Tamales - July's Goal

As July approached I didn't have an idea for my goal for the month. I thought I'd figure it out at some point. I still have a few ideas up my sleeve, but I hadn't settled on anything. While at church my good friend, Jenn, invited me over to learn to make something. She was wanting to learn to make pasta and tamales. Since I've already made pasta, I picked tamales.

We live in an area where there are lots of hispanic people. I know you wouldn't think Idaho would have a large hispanic population, but because of the farming we do. And because of this it never occurred to me to learn to make tamales. I just buy them from the lady down the street. But tamale making did sound like a fun thing to learn.

So we each brought part of the recipe. A friend's dad gave me a recipe for beef or pork tamales, but since we wanted to make chicken, I just used his recipe for masa dough. Jenn got a recipe for chicken filling. She used Alton Brown's recipe. As we prepared for making them, we discovered tamale making isn't a quick thing. You have to spend some time cooking the meat and then steaming the tamales takes time.

We prepped before we got together. I soaked the corn husks, and she cooked the chicken. So I don't have pictures of either of these things. But I will explain how to do both of these.

Chicken Tamales

2 dozen corn husks

For the meat filling:

2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly toasted and ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 1/4 pounds chicken (you can use whatever pieces you would like, we used thighs)
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 serrano chile, seeded and finely minced

Masa Dough

4 cups instant corn masa (maseca), you can exchange 1 cup of maseca with 1 cup of rice flour, it makes it fluffy,
2 cups lard (lard makes it taste better and its traditional), you can use Crisco shortening
5 cups chicken fresh broth or packaged, make sure it is unsalted (I used the reserved liquid from cooking the chicken and added more to make up the difference. I only had salted so I did not add the tablespoon of salt
1/3 cup baking powder,
1 tablespoon of sea salt or fine salt,
1 tablespoon of cumin


In a 6 quart pot, add chili powder, cumin, cayenne pepper, oregano, salt, pepper and chicken. Add enough water to cover the meat. Turn up to high and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer until chicken is tender and falling off the bone, approx 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Remove meat from pot and keep water for later for chicken and masa dough. Once chicken has cooled enough to handle, pull the meat off and shred. In a 4 quart pot, add oil. Once hot, add onion. Saute until semi-transulcent. Add garlic, chili and cook for another minute. Add the meat and 1/2 cup of the reserved liquid. Cook until liquid has evaporated. Set aside.

While meat is cooking, place 2 dozen corn husks in a large bowl. Add enough water to cover. Place something heavy on top of the corn husks to hold them down. I used a plate and a bowl on top of it.
Soak for 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours until they are pliable.

While the meat is cooking and the corn husks are soaking, in a large bowl add instant corn masa, baking powder, salt (if adding), and cumin and mix. In your mixer, place 2 cups of lard (or shortening)and turn on high and mix until lard is fluffy looking. Add chicken broth to dry mixture and mix well. Add shortening and mix well. It will be very light.

Once everything is ready, take a corn husk and spread masa dough on it. Leave about 1/2 inch on each side. You want it to be about 1/4 inch thick.

 Then place about 1 - 2 Tbsp of meat filling down the center.

 Fold one side over and then the other. Then fold the bottom up. I had to tie the bottom with a strip of corn husk to hold it. And we tied the top but I think they may be good without. I am going to try to figure out how to not have to tie them. Place the finished tamale into a steamer basket standing up. Continue filling and folding the tamales until you run out.

 In the pot of your steamer add enough water so it's just barely to the bottom of the strainer part of the steamer. Turn the heat to medium high. Place the strainer basket into the pot and cover.

 Steam for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours. You will need to add water about every 30 - 45 minutes. After 1 1/2 hours, remove one tamale, allow to cool for 15 minutes, and check to see if it's cooked. If not, check again at 2 hours.

This recipe was a bit spicy for me. I would use a less hot pepper than the serrano or use 1/4 of it. The next time I make tamale, I am going to try pork. My friend's dad beef & pork recipe looked good. I will share it with you after I try it.

For a 

printable version

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