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Home » Recipes » Mexican

Pork Tamales

Published: Apr 17, 2013

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Today is April 17 which means it's the one-year anniversary of my blog! Over the last 365 days, I have put together 178 posts, exploring all different cuisines and indulging in all kinds of sweets. This site first started as motivation for me to stay excited about my job and now it has grown into one of my passions. If I could, I would work on my blog all day and not work (if only!). To celebrate, I'm going all out and making pork tamales. Grab your corn husks and masa and make these immediately because they are too good to pass up!

pork tamales
tamales
tamales
tamales
Print Recipe

Pork Tamales

Yields 12-15 tamales
Total Time5 hrs
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
Keyword: pork
Servings: 6
Author: Cherry on My Sundae

Ingredients

Pork

  • 2 ½ pound pork shoulder
  • 7 dried Guajilo chiles
  • 2-3 cups hot water
  • 2 garlic peeled
  • 2 teaspoon oregano
  • ½ teaspoon cumin
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • corn husks

Masa

  • ¾ lb lard or ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 2 lb masa mix specifically for tamales
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ cup - 1 cup water or chicken broth

Salsa verde

  • 4 pasilla peppers
  • 1 jalapeno
  • ½ small onion chopped
  • 1 small tomato chopped
  • 1 handful cilantro leaves
  • juice of 1 lime
  • salt and pepper

Remaining ingredients

  • 8 oz Mexican cheese blend

Instructions

  • Make the marinade for the pork. Cut the stems off the dried chilies and shake out as many seeds as you can. Soak in 2-3 cups hot water and keep weight on top, such as a bowl, to keep the chiles submerged. Let sit for 30 minutes.
  • Blend the rehydrated chiles with ¾ cup of the soaking water, garlic, oregano, cumin, and salt until smooth. Pour the marinade onto the pork and marinate for at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours.
  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
  • Place the pork with the marinade in a baking dish and cover with foil. Roast for 3 hours or until fork-tender. The pork should be tender enough that it can easily be separated with a fork. Shred the pork and let it sit in the liquid. Set aside until ready to use.
  • Soak the corn husks in warm water for at least 30 minutes and up to overnight. Keep weight on top of the husks to keep them submerged in the liquid. Drain the liquid from the husks and set aside.
  • Prepare the masa. Whip the lard on low speed until fluffy. Add the masa mix, baking powder, and salt and mix together. Slowly add the water or broth as needed. Your masa is ready when a small piece of the dough can float in a glass of water. If you are using vegetable oil, mix the masa mix with the oil, baking powder, and salt until incorporated. Slowly add the water or broth as needed. Set aside.
  • Make the salsa verde by roasting the pasilla peppers and jalapeno in 400 degrees F for 15 minutes or until the skin begins to blacken. Remove from the oven, place the peppers in a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit for 10 minutes.
  • Peel the skin off the peppers and jalapeno, discarding the stems and seeds. Blend the peppers and jalapeno with the onion, tomato, cilantro, and lime juice. Blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
  • To assemble the tamales: get your steamer ready by boiling the water. Take a corn husk and spread about ¼ cup of the prepared masa on the bottom half of the husk. Spread it as evenly as you can but it does not have to be perfect. Pile on about ¼ cup shredded pork in the center of the masa followed by shredded cheese and salsa verde. Fold in the ends of the tamale towards the middle (lengthwise), wrapping the meat and cheese. Fold over the narrow end of the husk (the part with no masa on it), folding the tamale in half.
  • Use a corn husk that has a tear or hole and peel strands of the husk from the top to bottom. Use these strands to bind the tamales together, securing the folded ends. Continue assembling the remaining tamales.
  • Lay the tamales in the steamer either standing up, with the open side facing up, or shingling the tamales. Steam for 45 minutes - 1 hour. You can also steam the tamales in the oven by placing a wire rack in a baking dish. Place a casserole dish on top of the wire rack and place the tamales inside. Cover with foil. Pour hot water into the bottom of the baking dish and bake in the oven at 300 degrees for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
  • Remove the tamales from the steamer or oven and serve immediately with extra salsa on the side.

**Helpful tips and common mistakes

Pork tamales are a lot of work so if you're like me, take several days to prepare everything. On the first day, marinate the pork. I purchased a bone-in pork shoulder but you can also cook one without the bone.

