Ingredients: |
Ingredients: Pre-prepared Masa
1 bag of corn husks
1 tablespoon Caldo de Pollo
2 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 cups loosely packed fresh cilantro
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 cup chili verde
Blender
Large Cooking Pot
Tamale Press
Tamale Steaming Pot
Wooden Spoon
Cling Wrap Clear plastic Wrap
Large Bowl
Small hand towel
Tablespoon
|
Directions: |
Directions:Pre-prepare: Soak corn husks in extremely hot water while you are getting other things together, Cut a piece of plastic wrap large enough to cover both the top and bottom of the tamale press at the same time.
Making the filling:
Bring 1 TBSP Caldo De Pollo and 4 cups of water to a boil. simmer in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the chicken and simmer until cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Remove the chicken and let cool; cut into small pieces. Reserve the broth.
Puree the cilantro and 1 1/4 cups of the reserved broth in a blender until smooth (save the remaining broth for another use). Transfer to a medium pot. Add the garlic, cumin and salsa and bring to a simmer over medium heat; cook until slightly reduced, about 12 minutes. Stir in the chicken and season with salt. Remove from the heat and let cool.
Rinse the Corn Husks in the kitchen sink with cold water for about 20 minutes
Open up the prepared masa. One tamale at a time take a small handful of the masa and roll into a ball. Place on the plastic wrap bottom of the tamale press. SLOWLY close the tamale press to flatten the masa, do this carefully because you don't want it to get so thin it runs out of the sides of the press.
Take a rinsed corn husk. Feel both sides of the husk and find the smooth side..Carefully place the flattened masa on top of the smooth side of the corn husk.
Using a tablespoon, get some of the chicken mixture. Add it from the top of the masa to about halfway down directly in the center of the flattened masa. It doesnt take a lot to fill the tamale so 1 TBSP is all you should use.
Roll the tamale up by folding the right side in a roll. Pick up the tamale but dont let the ingredients fall out of the bottom. feel the tamale for the bottom of where the masa is. Squeeze lightly like a tube of toothpaste. Fold the bottom of the tamale upwards, make sure it is being folded upwards along the line where the corn husk was folded. Pulling it up that way helps to keep ingredients inside while cooking. DONT CLOSE THE TOP OF THE TAMALE.
As you complete each tamale, add them to the part of the tamale steaming pot with all of the holes in it Stuff them in until it is nice and tight. Add 5 cups of water to the bottom solid piece of the tamale steaming pot. Set the one with the tamales inside of the one with water. Place the lid on top.
Cook on a low flame for 1 hour and check your water level every 30 minutes. After the hour, remove a tamale and set it on a plate. Wait 2 minutes then try to remove the corn husk slowly. If the masa no longer sticks to the corn husk then the tamales are finished cooking. If it still sticks, rewrap the tamale and place back in the pot. Cook an additional 30 minutes and it should be fully cooked Test a tamale again as before to confirm. Afterwards, remove tamales from pot and place in a container with a lid in the fridge until you are ready to eat them. |
This recipe for Chicken Tamales is from