Real Homemade Tamales Recipe

Tamales are a Christmas tradition here and these are the real deal. I got raves on mine this year from our friends that we gave a dozen to. The chili's used here are very mild, so I use cascabel peppers. I always use 2 pork tenderloins to make mine. I poured all the chili sauce on the shredded meat, added about 1/2 tsp each of ground ancho chili powder and ground chipotle chili powder since it adds a smoked taste. Then let in stand for several hours before I made it into tamales. This is easier done the day ahead. I also add some ground ancho chili about 1/2 tsp. and 1/4 tsp ground chipotle chili to the masa. I use Maseca brand instant corn masa flour. I use almost all the broth and make the masa the consistency of thick cake frosting. I do have to make double the masa to use all my filling though. I don't measure the filling out, I just take some with my fingers and lay out a strip of filling down the center. It gives me 4 dozen tamales. We all agree these are even better the next day. They get spicier after reheating. I took some to work and everyone thought they came from the local (and favorite) tamale shop here. Took a bit of work, but was simple to do, and worth the time. Very easy to do, you just need a little time. If you are going to the trouble and effort you may as well make lots of tamales... I've done these with the lard and with crisco, the lard is better, so don't substitute. Delicioso! Muy Bueno!

Thank you, thank you to Joslyn H. for the thorough description of how to deal with the masa! Don't know what I would have done without you. Also, on another reviewers advice, I did double the recipe, but I would even triple it, keeping in mind this means you will need to blend the sauce in batches as to not overfill your food processor and making a little mess. Flavor is spot on. Worth mentioning I used dried guajillo chiles for my sauce, they are mild. Update 6/19/24: Quadruple the sauce and triple the meat. I cooked the meat for 3 hours and that was plenty. Getting better at wrapping the tamales, but they are better then next day texture wise. More garlic, a lot more in the meat. Here's how I make the sauce: 3oz dried guajillo, 2 tsp salt, 5 cups water

I would like to begin with the fact that I am a first time tamale maker and because of what I had in the house, I used this recipe as more of a guideline, but my dad and I really enjoyed the tamales, they had a great flavor and the one hour cooking time was perfect. I used a broccoli steamer in a pot and parchment paper to wrap them. I also added water several times to keep the bottom of the pot from burning, (do not pour the water on the tamales!) I used canned chicken and cooked it in a pot with onions and chilli powder and because I had corn meal on hand, I used a cup of that and subbed out 2 Tbsp for corn starch. This worked very well. I also subbed out some of the butter in the batter for broth, I beat the butter (almost melted) into the broth and then mixed in my dry and beat that too to fluff it up. It was tricky to spread, so I used my fingers. I put more than a Tbsp of meat in each and pressed the edges of together like a parchment-wrapped perigee.

This is a good solid STARTING recipe. The changes I suggest are using chile GUAJILLO. Place the meat, the onion, a HEAD of garlic, 2 tbsp salt per lb of meat, 2 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp cumin. cover by at least one inch of water. Cook overnight for best results, but until tender is fine. Take all the solids, cooled off a bit, blend and strain. it should be thick. shred meat, you should need no more seasonings, but check for salt. heat, add chile/ seasonings mix until slightly moist or 1/4 of the mix. Get your Masa, in a large bowl, strain the broth. while broth is still warm, Mix 4 c masa, 3 c broth, leftover chile mix, 1 cup of lard. pour leftover chile mix and 1 cup broth, mix add broth to masa 1 cup at a time. when you can poke it and make a dent, add 3/4 cup of lard , and mix until slightly spongy. take a piece of dough, press it to the back of your hand. if any masa sticks, you need more lard. add 1/4 cup, mix, try again, make sure you scrape the bottom often. it should be spreadable, if not, add more broth Take the husks, and soak them in hot water. at least 45 min. no more than 4 inches wide a the bottom, tear the bigger ones to desired size. save the small pieces. every husk has a smooth and a bumpy side. choose the slickest side. you can use a spatula or big metal spoon (takes practice) and spread the masa on until it covers the leaf OR cut a ziplock bag open. place under y

This recipe is really good, but I changed things up a little. So instead of using a Dutch Oven, I used a crock pot and cooked the meat overnight. Then after the chili’s boiled and cooled, I mixed the sauce with the meat (after I shredder it) and cooked in the crock pot for about 4 more hours, until the meat has cooked the sauce in and flavor is just right. Then I continued the recipe as is, but used Crisco Shortening instead of Lard. They still taste Great!

I like this recipe. I do change the preparation of the meat. I cook it in the oven. I prefer the roasted pork to the boiled. If there is still cooking liquid in the pan after the meat is done, I use it in the Mesa or I reduce it down and add it back to the meat. I also prop my tamales up so that they are standing when steaming. I simply lay my steam basket on it's side and stack the basket until it is full. If there isn't enough tamales to fill the basket (which I always make extra) you could fill the empty space with left over corn husks or something to keep your tamales from falling flat. If my tamales are not sitting up, the filling tends to flow out of the husk. I would not be afraid to season my pork with extra seasoning....I like my tamales with a lot of flavor. I also keep the pepper sauce on the side, not everyone likes it in the meat at my house.

