This recipe for real red pig tamales originates in Jalisco, Mexico. Pork shoulder and a hot tomato sauce fill the tamales.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs |
| Additional Time: | 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 15 |
| Yield: | 15 tamales |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless pork shoulder, trimmed
- ½ onion
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- salt to taste
- water to cover
- corn husks
- 1 pound Roma tomatoes
- 4 dried chile de arbol peppers
- 4 small guajillo chile peppers, stemmed and seeded
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 ¼ cups lard
- 4 ½ cups fresh corn masa dough
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
Instructions
- Cut pork into 3 chunks and place in a large saucepan. Add onion, garlic, bay leaves, and salt and cover with water. Bring to a boil; skim foam from surface. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour. Remove pork and let cool. Strain broth and reserve.
- Bring a pot of water to a boil while pork is cooking. Add tomatoes, arbol chiles, and guajillo chiles, and boil until chiles are soft, about 5 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon, reserving cooking water, and allow to cool.
- Place corn husks in a bowl, cover with boiling water, and soak for 30 to 60 minutes. Drain, place on a work surface, and cover with a clean, damp towel.
- Combine tomatoes, 1/2 cup cooking water, chiles de arbol, guajillo chiles, and cornstarch in a blender; blend until smooth. Strain tomato sauce through a fine-mesh sieve.
- Beat lard with an electric mixer in a large bowl until fluffy. Combine masa, 1 cup reserved pork broth, 1 tablespoon salt, and baking powder in a separate bowl and mix until smooth. Add masa mixture to lard and mix until it has a smooth cookie dough consistency. Test if the masa is ready by dropping a small ball of masa into a glass of cold water; if it floats, it’s ready, if not, keep beating for a little longer.
- Shred cooled pork with 2 forks.
- Select 1 wide corn husk or 2 small ones. Spread about 2 tablespoons masa mixture onto the the corn husk, filling it up to 2 inches from the bottom and 1/4 inch from the top. Add 1 tablespoon of the tomato sauce and pork down the center of the masa mixture. Fold sides of husk together, 1 over the other. Fold the bottom of the husk over the seam of the 2 folded sides. Repeat with remaining husks.
- Place a steamer insert into a saucepan and fill with water to just below the bottom of the steamer. Bring water to a boil. Add tamales with the open side up and cook until filling is heated through and separates from the husk, about 1 hour. Let tamales rest for 15 minutes before serving.
- Masa can be found at select Mexican markets. If not available, you can make it with instant corn masa flour: mix 4 cups of masa harina with 3 cups of pork broth, until moist and pliable. If necessary, add more broth.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 344 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 30 g |
| Cholesterol | 33 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Saturated Fat | 7 g |
| Sodium | 644 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 20 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
First time making and they came out great.
Yup! I’m from Jalisco & my family (& now I) make tamales like this. We use less tomato, add garlic and cumin seed. It’s more like a mole sauce rather than just chile, and the flour only helps thicken the sauce a bit. Love to see recipes from that beautiful region
I was hoping to recreate my moms recipe since she’s from Jalisco, Mexico. As soon as I blended the sauce and saw the orange color I knew something was wrong. IT TASTED LIKE MARINARA. Looking at other recipes no one uses tomatoes…. I’m really upset these aren’t the traditional ones i grew up with.
absolutely love this recipe. It took the anxiety out making tamales. It’s simple to follow and delicious. I cooked my tamales in the instant pot on manual high pressure for 30 min and allowed them to naturally release for 10
This recipe ??.my family was pleased and satisfied! Thank you
Great recipe! I did have to stream my tamales longer, but I think it may have been because I’m at high altitude though.