The next day cook your pork. While your pork is roasting, make the masa. Now I had to do a lot of research for the masa. I've always used already prepared masa so this is a new step for me. I first purchased maseca but I realized that you have to use maseca that is purposely for tamales; mine was not. Therefore, I switched to El Burrito Masa that clearly stated that it's for tamales (written on the back). Keep in mind that this masa is still not ready to use!

mise en place

To finish the steps for the masa, you must incorporate a fat such as lard or oil. I've also seen masa made with shortening. Lard is the best option since it flavors the masa in a way that oil cannot, but I used oil to be healthier. Once the ingredients are beaten together, the masa is ready to use. You can refrigerate until ready to use. Masa also freezes quite well if you want to make a large batch and save the rest for next time.

If making the tamales the next day, you can also choose to soak the husks overnight. Soaking the husks allows them to soften and prevents them from tearing when assembling the tamales.

salsa mise en place

You can also make the salsa the day before so that all you have to do on the day is assemble the tamales. To make the tamales, spread the prepared masa on the bottom portion of the husk, about halfway down. Be gentle with the husks because they do rip easily. Pile the pork, salsa, and shredded cheese on top of the masa, leaving a border around the filling. Fold in the left and right ends to cover the filling and then in half to tuck in the loose wrap.

assembling the tamales

To keep the tamales intact while they are steaming, wrap them with a thin strip of an extra corn husk. Place the tamales in the steamer and steam for about 1 hour. You can tell when your tamales are ready when they feel firm and peel easily off of the husk. You can always open one to check if they are ready.

tamales

Tamales are usually on the dry side but these were far from it! The pork had so much flavor and the juices from the pork combined with the salsa and the cheese prevented the tamale from being dry. Absolutely delicious! Three days of work is well rewarded with these pork tamales; you can even store leftovers in the freezer and enjoy them later in the week!

tamales

For more Mexican food inspiration check out these short rib enchiladas roja!


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Reader Interactions

Comments

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  1. Eunice

    April 18, 2013 at 6:01 am

    pizza... because it has cheese and bread and meat and is deliiiiiicious!

    Reply
  2. Karen @ The Food Charlatan

    April 18, 2013 at 4:31 pm

    Congrats on your one year anniversary! Very exciting! My favorite dish is Chicken Cordon Bleu...but maybe I will change it to these tamales. They look fab. Great blog!

    Reply
  3. Khemara

    April 19, 2013 at 11:44 pm

    My favorite dish is probably my mom's curry. Spicy and comforting and so complex!

    Reply
  4. rachel

    April 22, 2013 at 1:13 pm

    The yellow birthday cake with homemade chocolate frosting that my mom makes. Delicious, sweet and brings back plenty of good memories!

    Reply
  5. Danielle D'Ambrosio

    April 23, 2013 at 11:58 pm

    Those tamales sound yummy! I love homemade pizza, which is sad because as a fellow food blogger I feel like you have to like something more upscale. But you can do a lot of cool things with pizza dough 🙂 Your pictures are beautiful by the way!

    Reply
  6. Anthony G.

    April 26, 2013 at 3:35 am

    Hmmm, would have to say hot wings. Something about that tangy hot sauce sauce when it mixes with the blue cheese creates just the right fusion of hot/cheesy goodness.

    Reply
  7. rachelm

    April 27, 2013 at 7:44 pm

    I love rice porridge (risengrynsgrøt) with a little sugar, nutmeg, and cinnamon. My parents always make it right before Christmas, and we have porridge on Christmas Eve morning, then add whipped cream to make riskrem, and add fruit (traditionally a raspberry sauce, but we use cherries) to eat for Christmas Eve. I like the homey porridge best, and used to eat it for days in college when I was short of money. 🙂

    Reply
  8. Heart On My Hem

    April 28, 2013 at 8:38 pm

    My favorite dish is PIZZA! Whether homemade or delivered, there's so many ways to change it up and make it your own 🙂

    Reply
  9. Kathy

    April 30, 2013 at 6:48 am

    My favorite dish is clams or mussels drenched in butter broth!

    Reply
  10. Andy Khwa

    April 30, 2013 at 6:49 am

    these look AMAZING! the last picture reminds me of Dim Sum, now it'd be interesting to integrate Asian cuisine into a tamale!

    Reply
  11. Jesse Liu

    April 30, 2013 at 6:57 am

    Beef/Chicken Teriyaki over rice. It reminds me of my childhood. With the right teriyaki sauce and meat I can eat it for days!!!

    Reply
  12. Jeffrey Hua

    April 30, 2013 at 7:05 am

    Looks delicious! Now I need to someone to make it for me! Any takers?

