Mexican Tamales Recipes

Published: 09/25/2009 - Updated: 02/04/2018

The tamales are one of the most popular Mexican food, they are usually eaten at breakfast or tea, and can be salty or sweet. The tamale is made with dough, there are many forms and styles to develop and has the advantage that you can fill almost any dish you like, can be very nutritious if you choose ingredients like vegetables, tofu, soy, spinach, etc.

Here we share 5 recipes to develop, the first is a recipe that you can serve to create the flavor you like or the ingredient that you like. The rest of the recipes already contain an ingredient, so you can practice.

Basic dough for tamales

Ingredients

  • 1 kg. of cornmeal
  • 1 tablespoon of baking powder (yeast)
  • 1 1 / 2 cups of lard (butter can be substituted for sweet tamales or even half and half)
  • 1 / 2 cup of vegetable or chicken broth (or cinnamon tea for sweet tamales
  • 10 tomato shells
  • 2 tablespoons of anise
  • Corn Leaves washed
  • Salt (or brown sugar to taste for sweet tamales)

Instructions

  1. We begin by making a tea with 2 cups water, tomato peel and anise, let it cook for 3-4 minutes, strain and reserve water.
  2. In a bowl put the cornmeal, salt and baking powder (yeast). The flour should be sifted before, this means passing it through a sieve, etc.. like salt and baking powder. If done twice is better.
  3. Put butter in the microwave until it is half melted and add to the mixture. Begin kneading gradually adding the chicken broth so as the reserved cooking water until a uniform texture. Just point to see if the dough is ready, put a ball of dough and if it floats in water without disintegrating, it is ready.
  4. A secret is that the dough is slightly saltier us (or sweet) than normal, because when cooked the tamales tend to absorb the salt (or sugar) and can be bland (or slightly sweet).
  5. If we notice that our dough is slightly dry, we can add a little more broth. If we have a bit watery, we can add a little more dough or flour.
  6. Thoroughly wash the corn leaves with which we will make the tamales. Put them to soak for about an hour and drain well.
  7. Take the leaves and place in the concave side a portion of dough into each. Add green chile sauce, red, chopped or sliced cheese, or the filling of your choice, cover with more dough, fold the leaf and wrap.
  8. Put tamales vertically through a tamale pot, steamer or pan. Steam for one hour

Sliced tamales

Ingredients

  • 8 corn cob leaves
  • 4 tablespoons of butter
  • 200 g of corn flour for kneading
  • 1 / 2 teaspoon of yeast
  • 1 cup of stock
  • 1 pinch of ground cumin
  • 1 pinch of sugar
  • 1 / 2 green pepper
  • 100 g of canned corn
  • 75 g of grated cheese
  • salt

Preparation

  1. Put the soaked corn leaves for the next day.
  2. Beat butter until fluffy.
  3. Continue beating and add as much salt, sugar, cumin, flour and baking powder until the dough has the consistency of very small crumbs.
  4. Gradually add the broth until the consistency becomes like whipped cream. In a bowl mix the corn with chopped peppers and cheese. On a piece of corn, spread a few spoons of the dough. Add another tablespoon of corn bowl.
  5. Fold the corn leaf, forming rectangular packets, so that the dough wrap the corn filling. Wrap the foil package. Perform the same operation with all the dough, figuring to put it in corn leaves.
  6. Steam for about an hour. Remove foil and serve as natural wrapper with a small bowl of your favorite sauce.

Corn tamales

Ingredients

  • 14 cups of whole grain corn (use frozen corn if fresh corn is not available)
  • 1 cup of cornmeal
  • 1 cup of butter
  • 1 / 2 cup of butter
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 1 cup of brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon of salt
  • 70 corn leaves

Preparation

  1. Blend the corn in a blender until a puree consistency. If the mixture seems too dry, add a little water or milk.
  2. Place puree in large bowl with the corn flour, beating with a whisk. Slowly add the butter and shortening and continue beating.
  3. Add sugar and continue beating until well blended. Add eggs, baking powder and salt and beat for about 20 minutes or until dough is soft. Let stand for 15 minutes and steam.

Spinach tamales

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons of oil
  • 1 kg. of corn dough
  • 1 large bunch or a bunch of chopped spinach finely decorated
  • 400 gr. Of margarine
  • 500 grs. Of pottery clay crumbled cheese
  • 1 tablespoon of royal
  • 2 tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 350 grs. of tamales cream for dipping
  • 30 tamale leaves (soaked and drained), or aluminum foil to wrap tamales
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

  1. Fry the onion in the oil, add tomatoes and spinach, season with salt and pepper. Cool.
  2. Knead the corn dough by hand or with a mixer. Add the margarine, salt and mix well. Add the royal and cheese while still beating, add the cooked spinach and salt.
  3. Put traditional corn husks to make tamales, put 3 tablespoons of the prepared dough and fold the sides toward the middle, and bottom up.
  4. They are cooked in a steamer for 1 1/2 hours.
  5. Serve hot, bathed in tomato sauce with slices and cream. They are accompanied with cooked beans.

Strawberry tamales

Ingredients

  • 1 kilo of corn dough
  • 1 / 4 cup of butter
  • 1 tablespoon of royal
  • Salt to taste
  • 1 / 2 K of strawberries
  • 3 / 4 cup of sugar
  • 1 bunch of corn leaves

Preparation

  1. Beat the butter, salt and royal, add the dough and stir well with the other ingredients.
  2. Then add the strawberries and pureed with sugar, beating until it is manageable to use in the leaves of corn which must be washed and soft,
  3. Spread mixture to the leaf and wrap it, put in a steamer to cook for hours.

About the author
  • Nayeli Reyes

    Nayeli is an expert cook, with the title of Chef by the International Culinary School of Guadalajara (Mexico), where she obtained the honorable mention for her great talent and dedication. In Biomanantial.com she presents her best recipes so that we can prepare them easily.

2 Replies to “Mexican Tamales Recipes”
  • Ana says:

    You can prepare tamales with all the ingredient you want, I know some that are prepared not with cornmeal but with potato, and they are delicious too, always salty tough, but you can add chicken and all the vegetables you want, and go well with some spicy sauce, so good appetite!

  • Stacy says:

    Thanks so much for the recipes! I’m going to try these out, I’m really hoping they taste authentic! When I was a little girl we use to live across the street from a Mexican family, and the mother would make and sell tamales from the house occassionally, they wer ethe best!