How to Make Authentic Tamales

A plate of tamales.

Tamales are amazing food. The taste, the texture, the aroma, and most of all, the nutrition, make the tamale one of the heartiest, healthiest, cheapest foods one can make. I've taken it upon myself to write this guide because literally EVERY English language recipe I have seen thus far has been completely non-authentic and sub-standard. Most Spanish-language recipes will also assume a certain level of knowledge of Mexican cuisine, so it's my aim to provide a recipe that is authentic yet can be easily made from commonly available ingredients. I have experience with tamales made by Mexican Americans as well as native Mexicans, and this recipe is a culmination of about a dozen different recipes I've picked up over the years. Note: Read the whole guide before starting. I'm not going to include quantities in the "things you'll need" section because this recipe can and should be scaled up.

Things You'll Need

• Masa dough or dried masa flour
• Corn oil
• Garlic powder
• Salt
• Meat
• Chile sauce, bottled or canned
• A large food steamer
• A large pot

Instructions

1. First, gather all your materials. A proper steamer is the centerpiece of your tamale making gear. Since each batch of assembled tamales takes about two hours to cook, it'd be best to have a steamer of very large capacity. Tamale steamers are usually available at department stores, but if you can't find one in your area, you can improvise using a gigantic pot. I personally use a huge kettle with a broiler rack atop an inverted deep fryer basket. I can put four or five inches of water in the bottom. This setup can cook about 30-40 tamales at a time. Other equipment you'll need consists of general kitchen gadgetry like measuring cups and spoons. We're going to assume we're making a batch of about 3 dozen.

2. The great thing about tamales is that you can literally put any sort of meat you want inside them. Some common meats are pork, chicken, and beef. Tamales are also made from turkey, which is great around Thanksgiving when everyone has about 30 pounds of left over turkey.

   Time to cook your meat. For our batch, three pounds of meat will suffice. Boil the meat in a large pot for about two hours until it's tender. You want the meat come apart extremely easily and/or fall off the bone. After the meat is completely cooked, let it cool then pick it apart by hand in a large bowl. Be extra careful and make sure to remove any fat or bones. NOTE: SAVE THE BROTH! I'll come in handy later when we're making the dough. Keep it warm if possible.

   To the bowl of shredded meat you'll add the chile sauce. Most Mexicans will make their tamale sauce from scratch, but there are several canned or bottled sauces that will work wonderfully. Go to a Mexican supermarket and ask for "salsa taquera" (thats SAL-sa ta-KER-a), or look for an equivalent sauce at your local supermarket. DO NOT USE CHUNKY SALSA! That's for garnishes and dips. The ideal sauce is completely pureed and contains tomato, onion, chile peppers, and garlic. When adding the sauce, add about 1/2 cup at a time. You want to add enough sauce so the meat is moist, usually about 2 cups for 3 lbs. of meat.

3. While your meat is cooking, it's a good idea to soak your corn husks to make them nice and pliable. Corn husks usually come in a bag of about 100 and they're available almost everywhere. For this batch, I'd recommend soaking about a third to a half of the bag. It's better to have too many than too little, because you're likely going to have a little extra meat and dough. Any leftovers can be re-dried and saved. Soak your corn husks in your sink in hot water. They're usually bunched together in the bag. Put them in the water for about 20 minutes then carefully separate them, then leave them in the water for about an hour more. Move them around occasionally and re-heat the water as necessary.

4. You've got your meat cooked and sauced, your corn husks are ready to rock, so now it's time to make the dough. Measure out about two pounds Maseca or equivalent corn dough flour. NOTE: NOT CORNMEAL. Add about a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of garlic powder; mix well. Then add two cups corn oil. (Note: a lot of people have told me that lard is the fat of choice when making tamale dough. While it's not my place to disagree with native tamale cooks, I must caution that lard is horrible for you.) Mix in oil, then add 2 quarts of the broth that you saved from the meat-cooking step. Add it in eight one-cup increments to control the consistency of your dough. (It probably won't need the full two quarts.) Add liquid until the dough is spreadable, approximately the consistency of peanut-butter. You will probably have to add small amounts of hot water during the tamale-making process to re-moisturize the dough.

5. Time to make the tamales! First, you'll have to separate your corn husks and figure out which ones are viable. Look for the ones that are 5"-6" wide. The narrower ones can be used, sometimes they can be doubled up. Tamale making is an art, and an imprecise one at that, so just eyeball it! Spread a layer of dough on 2/3 of the corn husk, going right up to the edge of the wide end. Leave the narrow end free of dough as well. Add a spoonful of meat to the middle and roll the tamale up like a newspaper so you have a continuous envelope of dough around the meat. Fold the narrow end over and place the tamale in the steamer. Repeat ad infinitum until you run out of corn husks, dough, or meat.

6. Cook the tamales! Steam them for about two hours, making sure the water in your steamer never goes dry. After two hours, remove a tamale and eat it; make sure the dough is cooked completely and slides easily off of the corn husk wrapper. Congratulations! You have successfully prepared a batch of delicious, nutritious tamales.

Tips & Warnings

• Experiment with different meats and sauces. If you live in an area with a large Hispanic population, there will literally be dozens of sauces at your disposal.

• When cooking the tamales, be very careful lifting the lid on the steamer. Steam can burn you quite badly.