Chinita Pollo Rojo Tamales.

I am a big fan of tamales. Big big fan. But never made any till recently. Generally, winter time is tamale season where people make copious amounts of tamales for meals, treats, etc. so I decided to make them too! This particular recipe is for the second time I've ever made tamales. The first time tamales were pretty good but I had formed them at the wrong end so they were a bit of a small meal than usual :[. But never fear! Another try is here! With a little experience and advice from Mexican parents, I formulated this recipe with homemade ingredients. :]

Ingredients:
1.) 1 packet of hojas de maiz (corn husks). Has on average 60-70 husks in the packet.
2.) 1 onion
3.) 3 cloves of garlic
4.) salt and pepper to taste
5.) 3-4 chicken breasts (I used 4 for this recipe and had a good amount of left over chicken)
6.) ~2 cups of manteca (lard)
7.) 9-10 chili pods. In this recipe, I used California chili pods which aren't spicy at all (I don't like spicy). But, if using something spicier or depending on personal taste, use as much as you please.
8.) 2 tablespoons of Sriracha hot sauce. (That's right, I fused in Asian)
9.) 1 tbsp of cayenne pepper
10.) 1tbsp of paprika
11.) Masa harina (masa flour)
12.) 3 large tomatoes

Directions!
1.) [Making the stuffing] Take the chicken breasts and place it in a pot with salt and pepper. Add the cloves of garlic, the onion (halved), and a quart of water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for ~15 minutes at low heat.

Halved onion, 3 cloves of garlic, salt and pepper

Bring to a boil and simmer. 

2.) In the mean time, take the chili pods and remove the stems (for spicier chilies, best to use some gloves and to remove seeds). Place chili pods in another pot with about a quart of water. Bring to boil for five minutes and turn off heat to cool.

These are California chili pods--not spicy at all. 

3.) Dice up the three tomatoes and place in a food processor. Remove chilies from the pot and add in food processor. Puree as much as fine as possible. Add cayenne pepper, paprika, sriracha, salt, and pepper. Mix together.

Once boiled, the chili pods should become softer. Best to give a rough chop of the chilies before the processor.

Here are the diced tomatoes and boiled chili pods in my mini processor

4.) Remove the chicken breasts from the pot and shred the breasts. (Tip: best to let chicken breasts sit in an open and cool area for a few minutes before shredding. This prevents the heat from burning your fingers.) Throw away the onion and garlic chunks and store stock from the breasts for later use. (Tip: to keep the chicken from drying out while shredding, leave a small pool of stock on the bottom of the pot so while you shred, the shredded pieces would be sitting in liquid). Place shredded breasts back into the same pot and add chili sauce made from step 3. Generally, people would use only half and leave half as a topping sauce but I blend it in with the left over chicken so it can act as a hearty topping. Turn on heat, stir, and close lid. Let the shred chicken boil in sauce. This infuses flavor and keeps moisture in the chicken pieces. Taste and add whatever other spices as you please.

It's a very tedious task to shred chicken, but if I can do it, you definitely can :D

Mix shredded chicken with sauce and bring to a boil. This smelled awesome!  Confession: I ate a spoon or two while doing this :]

5.) Grab about half the packet of hojas and soak in a large bowl with hot water (hot as possible from faucet; not boiling). Place some plate or cups to force the hojas down. Otherwise, they will float up and remain dry.

It's fairly difficult to keep them submerged. Best to have them in water as much as possible as they tend to dry out quickly.

6.) [Creating the masa] Take about 2 cups of manteca into a mixing bowl. Beat the manteca until fluffy. At this point, the amount of masa flour used is ambiguous as it should be added as needed. Begin added half a cup to a cup of flour of masa to the fluffy manteca. Keep mixing and adding until the masa forms a clump. I measure the consistency of the clump by seeing how much of the mixture is still sticking to the bottom of the bowl. If the mixture is barely sticking to the bottom, then you're ready to go.

I fluffed the manteca with a hand mixer.

This is when I began adding the masa flour. It will start out creamy, but you want it to start clumping.

This is the consistency you want. I generally check how it's sticking to the bottom of the bowl. 

 7.) Using the stock created from the chicken breasts, add a cup at a time to the clump while mixing. Keep adding and mixing the masa until the masa becomes creamy such as thick chunky peanut butter. The masa should be fairly easy to spread and easy to handle with a spatula but not runny. If runny, then too much stock is added and can be balanced out with the addition of masa flour.

Start adding chicken stock at this point. Here the masa is not really sticking to the bowl indicated by the clear bottom.

Keep mixing and pushing the sides in together until it becomes chunky. You should be able to spread it around with a spatula but not have it stick so much. 

Here's a close up of the masa consistency. Look at the bowl and see how clean the masa is coming off.

8.) [Forming the tamale] Create a tamale making station (since you're not going to be making five tamales, you're going to be making about 50 or so--best to have extra hands) and grab one hoja that has been soaked.  On the end of the hoja, rip away a fairly thick strip to tie the tamale with.

Pull strips from the hoja to tie with.

9.) With the narrow point of the hoja pointing up, take some masa and spread in the middle of the hoja towards the opposite end, making a rectangle or so.

Spread a rectangle with about a 1/4 to 1/2 of inch of masa starting from the top. The thicker the spread, the longer it takes to steam.

10.) Add a spoon or two of stuffing (shredded chicken with chili sauce) in a line down the middle of the rectangle.

I scooped a bit much. But, a hearty tamale is never a bad thing.

11.) Fold the sheet horizontally (left to right or right to left) taking one side and tucking into the other, creating a closed cover of the masa. With the narrow end of the hoja, fold up to create a seal on the tamale. Tie with the ripped strip. And vóila! You have formed your tamale.

Start folding and begin to roll to seal the tamale.

Fold sheet horizontal and then fold the extra space of the hoja without stuffing back the other way; creating a cone.  

Fold the narrow part up and tie with the strip.

12.) Lucky for me, I have a mini stackable steamer that helped cook these tamales fast and easy, but for those who don't have a steamer, a good ol' soup pot works also. Place a rack or colander on the bottom to prevent the tamales from being submerged. Add some water on the bottom to steam the tamales but not enough to touch the tamales. Stack the tamales in with trying to keep the open end up. If there are some awkward gaps within the pot, balled up foil works as a support to stop the tamales from falling while inside.
Ensure that there is enough water in the pot all times. Steam the tamales for an hour and serve.

Here's my little steamer :D

Final product. Serve just as or with sauce.  

Great late night study meal.

Afterthoughts: Very hard work to make tamales but is all worth it in the end. And plus, making in bulk makes the hard work worth it. For this particular recipe, I honestly wish I used a little more salt in the masa. But left over chicken and sauce helps the tamale.  The first time I made them, they were very popular with my friends and I wish to make them even better later on. Great for a quick meal also. To reheat, it only takes a quick minute in the microwave and lunch is good to go. I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Costs: (this lists of costs is just estimates since everything was bought in large portions and this was a second batch of tamales I've made from most of the same ingredients)
1 packet of hojas = $3.50
1 tub of manteca = $6.00
1 packet of chilies = $2.25
1 bag of masa harina = $2.50
4 chicken breasts = $4.50
Total Cost: ~$17.75 for about 120 tamales.