    Reply
  13. Richard Kim

    April 30, 2013 at 7:31 am

    Congrats on your 1 year anniversary! Wow, 178 posts! Many more to come! The tamales look amazing. I got excited and thought it was a tamale giveaway, but I guess a Target giftcard is cool too.

    My favorite dish is Dukbokki......because Dukbokki.

    Nom Nom!

    Reply
  14. David Diolata

    April 30, 2013 at 8:58 am

    My favorite food is chicken fettuccine alfredo. It has to do something with the cheese!

    Reply
  15. Phuong Nguyen

    April 30, 2013 at 8:47 pm

    Congratulations on the 1 year anniversary of your food blog! I love your mouth-watering posts and vivid pictures. Keep up the great work!

    As for my favorite dish, there's only one thing that goes perfect with everything...and that's PIZZA! A traditional hand-tossed always hits the spot.

    Reply
  16. Khanh Nguyen

    April 30, 2013 at 8:53 pm

    One of my favorite dish to make is clams cooked in beer or wine with chopped basil. Clams are so easy to cook and you can eat this dish by itself or add noodles and you have a complete meal within 30 minutes.

    Reply
  17. Kyle Liu

    April 30, 2013 at 9:17 pm

    My favorite dish is katsu-don because the combination of the pork cutlet with eggs and the sauce is delicious!

    Reply
  18. Peter Kim

    April 30, 2013 at 9:30 pm

    Favorite dish? I'd have to say anything with Basil in it, because I love the scent.

    Reply
  19. Alan Chang

    April 30, 2013 at 9:42 pm

    Favorite Dish: Nutella Cookies. Why? Come on. Nutella. Cookies. Only way I could imagine it getting better is if you could somehow infuse chunks of Bacon into them....

    Reply
  20. Kim S.

    April 30, 2013 at 10:13 pm

    Hey Christine, just in case you don't remember I was in your Korean classes at BU! 🙂 But I just discovered your blog today and have to say 1. it's amazing, everything looks so delicious I don't know what to try to replicate first! And 2. my favorite food is probably ddukbokki, but if I won I think I would rather have your tamales than the gift card... they look so delicious!!

    Reply
  21. Bear and Maverick

    May 01, 2013 at 12:15 am

    Kristal Lee

    My favorite dish has got to be the standard Korean "Golden Curry", with lots of chopped onions, potatoes and carrots thrown in. Reminds me of Lily preschool and our chef Mamma Dora.

    Reply
  22. Angie Poon

    May 01, 2013 at 2:42 am

    Congrats on your 1 year!!
    My favorite dish is Andres spaghetti because I never get tired of it! And my fave dessert is Flan because it's deliciously rich and creamy!!

    Reply
  23. Lindsey Woo

    May 01, 2013 at 4:20 pm

    I love your blog! Congrats and keep up the amazing work!

    My favorite dish is penne al arrabiata. I love the combination of the chewy al dente noodles and spicy tomato sauce, add some basil and I could eat this dish everyday!

    Lindsey Woo

    Reply
  24. Jonathan Lee

    May 01, 2013 at 4:48 pm

    I must have looked through most of your recipes haha...

    I think your Empanadas is my favorite dish at the moment because I'm craving it. lol

    Your website is awesome and your food mouth-watering.
    Keep it up!

    Tae

    Reply
  25. Brandon Khwa

    May 01, 2013 at 8:49 pm

    beginning to end, this post was so helpful with hints/tips & all. end product was delicious! thanks so much!

    Reply
  26. Anonymous

    May 01, 2013 at 11:17 pm

    Keep up the great work. love this blog because the recipes are easy to follow and look amazing. my favorite dish is unagi donburi because my mom would always make it for me and my sister on a rainy day. when I eat it now it brings me back to my childhood and makes me appreciate everything my mom has done for me. -Bryan Kimura

    Reply
  27. c024fcee-b2c0-11e2-8f12-000bcdcb8a73

    May 02, 2013 at 12:40 am

    Great recipes, great taste. I love this website!

    Reply
  28. Justin Young

    May 02, 2013 at 12:53 am

    I'm going to go with the scallop pot pie because I love creamy foods!

    Reply
  29. Anonymous

    May 03, 2013 at 5:02 am

    Pictures are amazing, directions are easy to follow, can't wait to try them all.
    -Yvonne L.

    Reply

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Hey there! My name is Christine and I'm a chef during the day and food blogger at night. Welcome to my world highlighting what's in season, sharing travel tidbits, and just living a simple life in the busy city of Los Angeles.

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