Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Soak the cornhusks
- In a large bowl or container, add the rinsed corn husks and fill with hot water, place something heavy to press them down into the water and allow to soak for 6-24 hours. (some people only do 1-3 hours with boiling water)
Make the shredded Chicken
- In a large pot add your chicken breasts and fill with water to cover and add the onion, garlic, bay leaves, cilantro and chicken bouillon powder. Bring to boil then reduce to low and simmer for 30 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked. Take the chicken out and shred it, and reserve about 3 cups of the broth.
- In an air fryer, add your Pablano and anaheim peppers and airfry at 400 for 12 minutes flipping half way through to get them nice and soft and charred, when they are done, take them out and peel the outer later off and remove the seeds from the inside. Also remove the stems.
- While those are roasting, Boil a small pot of water and add the tomatillos, Serrano peppers and jalapeño and boil for 5 minutes. Remove them from the water and add them to a blender along with the cleaned roasted peppers, onion, garlic, seasonings, and 1/2 cup of reserved water from boiling the tomatillos. Blend until smooth.
- To a skillet add a drizzle of oil. Add in the diced white onion, sauté for a few minutes and then add the shredded chicken and pan fry for a few minutes. Now pour in the green sauce and simmer for just a couple of minutes. remove and allow to cool.
Make the Masa
- in a stand mixer using a flat beater, or using a hand mixer in a large bowl, whip the lard until it is fluffy, Add the baking powder and whip again for a minute. Next, you can continue in the stand mixer or you can use your hands, Add in 1 cup of the maseca and 1 cup of chicken broth, the bouillon and salt, and mix. add another cup of each broth and maseca and mix again and repeat with the remaining of each. Mix for 10 minutes and allow the masa to rest for 10 minutes.
Assemble the Tamales
- Dry the corn husks and start spreading masa on the soft side of each one about half way up, (I used a plastic bowl scrapper) With enough masa that you can't see the corn husk, add your filling to the center, then fold one side over, fold the other side over the first side like a trifold, then fold the bottom of the corn husk up. You can look up a video if it's helpful! I recommend doing so.
Steam in a pot on the stove
- In a steamer pot (Tamalera) Add the steam attachment inside, add a layer of corn husks then add the tamales standing up. layer corn husks around the sides and the top. Add a couple inches of water to the bottom and cover with a lid that has a kitchen towel wrapped around it to help prevent water from dripping on to the tamales. Steam for 2 hours checking the water level and adding more water if needed every 30 minutes. Take them out and rest for 15 minutes for the masa to set. Check out my notes above to do it without a steam attachment.
OR Steam in an instant pot
- Add the steam rack, cover bottom with water making sure none of the water touches the rack, layer 2 corn husks on the bottom, and add the tamales in standing up. cover and pressure cook for 45 minutes. Take them out and rest for 15 minutes for the masa to set.
- Make sure to rest the tamales for 15 minutes for the masa to set or they won't remove well from the corn husks. Enjoy!