Homemade Tamales

I did it! I made homemade tamales. I only took a few pictures because I was not prepared to do a tutorial of the whole process. It turns out that it hit a whopping 90 degrees yesterday. I planned on steaming the tamales late in the evening, but it didn't matter. It was hot and I was hot and a bit fussy.

I started by preparing the homemade chicken broth early in the morning. I planned on doing this in the sun oven; however, our clear sunny forecast tuned into an unplanned 90-degree cloudy day. At 11 pm last night it was still 80 degrees inside the house and 70 degrees outside. Due to the lack of sunshine, we had to run the generator with the windows closed until bedtime. 

Soaking corn shucks

Blurry picture of the green chili sauce

Shredded chicken breast

Green chili chicken filling cooking together

Preparing the masa. 

Dry ingredients

This is the steamer that I used. Number One Husband has picked
out a tamale steamer. I imagine he will be buying it soon.

The tamales are finally done.

I ended up with 34 tamales.

We made green tamales using pepper jack and Colby jack cheeses. 

Now that I know what to expect I can streamline the process of making tamales. I will share the step-by-step instructions the next time I make them. The tamales turned out delicious! Very flavorful. We tried a couple before packaging them. 

Lunch

I have to laugh about it now that it's over. I was so hot and frustrated. Number One Husband was trying to be helpful, but I just wanted to get it done. I had a giant mess. Chunks of masa were flying out of my mixer. There was a lot of masa in this recipe. I had to finish the masa by hand. 

The melted cheese stuck in the tiny holes in the steamer. I had to use a toothpick to clean the cheese out of the holes. As you can see the steamer is huge. Having the right tools would have made this task a lot easier, but it was worth it. I was ready for bed once the clean-up was complete, and the house cooled down. I slept like a baby. 

Shalom,

Mrs. Smith