Soo…on a scale of one to ten, how mad are you about me posting a stew recipe in the 100 degree August heat?
I know this is a sin in some of your homes. Spring and summer are the months where your soup pots get put away, you put your right hand on the Bible, and you solemnly swear not to eat any comfort food until September at the earliest. If that’s you, can we still be friends? Can you pop over to this post about stuffed grilled peaches or refreshing watermelon beverages and pretend I only deliver appropriately summery recipes to you? Thanks for being breezy – love you.
As for the summer traitors that can’t restrict eating soups and stews to the cool months of the year (👋), let’s chat. I am one of you. Especially when mid August rolls around, and I can smell the Bath and Body Works across town break out their fall candles shamelessly (I may or may not have taken a stroll through their store the other day, smelling every fall candle in sight before deciding I need to wait until at least September). The fall-loving part of my brain is getting ready and excited, people. I’m not super ready to say goodbye to warm weather, but I am definitely ready to say hello to my fall food – soups, stews, chilis, casseroles, and – we can’t forget – pumpkin errythang.
The good thing about this stew is that, though it is a hot bowl of comforting, non-summer food, it doesn’t sit and simmer over your stove for an hour, forcing you to raise your body temperature ten degrees in your already hot house while you sit there and stir.
This is not that. This is just you throwing everything into the Instant Pot, saying “peace out,” and walking away to go browse the fall candle sales on Bath and Body Works’ website do something super summery and normal until it beeps, telling you that delicious Mexican stew is ready to consume.
So, in my mind, that makes this a compromise. It doesn’t make your house hot, it doesn’t make you hot, it doesn’t feel like you are betraying the summer season by simmering a hot pot of soup in your kitchen as your afternoon passes by.
Also, even if it totally did betray everything that we love about summer, the taste makes it totes worth it, people. I’m telling you, this stuff is awesome. The chicken is tender and juicy, the broth is slightly thick and luxurious thanks to the masa flour, and the chunks of hominy that make their way into each bite are complex, hearty, and so deliciously flavorful.
The only thing that can make it better is a big dollop of sour cream + some crushed tortilla chips in each delicious bowl. The sour cream brings a creamy brightness to the soup, and the tortilla chips add extra flavor and texture. It’s a bowl of happy, if you want a perfectly accurate description.
Let’s talk details here for a minute. What actually goes into this stew?
- Chicken
- Hominy
- Rotel
- Canned green chilis
- Chicken broth
- Masa flour
- Some Mexican seasonings and spices
That all cooks together for 5 minutes at high pressure + a 5 minute natural release, you pop that lid off, pull your chicken out, dice it, stealing several chunks for yourself throughout the process, and throw it back into the pot. Stir in some cheese, season to taste with salt and pepper, and get eating!
I want to address a few potentially strange and new ingredients here. One being hominy and the other being masa flour. Hominy is weird to explain…rather than use a bunch of words I don’t fully understand, I’ll give you the highly generalized explanation. It’s dried corn that is soaked in some stuff to soften the outer hull, rinsed off, and canned. Sound good? BUT IT ISSSS. It’s one of my all time favorite ingredients to use when I’m cooking Mexican food. It has such a cool texture, almost like a bean with more of a hearty bite to it, and it has flavor reminiscent to a corn tortilla – SO good. I know, it all sounds weird, but have trust. The masa flour is easier. It’s just flour made from finely ground dried corn, we use it as a thickener here, and it adds BOSS flavor + amazing texture.
So close your eyes, use these weird ingredients that you may have never used before, and make this soup. Except maybe don’t actually do it with your eyes closed…though that does sound like an interesting challenge 🤔. Anyway – the soup – it’s easy, it’s delicious, it’s complex in flavor and texture, it’s hearty, it’s filling, it’s 100 other adjectives that I could come up with, but I’ll stop now.
Just make it and see for yourself 💃🏻.
Instant Pot Mexican Chicken Stew
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 7 servings 1x
Ingredients
- About 1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts
- 25 oz can hominy, drained
- 10 oz can rotel tomatoes (I use the original flavor), not drained
- 4.5 oz can diced green chilis, not drained
- 1 32 oz box chicken broth
- 1/3 cup masa flour
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup Mexican blend shredded cheese
- Sour cream, tortilla chips, and cilantro for optional toppings
Instructions
- Add your drained hominy, rotel, green chilis, chicken broth and seasonings (chili powder, paprika cumin, and salt) to your Instant Pot. To this, add your masa flour and whisk well until it is totally combined. Add your chicken breasts
- Seal the lid of your Instant Pot and cook on manual high pressure for 5 minutes. Allow a 5 minute natural release and quick release the remaining pressure
- Remove your chicken breasts and dice into small, bite-sized pieces. Add the chicken back to the stew
- Stir in your cheese until it is melted and combined into the soup. Season to taste with salt and pepper
- Top each bowl with sour cream, crushed tortilla chips, and chopped cilantro
Notes
Sometimes, I can only find a giant can of hominy at my grocery store. If that’s your situation, I’d still get it and then just use about 3 cups of the hominy (drained). You can skip the hominy or you can substitute chickpeas or black beans, BUT the hominy is basically my favorite part of this whole thing, so use it if you can!
Some of these ingredients can be a little hard to locate in the grocery store. The Mexican section is always a good place to start for some of it. At my grocery store, the masa flour is in the baking section with the normal flour and cornmeal, and the hominy is in the canned veggie section.
Total recipe time does not account for the time it takes the Instant Pot to come to pressure, since that can vary per person.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 263
- Sugar: 3 g
- Sodium: 681 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Carbohydrates: 18 g
- Fiber: 3 g
- Protein: 30 g
- Cholesterol: 88 mg
If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and hashtag #thegarlicdiaries!
In the mood for more yummy Mexican recipes? Check these out:
Pork Shoulder and Roasted Tomatillo Stew
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