INGREDIENTS

  • 1 lb. husked stemmed, and rinsed tomatillos
  • 2-3 fresh jalapenos
  • 4 large cloves roughly chopped garlic
  • 4 cups of cooked and coarsely chopped chicken
  • 1 ½ tablespoon of olive oil
  • 3 ½ cups of chicken stock
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • 2/3 cups of fresh cilantro

Pork Filling

  • 4 cloves of minced garlic
  • ¼ teaspoon of ground cumin
  • 4 tomatillos
  • 16 medium dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded, and torn in rough pieces
  • 1 ½ lb. lean and boneless pork cut into ½ inch cubes

Salt

  • ½ teaspoon of ground black pepper

Batter

  • 2 ½ cups of melted pork lard
  • 1 teaspoon of salt
  • 7 cups of masa harina
  • 1 ½ teaspoon of baking powder
  • 16oz of a package of dried corn husks
  • 2 ½ cups of chicken broth

DIRECTIONS

Preparing Husks

  1. Take a large bowl and place the husks. Fill it with warm water and weight it with heavy pots. Allow it to soak the water for two hours.
  2. Preparing the Chicken Filling Put the jalapenos and the tomatillos in a medium-sized saucepan and with water. Bring the water to boil. Put in the vegetables and simmer it for 20 minutes. Take a blender; add the cooked vegetables and garlic. Blend it till it forms a smooth puree. Take a large skillet. Put oil and heat it up at medium flame. Add the puree and keep stirring to form a thick consistency. Add two cups of stock and let it cook over the flame until it is for 15 minutes. Now, Season it with salt and pepper. Stir cilantro and chicken and remove it from heat. 

Preparing Pork Filling

  1. Add pepper and tomatillos to a saucepan. Put water and bring it to boil. If required, add tomatillos, peppers, black pepper, garlic, cumin to the blender and puree it. Strain the mix and keep it in a saucepan.
  2. Now, add the meat, salt to taste, along with 3 cups of water. Cook it over medium heat till the pork is tender and the liquid has the consistency of thick sauce. Break the pork in small pieces.

Preparing Dough

  1. Take a large pan and add baking powder, wet masa, salt and mix with your hand. Pour the melted lard and keep mixing. Add the broth gradually. Keep mixing till it appears like cake batter.

Forming Tamales

  1. Rip the corn husk in string size pieces and pat this off. Flatten out the husk and take ¼ cup of the batter. In the wider portion, spread the batter. Leave around ½ inch of space on each side of the husk. Take the chicken mix and spread it in the middle. Fold the right third husk and fold the left side. Now, fold the bottom. Keep repeating this with chicken and pork, alternatively. Place it on a large baking sheet.

Steaming Tamales

  1. Take the unused corn husk and place it on each layer of the steamer. Place these on top of the tamales. Add water and allow it to steam on medium heat for 1 ¼ hour. The tamales will are done as husks come off from masa. Allow it to stand for at least ½ hour.

NOTES

When you are making the pork tamale make sure that you tie it with a string.