I live in a largely Hispanic town. Even the name of the town is Hispanic. So tamales are pretty common. More than a few of my coworkers and friends here have a traditional tamale recipe, or have a grandma that makes the best tamales in the world, etc. The problem is that 90% of them are made with pork. Can't have pork if I'm going kosher, and then I found this recipe using chicken. She actually used rotisserie chicken, but I just used plain ol' chicken breasts. I am making these in a slow cooker because it's easier for me to, but if you have the supplies, feel free to make it on the stovetop.
Chicken Tamales
Adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking
Filling:
1.5 lb chicken
1 tsp cumin
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles
1 (15-ounce) can corn, drained
Tamale Dough:
4 cups masa*
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1 1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 (6-ounce) package dried corn husks
The Directions
Place chicken, cumin, onion, garlic, salt, chiles, and corn in the crockpot. Set to low and leave on 6-8 hours or overnight (or put it on high for 3-4 hours). The chicken should shred easily and the onion should be translucent. Shred up and set aside. If you're using pre-cooked chicken, and are short on time, skip the onion and garlic and mix remaining ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Soften the corn husks by soaking them in very hot water until they are quite pliable.
To make the dough, combine all dough ingredients in a large mixing bowl, and beat on medium-to-high speed until everything is mixed well and the dough is spongy. Check the dough by dropping a little ball of it into a glass of water. It should float. If it doesn't float, try beating it longer.
Take a bit larger than a golf-ball size piece of dough, and spread it into a wet corn husk, leaving an inch an a half or so at the top, an inch at the bottom, and no space on the sides. You should not be able to see the husk through the dough. Add a bit of filling in the middle, and fold the corn husk edges into the center and place in the bottom of an empty crockpot. Repeat until all the dough, corn husks, and/or filling is gone.
When the crockpot is full, put the lid on and cook on high for 4-6 hours, or until a tester tamale looks and tastes done. The tamales on the edges will cook a bit faster. Once your tester looks good, unplug the crockpot and keep the lid off. Don't unwrap any others until they've set for about 15 minutes.
My notes
These are time consuming. The person who originally made the recipe said it took her 2 hours to wrap all the tamales, but it only took me a half hour or so. I couldn't get the dough to spread well with a spoon, so I used a dry corn husk. To keep the husks soaking in hot water, I put a pot full of water on the stove and turned it on the lowest setting.
*Masa is corn flour treated with lime. I don't know if you can find masa that's kosher, but there are a variety of corn flours available, such as this one. I can't imagine the taste changing that much. I used Crisco for my vegetable shortening.
All in all, they're not bad. A little bland, though. I think I'll make some sort of sauce to go on them this time around, and work on the filling recipe a little more. Definitely not something I'll make all that often, but it's a break from the traditional food in my house.
