In honor of my Okinawan roots, I’ve fashioned this extra-rich rice pudding using short grain rice. The dish is a fantastic way to use up leftover short-grain rice because it calls for already cooked rice (perhaps from a rice cooker). You can prepare it for breakfast, a snack, or dessert! When serving, you can choose to add more milk or cream to each bowl.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 4 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 5 hrs |
| Servings: | 36 |
| Yield: | 6 dozen tamales |
Ingredients
- 4 pounds boneless chuck roast
- 4 cloves garlic
- 3 (8 ounce) packages dried corn husks
- 4 dried ancho chiles
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup beef broth
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- salt to taste
- 3 cups lard
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 9 cups masa harina
Instructions
- Place beef and garlic in a large pot. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat; reduce heat, cover, and simmer until beef is tender and shreds easily, about 3 1/2 hours. Remove beef from pot, reserving 5 cups cooking liquid and discarding garlic. Allow meat to cool slightly; shred finely with forks.
- Meanwhile, place corn husks in a large container and cover with warm water; soak, weighed down with an inverted plate and a heavy can, until soft and pliable, about 3 hours.
- Toast ancho chiles in a cast iron skillet; cool, then remove stems and seeds. Crumble and grind in a clean coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
- Heat oil in a large skillet; stir in flour and allow to brown slightly. Pour in 1 cup beef broth and stir until smooth. Mix in ground chiles, garlic, oregano, cumin seeds, ground cumin, red pepper flakes, vinegar, and salt. Stir shredded beef into skillet and cover. Let simmer for 45 minutes.
- Place lard and salt in a large mixing bowl; beat with an electric mixer on high speed until fluffy. Add masa harina and beat at low speed until well mixed. Pour in reserved cooking liquid, a little at a time, until mixture is the consistency of soft cookie dough.
- Drain water from corn husks. One at a time, flatten out each husk, with the narrow end facing you, and spread approximately 2 tablespoons masa mixture onto the top 2/3 of the husk. Spread about 1 tablespoon of meat mixture down the middle of the masa. Roll up the corn husk starting at one of the long sides. Fold the narrow end of the husk onto the rolled tamale and tie with a piece of butchers’ twine.
- Place tamales in a steamer basket. Steam over boiling water for approximately one hour, until masa is firm and holds its shape, adding more water if needed so the steamer does not boil dry. Serve immediately, allowing each person to unwrap their own tamales.
- Allow any leftovers (still in husks) to cool, uncovered, in the refrigerator.
- These tamales can be frozen for up to 6 months in heavy-duty resealable plastic bags. To reheat, thaw in refrigerator and then steam or microwave until heated through.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 347 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 23 g |
| Cholesterol | 38 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 9 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 248 mg |
| Sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 24 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
We are making these right now as I type for the second time. They came out great the first time. However, for step number 4 for the meat preparation, when following the recipe exactly after adding 1 cup of beef broth, it was very thick and pasty, and once meat would be added, there’d be nothing to simmer. This time, we added 3 cups of beef broth and then the meat and it was still pretty dry but we’re going with that this time.
I didn’t stick to the recipe exactly, but everyone says the tamales were delicious. Very tasty.
I have made this batch twice now. They are FANTASTIC!
I used about a 2 1/2 lb roast but kept the seasonings and peppers the same. We could have used more heat for personal taste, but overall a great recipe! Thank you for sharing!
I used pork instead of beef. Don’t do spicy so I used garlic n red pepper flakes while cooking the meat in crockpot. Shredded n refrigerated over night. Then I used 1 c broth small can of tomato sauce some more garlic salt and Smokey mesquite seasoning. And didn’t have lard so I used the fat off the broth and Crisco off another Masa dough recipe. So I kinda made my own with the guidance of this recipe and another. People in my area are selling tamales $30/12. That is crazy but they are time consuming. I decided to make my own, first time making them.
I boiled the beef in a orange salsa and pre seasoned. Much juicier and maintained most of the size of the original raw meat.
PERFECT.
Really, really good. Allow plenty of time to assemble (roll) them, but they’re worth it!
I love this recipe. This is my go to masa recipe no matter what filling I use. Love using leftover bbq brisket or butt. Thanks for the recipe,.
Really good flavor to the meat mixture! Thanks for the yummy recipe. This was my 1sy time make my tamales. Thanks for the guidance.
I followed this basic recipe, but used humanely harvested wild pork and I make my masa just a little different. But this is the way to do it right. I do use quite a bit more garlic in the meat mixture and the masa and I smoke the meat for 2-3 hours prior to braising it in a crock pot until it falls apart easily.
This recipe was the best! Remember to add some beef broth to the tamales when they’re wrapped in the corn husks. The extra moisture will really be needed. Fantastic flavors. Can’t wair to make again. Keeper recipe.
These tamales were really good. I had a hard time knowing when my masa has enough liquid, so ended up taking a small amount and testing to see when I had too much liquid, then trying to match the consistency of the bulk of the masa to that just before the test amount was over-saturated. 9 cups was also way too much masa. I used maybe half, and I didn’t spread it super-thin on each tamale. The beef came out amazingly, but I did add almost 2 oz. extra mild chili powder. I added it in small amounts and to taste.
I made the recipe but I had to make a few changes. I couldn’t put the mass together with the amount of water the recipe called for. I added approximately 1 12 more broth. It gave them a better flavor and easier spreading.
I used the masa part and instead of beef used chicken and it turned out amazing! Next time going to try the beef
First off if you have never made tamales plan on 3 hours to roll the things in addition to time listed this was not easy. Also use the butchers twine the corn husk strings just keep breaking. After soaking the corn husks for 3 hours dump the water and put hot tap water back in the hot water makes them more flexible . I added additional seasoning to the meat because it had no flavor. The masa was dry but I believe this may have been due to me using crisco instead of lard.
I’ve made these several times over the years since finding this recipe.They are A+ #1 in my book. I do substitute oil or butter for the lard depending on what I have on hand. Depends on what your taste buds prefer. I like lard too but rest of family do not.
I made this with a few tweaks and everything turned out great! I used a slow cooker for the beef, although I threw small amounts of cumin, a single ancho (torn apart), oregano, and garlic into the crock pot but followed the rest of the recipe exactly…adding the very same ingredients again when required in their suggested amounts. Also, don’t use a knife to spread the Masa!!!! Use Saran wrap and spread it with your hand, it won’t stick to that.
These definitely take a while to make, but they are delicious and well worth the effort! Definitely a crowd pleaser!
This is wonderful recipe. Flavorful and amazing. I’m steaming the last batch as I type this. I can’t keep my 6 boys or my husband away from them. Ill be lucky to have a dozen for the freezer. I even quadrupled the recipe. 🙂
Thanks for sharing this terrific tamale recipe. Turned out perfect. Only thing I changed was increasing the red pepper flakes, using some I dried from my garden and doubling cumin. Only used one large pkg of corn husks.