Stumped by Posole

Thursday night, Camri and I went to the opening of the Second City’s 94th revue, Between Barack and a Hard Place. Our friend Ithamar Enriquez is in the cast. During one of the improvised scenes, Ithamar got the suggestion of “Posole,” which kicked off a pretty funny song, and a couple of minutes of funny talk between Ithamar and Joe Canale. It’s funny because there’s no chance that Posole would have been the suggestion, except for on a opening night. Opening night audiences are typically more improv-savvy, so the suggestions aren’t the typical stuff. It was a funny scene.

It was doubly funny because Camri and I had been eating Posole all week, and had planned on writing this article. So, clearly, Posole is on everyone’s mind as of late. It’s a very popular stew in the Southwest US and Mexico that has it’s origins in pre-Columbian Mexico. Just like beef stew, or chili, there’s hundreds of variations in the recipe, but there’s a few typical bits that make it Posole: chunks of pork or chicken, hominy, and some sort of soup stock.

Our recipe went something like this, a pound of chicken, a cup of our homemade turkey stock, a can of hominy, a handful of chopped aromatic veggies, a can of diced tomatoes, and a small can of hot jalapeños. Throw it all in the crock pot on low for seven hours. Dish it up, add a slice of lime, and you’ve got a spicy stew that’s just exotic enough to make you feel like you’re on an adventure. Very good stuff.

For a more in depth history of the dish, check out the posole page on wikipedia.