostly because the Instant Pot handles the hard part while I’m helping with homework. Total time is about 65 minutes, but your actual hands-on work is closer to 20: broiling the tomatillos and poblano, blending the verde sauce, and dumping everything into the pot. After that, you walk away.

The verde sauce is what makes this worth making from scratch instead of opening a can of green salsa. Charring the tomatillos under the broiler first pulls out some of their bitterness and gives the broth a depth that a raw blend just doesn’t have. I learned this the first time I skipped the broil step because I was in a hurry, and the soup tasted sharp and a little flat. Five extra minutes under the broiler is worth it.

Serve it loaded with avocado, shredded cabbage, and lime wedges and let everyone build their own bowl. My kids who won’t touch cabbage just skip it. The hominy makes each bowl filling enough that we don’t need a side dish beyond warm corn tortillas.

Why you will love this

• The pressure cooker fully cooks bone-in-style flavor from chicken thighs in just 20 minutes on high, with a 15-minute natural release that keeps the broth from going cloudy.
• Hominy adds real chew and body, so the soup is genuinely filling without needing rice or noodles on the side.
• The verde sauce comes together in a blender in about 30 seconds, and you can make it up to 2 days ahead if you want a head start.
• Toppings are flexible: avocado, cabbage, crema, radishes. Kids can skip what they don’t want and the bowl still works.
• Leftovers reheat well the next day, and the broth actually tastes a little more settled after a night in the fridge.

Tips for success

• Don’t skip steaming the poblano after broiling. Cover it tightly for a full 10 minutes and the charred skin slips off cleanly. If you try to peel it early, you’ll be picking off bits of skin for five minutes.
• Check your Instant Pot’s max fill line before you put the lid on. With the broth, hominy, chicken, and verde sauce, this pot gets full. If it’s too close to the line, pull out a cup of broth and add it back after shredding.
• Use a natural pressure release for the full 15 minutes. If you quick-release right at 20 minutes, the chicken shreds fine but the broth can taste a little thin. The extra rest time lets the flavors settle.
• Taste the broth after you add the lime juice and before you serve. Tomatillos vary in tartness, so sometimes you need a pinch more salt, and sometimes you need a little more lime to make it pop.

If the broth tastes flat or too sharp

• Too sharp or acidic: add a small pinch of salt and stir. Salt rounds out tomatillo tartness better than you’d expect. A spoonful of crema stirred in also softens the edge.
• Too flat or thin-tasting: squeeze in more lime juice a little at a time, and check salt again. The broth needs both to come forward.
• Broth looks thin after pressure cooking: let it sit uncovered on the Saute setting for 5 minutes to concentrate slightly before serving.
• Chicken dried out: thighs are forgiving, but if yours shredded into very small pieces, stir them back in and serve quickly. They’ll drink up the broth and be fine.

Substitutions

Chicken thighs give the best texture here, but boneless chicken breasts work if that’s what you have. Reduce the pressure cook time to 15 minutes so they don’t go rubbery. For a vegetarian version, swap the chicken for a drained can of white beans and use vegetable broth. Skip the Saute step entirely and just blend the verde sauce, then pressure cook on high for 8 minutes with a quick release.

If you can’t find fresh tomatillos, one 28-ounce can of whole tomatillos works. Drain them, skip the broil, and blend them straight into the sauce. The flavor will be milder but still good. Anaheim peppers are a fine stand-in for poblano if your store doesn’t carry them, just know the heat level will be a little lower.

Make-ahead and storage

The verde sauce can be blended up to 2 days ahead and stored in a sealed jar in the refrigerator. When you’re ready to cook, pour it straight into the Instant Pot with the remaining ingredients. The whole soup, chicken shredded and everything, keeps in a covered container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat on the stovetop over medium-low with a splash of broth to loosen it, since the hominy absorbs liquid as it sits.

This posole freezes reasonably well for up to 3 months. Freeze it without the toppings and thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating. The hominy holds up fine, though the broth may need a stir and a taste for salt after thawing. Add fresh avocado, cabbage, and lime after reheating, not before freezing.

