Making tamales can seem a bit daunting if you’ve never made them before, but it’s one of those things that just seems to get easier and easier each time you make them. Really the only part that is a pain in the ass is finding enough sections of banana leaves (if you’re using banana leaves, which I do because I like the taste they give) that aren’t ripped or torn, and filling each one. But you guys, they are SO good, it’s worth it. Plus if you have friends or family in the kitchen chatting with you, you won’t even notice what you’re doing, it just becomes sort of methodical.

Really the most important part to get right is the batter, then you can basically fill them with anything you want, but I’ve made a couple of filling suggestions below!

Ingredients for the Batter

10 oz. pork lard (manteca), this may be hard to find depending on where you live, in that case vegetable shortening will work

4 cups ground masa mixed with 2 1/4 cups of hot water

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

2-4 packages of frozen banana leaves, defrosted

Kitchen string

2-3 cups of tequila, for you, to sip. May I suggest Herradura Tequila Añejo, that’s a good one for sipping.

Ingredients for a Chicken Mole Filling

Check out the mole poblano recipe I posted, I made tamales with this and they were AMAZING.

Ingredients for a Pork Filling

1 1/2 pounds lean boneless pork shoulder cut into cubes (1 inch)

16 large dried guajillo chiles, stemmed, seeded and torn into pieces

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon cumin

Salt

Directions for Filling

1. Prepare the filling first, you can even make this a day or two in advance to save some time.
2. If you are making the pork filling, add the chile pieces, garlic, pepper, cumin and 2 1/2 cups of water to a blender and blend to a smooth puree.
3. Strain the chile mix through a mesh strainer into a medium-sized saucepan.
4. Add the pork, 3 cups water, and a dash of salt.
5. Simmer uncovered over medium for about an hour, until pork is tender and liquid has been reduced to a thick sauce.
6. Break pork into small pieces and let cool.

Directions for Batter

1. Beat the lard, 2 teaspoons of salt, and the baking powder with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for about 1 minute.
2. Keep beating as you add the masa a little bit at a time.
3. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and add 1 cup of  broth. Beat this for about another minute or so. If done correctly, a little dollop of the batter should float in a cup of cold water.
4. Beat in a little more broth bit-by-bit until the mixture is like the consistency of a soft cake batter…but not runny, it should hold it’s shape in a spoon.
5. Might want to add a little salt here, have a little taste of the batter to check it out and add as needed.

Assembly Directions

1. Alright, here comes the worst part. If you have any tequila left in your sipping glass right now, just drink the whole thing and pour yourself another glass. This will help prepare you for the turmoil that is about to come.
2. Ok, unfold the thawed banana leaves very carefully.
3. Cut off the side of the leaves that are kind of hard and rubbery, but keep in mind you will want your leaves to be about 12″ x 12″. This isn’t always possible with the state of the leaves which are often all ripped in places, but anything 7″-12″ should be fine. Personally I like little tamales because then I can eat more of them and justify my slobbyness because they are “small”.
4. So going along with what I say above, cut the leaves into as close to 12″ x 12″ pieces as you can get. You don’t want to use any pieces with rips because then the filling will ooze out in the steaming process. You’ll need about 20, I think it took me about 3 packages to get 20 nice rip-free pieces so that is why I suggested buying up to four packages.
5. Steam all the leaves for 20 minutes so that they are soft and easy to work with. PS – I actually got a tamale steamer, which is ideal because it’s this big huge pot that easily allows you to steam this many tamales at one time. You don’t want to stack the tamales more than 2 high or they won’t cook right/evenly. I have one like this tamale steamer, which I got at El Burrito Mercado in St. Paul for like $20.
6. Cut all your string – 20 pieces that are about 12″ in length.
7. Lay out a banana leaf section, shiny side up, and spread about 1/3 cup of the batter into a rectangle.
8. Add a couple spoonfuls of the filling on just one half of the batter, like this:
9. Fold over the side of the right side of the leaf so that the side of the batter with no filling encloses the side with the filling, fold over the left side over that, then fold in the top and bottom.
10. Secure with the string and place in the steamer. Repeat 19 times.
11. TIP: Line the steamer rack with little scraps of banana leaves to protect the tamales from too much direct steam, but make sure there are holes open in between. Also, when all the tamales are in there, cover the top of them with more leaf scraps.
12. Steam the tamales for about an hour and 20 minutes over medium heat. It’s hard to tell if your water boils away so halfway through why not just add some more boiling water in there just in case (just pour in-between tamales to the bottom).

Congrats, you are done! Make sure to secretly save a few for yourself because these go FAST. Or if you are like me you will eat a couple in secret when no one is looking and then when you sit down to actually eat you pretend that you have not had any yet and you slob-it-out once again. Scandalous.