Pork loin is too lean, use pork butt or pork picnic roast. Also add, cumin, oregano and chile powder, mild or hot or a mixture to the pulled pork. This gives the meat color and looks more appetizing than just old gray meat. Make a little gravy out of it by adding the pork cooking water to the spices and a very small amount of whatever flour you like. Mix and pour over meat then wrap in the corn meal.

It was easier than I first assumed, but I do have a few notes. For one, if you have a slow cooker, use it. The meat cooks within 2 hours on high, and it shreds easier than tissue. I used pork *tender* loin as well, which wasn't too expensive. (3-4 bucks for 1.27 lbs) I threw in some extra cloves of garlic (it's my favorite aromatic!) as well. Rather than prepping the peppers to go directly into the filling, I threw dried peppers in with the meat and water to infuse it, then threw them away. This was a smart move, as it was still very spicy, but not "ruin your mouth forever" spicy. We also added basically every spice in our cabinets, including chipotle grind, paprika, cumin, giner, curry, and more. Certainly added the punch it needed. After picking out the meat, I picked out the onions and garlic to be pulverized by a food processor, and threw the peppers away (if you like things super spicy, you could savage a few, remove the seeds, and throw them into the processor). Then we used the cooking liquid for the dough. You absolutely have to double or even triple the dough recipe if you want to use up all your meat. I over doubled it and we still had a little meat left over, and I was filling them generously. Don't worry if your dough doesn't pass the float test. Ours wouldn't float but still came out okay. It also had the texture of cookie dough or pie crusts, but balance masa and liquid so that the consistency works for you! Also I certainly suggest rolling them up like a cigar

I lived in NM for 30 years and make tamales every year. I always add garlic and dried oregano to both the meat (I always use pork shoulder or butt) and the chili sauce. I also use the pork cooking liquid in my masa mix and always lard. No need to the the corn husks. Just leave a 3" " tail" to fold up. If packed well, standing upright in the steamer, they will hold fine after steamed.

I loved this "easy" recipe......I say easy because it took me 3 days to finish haha!! DAY 1: Cooked the pork butt roast I was using for about 8 hrs. on LOW in the crock pot with seasonings & onion. DAY 2: Heated the crock pot on HIGH and once heated removed the meat and put in separated covered container to refrigerate over night. Leave remaining broth in crock pot on LOW. DAY 3: Season the broth in the crock pot. I used chili pods, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, cumin, a bit of chili pepper (Just all amounts to my taste) Set crock pot now on HIGH for a good couple hours---then pour the broth/brine from the crock pot in to a sauce pan. Return the pulled back to the crock pot and heat on HIGH add as much of the broth as desired to the pork. Other then the above I followed the masa dough recipe as directed, using my broth of course. But OHH Nooo---What do I do, I don't have that much needed steamer pot RIGHT?? Ladies...cough couch, let me tell you a little trick.....Take any tall stock pot you hopefully own and ball up tin-foil (around the size of a baseball ) and set in the bottom of a dry (tall) stock pot (you will need to make several of these balls depending size of your stock pot keeping in mind we only want the steam to be able to escape up through the different vents holes from the balls) , add water and put on your stove (I have a gas stove and had it on 4). Set your tamales standing up right with folded end sitting on the balls of tin foil.

My family loved this recipe, but I thought it was a bit bland. Next time I will be sure to spice it up with green chilies. I used beef instead of pork and cooked it in a crock pot on the low setting overnight. turned it off when I got up 5 hours later. That gave the meat time to rest before shredding it just before making the dough at noon. These take a lot of time to make, but well worth the effort if you plan for it. Husband is now demanding I make these at least once a week.

Instead of using crisco, I went to the supermercado, they suggested to use pork lard!! I also in stead of just water, I boiled the pork in berria! Game changer

Such a great idea — thank you!

Literally WOW 😱

OMG, so flavorful! 😋

i changed the pork to chicken a omg it is the best my girlfriend love it

I thought this was a horrible recipe. I made it as stated in the recipe and it was dry and tasteless.

I have made tamales for years and this is a basic method that you can customize

The flavor is amazing. I had to adjust and used canned chilies in adobo sauce because the dried chilies were not available. I think I had them too tight in the steamer because they weren’t getting done so I popped them into the oven for 10 minutes and that worked great. They will take practice but eventually it could get easy to make.

I grew up eating tamales during the holidays and this was my first time making them. First thing to note, if you're going to make the effort of making tamales double the recipe (tamales are a labor of love). Like many reviews suggested I would add extra seasoning next time around. Adding a coin at the bottom of the steamer was really helpful. Prepping the meat and sauce the day before also is really helpful to cut time. Lastly, I don't think sour cream is really needed here. Overall, the family thought the tamales were good.