How to Make Tamales

Making tamales at home is a tradition for many families. Although it takes some time to prepare them, your efforts will be well rewarded! We love tamales with roasted peppers, chicken and cheese, but you can add whatever you wish to the filling. Cheese by itself is always a good option, too.

The first step to making your own tamales is to prepare the dough. A hand mixer helps move things along, but you can use your hands or a wooden spoon. Once the dough comes together, cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

In the meantime, you can get your peppers going. Place them in an oven-safe dish or pan and broil on high until they become blistered. Turn occasionally so they are blistered all over. Remove them from the oven and wrap in plastic wrap or place in a sealed bag.

Leave the peppers for 15 minutes or until cool. Peel the blistered skin away. Remove the seeds and membrane from inside. Roughly chop the peppers into strips. Toss the strips with chicken and shredded cheese.

Now, we are ready to wrap. Lay out 1 or 2 overlapping corn husks and spoon 3 tablespoons of the dough onto the husks. Spread the dough into an even layer and place about 1 tablespoon of filling in the middle.

Fold each side of the corn husk so that they meet in the middle and then tuck the edges under. Finally, fold the bottom of the tamale.

You should be left with a neat bundle.

Now, it’s time to steam them. In a steamer basket, arrange the tamales with the open ends up. You may have to work in batches depending on the size of your steamer.

Steam the tamales for 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours or until the tamales firmed up inside each corn husk. Depending on the size of tamale, a longer cooking time may be required. Enjoy!