Brittany Stage

Instant Pot Chicken Posole Verde

A bright, tangy Mexican green soup made with charred tomatillos, roasted poblano, chicken thighs, and hominy, all pressure cooked together in the Instant Pot until the chicken is tender and the broth is deeply flavored. Serve it loaded with avocado, cabbage, and lime for a satisfying weeknight dinner.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 5 minutes mins

Servings: 6 servings

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Mexican

Calories: 390

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 1 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs trim any large pieces of fat
• 1 lb fresh tomatillos husks removed, rinsed and dried, about 8 to 10 medium
• 1 large poblano pepper whole, for broiling
• 1 medium white onion rough chopped, divided
• 5 cloves garlic peeled
• 1 cup fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems, loosely packed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp kosher salt plus more to taste
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
• 2 cans hominy 15 oz each, drained and rinsed
• 2 tbsp fresh lime juice from about 1 large lime, plus wedges for serving
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium avocado sliced, for serving
• 2 cups shredded green cabbage for serving
• 6 corn tortillas warmed, for serving
• 1/4 cup thinly sliced radishes optional, for serving
• 1/4 cup Mexican crema or sour cream optional, for serving

Equipment

• 6-quart or larger Instant Pot
• rimmed baking sheet
• blender or immersion blender
• tongs
• ladle

Method

 

1. Set your oven to broil on high and move a rack to the top position. Place the whole tomatillos and the whole poblano pepper on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle the tomatillos with the olive oil and toss to coat. Broil for 5 to 7 minutes, turning the poblano with tongs halfway through, until the tomatillos are soft and lightly charred in spots and the poblano skin is blistered and dark on most sides. The tomatillos will release some juice and look slightly collapsed, which is exactly what you want.
2. Transfer the poblano to a small bowl and cover it tightly with plastic wrap or a plate. Let it steam for 10 minutes, which makes the skin easy to peel. After resting, peel away and discard the charred skin, then pull out and discard the stem and seeds. Rough chop the peeled poblano flesh.
3. Add the broiled tomatillos and all their juices from the baking sheet to a blender. Add the chopped poblano, half of the chopped white onion, the garlic cloves, cilantro, cumin, salt, and black pepper. Blend on high for about 30 seconds until the sauce is smooth and bright green. Taste it at this point. It should be tangy and savory with a mild heat. Set the verde sauce aside.
4. Place the chicken thighs into the Instant Pot insert in a single layer as best you can. Pour the verde sauce over the chicken, then add the remaining half of the chopped onion, the drained hominy, and the chicken broth. Stir everything gently to combine. The liquid should come about halfway up the insert. Make sure you are not above the max fill line.
5. Secure the Instant Pot lid and set the valve to the sealing position. Select Pressure Cook or Manual on High pressure and set the time to 20 minutes. The pot will take about 10 minutes to come to full pressure before the timer starts. While the soup cooks, prep your toppings: slice the avocado, shred the cabbage, cut lime wedges, and warm the tortillas in a dry skillet or wrapped in a damp paper towel in the microwave.
6. When the 20 minutes are up, let the pressure release naturally for 15 minutes. You will see the float valve drop when it is fully depressurized. Then carefully turn the valve to venting to release any remaining steam before opening the lid. The broth will be a deep olive green and the chicken will look fully cooked through.
7. Use two forks or tongs to pull the chicken thighs out of the pot and onto a cutting board. Shred the meat into bite-sized pieces. It should pull apart easily with almost no effort. Return the shredded chicken to the pot and stir it into the broth. Add the lime juice, stir again, and taste the broth for salt. Add more salt or a little more lime juice if it needs brightening.
8. Ladle the posole into bowls and serve right away. Set out the sliced avocado, shredded cabbage, radishes, crema, and lime wedges so everyone can build their own bowl. Warm corn tortillas on the side are great for dipping or rolling up with the toppings.

Notes

If fresh tomatillos are hard to find at your store, look for them near the specialty produce or Latin foods section. They are usually in a mesh bag. The charring step under the broiler is worth the extra few minutes. It removes the sharp raw edge from the tomatillos and gives the green sauce a more rounded, slightly smoky flavor that makes the whole soup taste more complex.

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