How to cook tamales in two hours

We offer two recipes for your Christmas Eve dinner: pork tamales with red chili or chicken in green salsa

Christmas Eve dinner is synonymous with family, toasts, … gifts and tamales.

This original pre-Hispanic dish from Mexico cannot be missed at the banquet table, regardless of whether there are other options like smoked turkey, a ham leg or a brisket . Making tamales is not easy, so here we give you recommendations for making tamales at home as easy as possible and in about two hours.

Ingredients for the dough (30 tamales)

• 3 pounds corn dough for tortillas or nixtamal
• 1/2 pound of lard
• 1 tablespoon of sea salt
• 1 cup of pork broth
• 2 packages of whole maize leaves

Stuffing of pork stew

• 3 pounds of pork leg meat
• 2 Ancho peppers (eliminates its veins to make it spicy)
• 6 Dry red peppers (optional for color and spicy increase)
• 2 Red tomatoes
• 3 large cloves of garlic
• 1/2 piece of onion
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground cumin
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 clove (or pinch ground)
• Sal

Preparation

Add the broth to the dough or nixtamal and season with salt.
Knead the butter until it takes a bright white color. Add to the dough to obtain a uniform mixture.
Cook pork for 1/2 hours with enough water
Blend the tomatoes with the chilies
Sauté the onion and garlic and add to the chilies mixture
Shred the meat and mix with the chilies mixture
Drain a cup of the stew juice and leave on the heat for 1/2 hour or until pasty consistency.
Spread a little dough on each sheet evenly.
Fill with a large spoonful of meat stew mixture.
Fold the leaf and seal with a tie of a band-aid of the split eyelets.
Cook in the steamer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Chicken filling in green sauce

• 1 cup chopped green tomatoes
• 2 serrano peppers
• 1/2 white onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 sprig of cilantro
• 3 pounds cooked and shredded chicken breast

Preparation

Cook in water the tomatoes along with the chilies, onion and garlic. Drain and blend the cilantro.
Add the shredded chicken
Add one cup of leftover chicken stock
Cook until mixture has pasty consistency
Spread a little dough on each sheet evenly.
Fill with a large spoonful of chicken stew mixture.
Fold the leaf and seal with a tie of a band-aid of the split eyelets.
Cook in the steamer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.