Chicken Tamales

On Thanksgiving day, my sister and I decided to spend the afternoon making tamales.  Now, I don't know about you, but the thought of spending even more time on Thanksgiving cooking was not all that appealing to me.  I decided to go ahead and make the filling in advance and prepare the masa just before our tamale party began.  I found this recipe online and it was a winner.  Everyone in the family enjoyed them without complaint.

Printable Recipe

Ingredients
1 (8 ounce) packages dried corn husks

Filling:
1 lb tomatillo, husked and rinsed ( 10-12 medium)
2-3 fresh green chili pepper, stemmed and seeded (Anaheim, Serrano, or jalapeños - choose your heat level)
4 large garlic cloves, peeled
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chicken broth
4 cups cooked chicken, shredded
⅔ cup roughly chopped fresh cilantro
2 tsp. salt

Batter:
10 oz lard (or vegetable shortening)
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
3 ½ cups dried masa harina for tamales
2 ¼ cups hot water
1  to 1 ½ cup chicken broth
2 ½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. chili powder


Directions

Cover corn husks with very hot water, weight with a plate to keep them submerged, and let stand for a couple of hours until the husks are pliable.

Filling:

On a baking sheet, roast the tomatillos about 4 inches below a very hot broiler until soft and blackened in spots, about 5 minutes; flip them over and roast the other side. Cool and transfer to a food processor or blender. Add the chiles and garlic and process to a smooth puree. Heat the oil in a medium-size saucepan over medium high. When quite hot, add the puree all at once and stir until noticeably thicker and darker, about 5 minutes. (You may wish to cover the pot with a splatter screen) Add 2 cups of the broth and simmer over medium-high heat until thick enough to coat a spoon quite heavily, at least 10 minutes.  Taste and season with salt, usually about 2 teaspoons. Stir in the chicken and cilantro; cool completely.

Batter:

With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat the lard or shortening with salt, chili powder, and the baking powder until light in texture, about 1 minute. Continue beating as you add the masa and water in three additions. Reduce the speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of the remaining broth. Continue beating for another minute or so. Beat in enough of the remaining ½ cup of broth to give the mixture the consistency of soft (not runny) cake batter; it should hold its shape in a spoon. Taste the batter and season with additional salt if needed.

Assembly:

To assemble each tamale, spread 2 Tbsps. of the batter on the center of the corn husk.  Place about 1 Tbsp. meat mixture in the middle of the batter.  Pick up the two long sides of the cornhusk and bring them together (this will cause the batter to surround the filling).  Fold up the empty 1 ½-inch section of the husk  and secure it in place by loosely tying one of the strings or strips of husk around the tamale. Note: I used Alton Brown's suggestion to bundle the tamales in groups of three and tie with kitchen twine vs tying each one.

As they’re made, stand the tamales on their folded bottoms in the prepared steamer. Don’t tie the tamales too tightly or pack them too closely in the steamer. They need room to expand.Add water to steamer pot just below the basket.  Bring water to boil and reduce heat to low.  Cover and steam until the dough is firm and pulls away easily from the husk, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.