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Mole Verde Chicken Tamal

When it's not the holidays, that's when I like to experiment with new tamal recipes! It was close to September 16th, Mexico's Independence Day and I had prepared some chile mole verde. Tamales it was! Sooo tasty!
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Resting Time For Masa 6 hours
Total Time 8 hours 30 minutes
Servings 30 Tamales

Equipment

  • Large Steamer Pot
  • deli sheets to wrap tamal optional

Ingredients

  • 40-50 corn husk
  • 4 cups corn flour masa harina(maseca for tamales)
  • 2 tsps baking powder
  • Salt to taste
  • 4 cups chicken broth at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups natural rendered pork Manteca, if possible melted, then let cool
  • Mole Verde with Shredded Chicken, see link
  • Red and Green Salsa of your choice
  • Mexican crema
  • toasted sesame seeds and pepitas optional

Instructions

Corn Husk

  • In a deep pot, add the corn husk. Pour in very hot water. Enough to cover them completely. If needed, you can weigh them down with a heavy bowl. Let them soak for at least one hour or more.

Masa

  • If using a stand mixer, add the dry ingredients to the bowl. Whisk to combine the masa harina with salt and baking powder. With the mixer on low, gradually mix in the cool chicken broth until masa forms. On low again, gradually mix in the cooled pork lard. Start by mixing in 1 cup first. As it comes together, turn speed up on the mixer and mix for 5-6 minutes. I confess that I always end up mixing in more lard, At least another 1/4 cup.
  • Very important that you taste for salt at this point. Nothing worse than bland masa. If you want to do the float test, drop a tiny ball of masa into a cup of cold water. If it floats, it's ready. Cover masa tightly and chill for at least 6 hours. Letting the masa rest will yield a more flavorful masa. If mixing by hand, this will take a little longer.

Assemble and Cook Tamales

  • When you are ready to assemble your tamales, prep your work station. Take the masa out of the refrigerator out and give it a good stir! Fill a medium bowl with some of the chilled meat filling. You don't want to have the large bowl of meat sitting out the whole time, so just take out little at a time. Pull some of the corn husks from the soaking water and shake off the excess water. Have a tray or baking sheet ready to place your filled tamales.
  • Take one corn husk and tear off one side until you have a husk that is about 4 1/2 inches wide in the middle. it should fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. Using a spoon, scoop about 3 tablespoons of masa onto the center of the corn husk. Apply some pressure as you press and spread the masa towards the sides of the husk. If it's easier for you to use a plastic masa spreader, than use that. I am comfortable with a spoon, lol! Lay the husk with masa slightly layered on the baking sheet or on the counter.
  • When ready, fill each tamal with roughly 3-4 tablespoons of meat filling. Don't be skimpy! Fold in the sides of the tamal so they overlap. if they don't overlap, you added too much filling. If you are using the deli sheets, place the tamal in the center and you can try to wrap it tightly like a small burrito. Just make sure you know which is the open end.
  • Once tamales are ready to be steamed, prepare the steamer pot. Fill to the line indicated in the pot. Some like to add a few pennies to the bottom. Coins will rattle when water begins to boil. If the coins don't rattle, that means you ran out of water and you don't want that. Add the steamer insert. Place a few extra softened corn husk on top of steamer insert.
  • Place the filled and wrapped tamales, open end up into steamer pot. Don't over fill the pot. You want them to fit comfortably. A trick I use sometimes to get my tamales to stand up straight is to place some extra corn husk around the inside of the pot. Sometimes I use foil paper. It's up to you.
  • Once pot is filled with tamales, add some corn husk to cover the tamales, then cover pot with the lid. Start with high heat until they begin to steam rapidly. Reduce the heat to right below medium, as long as it's steaming at a steady pace. Fill a medium pot with water and heat on low. Set your timer to 45 minutes. After 45 minutes, I carefully pour in more hot water to my steamer pot. Cover once again and continue steaming for another 45 minutes. When ready, carefully pull out one tamal and transfer to a plate. let it cool for 6-7 minutes before you open it. If the husk pulls away easily, the tamales are ready.

Notes

Here is a great tip for you to add more volume to your masa! Instead of mixing in the broth and lard when it's hot or warm, let them cool! I discovered this a while back. By adding and mixing in cool, the masa will be more fluffy in a short amount of time. Mom used to mix everything hot and she would spend a long time mixing that masa by hand until she felt it was ready. If your using the stand mixer, even faster, but on occasion, I still mix my masa by hand. It never fails me and it's always delicious!
Want to add more flavor to your masa? Combine about 10 cloves of fresh garlic to the pork manteca(lard) in a sauce pan. Heat on medium/low until garlic turns a light golden brown. Remove garlic cloves and let manteca cool before adding it to your masa recipe.