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Red Pork Tamales – I can’t count how many times I’ve sat in my grandmother’s kitchen making them. I don’t have enough fingers and toes. Lol.
All of us crowded in her tiny kitchen smearing and filling and folding. There are hours of stories that will forever be with me.
This is where I tell you that my family is from Durango, Mexico, and every family, every town has their own version, their own recipe. Adapt this recipe to make it your own.
This is pork shoulder, but you can also use pork butt.
If this is your first time making Red Pork Tamales, use boneless pork butt. It’s a cut that’s a lot easier to work with.
More Mexican Tamales Recipes:
Chicken Mole Tamales
Beef Tamales, Tamales de Res
Jalapeno and Cheese Tamales
Chicken Salsa Verde Tamales
Some of you might be thinking it’s a lot of work to remove the skin.
See the fatty outer layer? If you have a good, sharp knife, it’s not so bad.
Why to use pork shoulder over pork butt? The bone is going to give our meat tons of flavor.
That and pork shoulder was on sale. Lol. No bones about it.
Place all the pork pieces in the pot.
Use the biggest pot you have in your kitchen like a 12-quart stockpot.
Or, borrow one from your neighbor if necessary. It’s a great way to make new friends! Promise them Tamales de Puerco.
Just in case you are feeding some non-meaters, here are some Vegetarian Tamales:
Northern Style Bean Tamales
Vegetable Tamales
Mushroom Tamales
Tamales Dulces
You can’t take out salt. Add 1 ½ tablespoons of salt to the pot.
You can always adjust the salt content later.
Then, add a whole garlic bulb and an onion to the pot.
You need plenty of water. It’s going to make a pork broth that we will use for later in the recipe.
Cook for 2 hours.
Great Idea: You can also make this in the slow cooker ahead of time the day before.
Cooked pork lasts up to 5 days in the fridge.
- Separate the corn husks. They tend to stick together.
- Remove any debris and hairs.
- Use warm water to cover the husks.
You also need something heavy so they can be fully submerged. Rocks, bowling bowls, or in my case, a heavy plate.
Pro Tamale Making Tip:
Soak the corn husks overnight. That way they are ready to go in the morning.
Once your pork is fully cooked, remove the meat and save the broth. It’s porking awesome!
Shred the pork meat with two forks. Fork this pork! Fork it real good! lol.
Place the shredded pork in a large pot and make the sauce.
To make the red chile sauce is very easy. Ancho you glad it’s so easy. 😉
We need ancho chile and guajillo chile.
- Take the stems off and cut in half.
- Then remove the seeds.
If you don’t live near a Mexican market, you can always buy ancho chile and guajillo chile on Amazon.
- Place all the chiles in a pot.
- Add water and bring to a boil.
- Immediately turn off the heat.
- 5 minutes later, the chiles will be fully reconstituted.
The chiles will be pliable to use.
Discard the water. I’ve started to stop using the chile water to make sauces. In Mexico, dried chiles are very dusty.
One time, I even found a bug in the chile. Yuck!
Whole cumin is an important ingredient in Northern Mexican dishes.
If you have ground cumin, that’s fine too. You can’t substitute it either.
Remember the pork broth?
It’s liquid gold. You don’t have to dig in a mine for this stuff, but it is MINE to enjoy!
I will even use the onions and garlic from the broth itself. All of that will add flavor to the tamales de puerco.
Blend until smooth. You might need to do this is stages. We are using several chiles and lots of broth.
Strain through a strainer to remove any remaining chile pieces or pieces from the pork broth. Next, reserve ½ cup of the red chile for the masa.
Note: If you have a really good blender that blends everything clean, you might not need to strain. If you see any particles of the chile in the sauce, then by all means, strain!
Add the rest of the red chile sauce to the shredded pork. Coat the meat well with the sauce.
- If you want it saucier, here’s you chance to add some pork broth.
- Cook for about 20-30 minutes.
Let it cool before you start assembling your tamales.
Advice for Beginners:
If this is your first time making Red Pork Tamales, buy prepared masa. It will save you tons of time.You can also make your own Masa for Tamales or use a healthier version of masa with oil.
The final step is to add the red chile sauce to the masa and mix well.
I do this by hand, but you can also do this with a mixer. Your masa will look orange-y. Orange you glad you’re making tamales! Haha!
To assemble the Red Pork Tamales, start by shaking off some of the excess water from the corn husk.
Shake it off swiftly! (Insert Taylor Swiftly)
- Cup with the palm of your non-spreading hand.
- Spread the masa evenly on the corn husk stopping halfway to the top and all the way down the bottom.
There’s a natural curve to the corn husk.
The thrill of the fill.
- Add the pork filling to the center of the masa.
- Be careful not to add too much of the sauce, or it can spill.
You can add more sauce if you like. To each their own.
To start with, fold one side of the corn husk in.
Fold the other side of the corn husk in.
Lastly, fold in the pointy top to the center of the corn husk.
Caution: Carefully place the uncooked Pork Tamales in a container standing up while you assemble. You want the open side up, or the filling might fall out.
- Add water to the bottom of the steamer and place all the tamales inside.
- Again, they should be open side up.
- Cover with a more husks and place the lid.
- Steam for 1 ½ hours to 2 hours.
Make these tamales in half the time using an instant pot. See my recipes for Instant Pot Pork Tamales and Instant Pot Chicken Tamales for more details.
After 60 minutes of cooking, carefully move the tamales aside to create an opening and add more hot water.
The tamales are ready when the tamal pulls away from the corn husk easily.
If the tamales are not ready after 1 1/2 hours, see if there is water in the pot. Add water if necessary, and steam for another 1/2 hour.
HOW LONG DO TAMALES LAST?
Place tamales in a large plastic, sealable bag. Remove as much air as possible.
They last up to 5 days in the fridge and up to 6 months in the freezer.
HOW TO REHEAT TAMALES:
Steam refrigerated tamales in a steam (same as before) with the opening up. 15 minutes. For frozen tamales, 20-25 minutes.
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Red Pork Tamales + VIDEO
Ingredients
- For the Pork Filling:
- 4 1/2 pounds pork butt or shoulder chopped in pieces
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 onion
- 12 dried chile ancho stems and seeds removed
- 1/2 tablespoon whole cumin
- Salt and pepper
- Pork broth reserved from the cooking
- For the Masa Dough:
- 2 ½ - 3 lbs of prepared masa
- 1 cup of red chile sauce reserved from the pork filling
- You Will Also Need:
- 40-45 corn husks
- A large steamer pot
- Water
Instructions
- In a large stock pot, add the pork pieces.
- Add all the garlic, onion, 1 ½ tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.
- Cover with water about 2 inches above all the pot contents.
- Place a lid on the pot and cook on low for 2 hours.
- In the meantime, soak the corn husks in warm water.
- Place an object on top of the husks that’s heavy enough so they can soak.
- Once the pork is fully cooked, remove the meat from the pot and let cool.
- Reserve the liquid from the pot.
- To prepare the red chile sauce:
- Remove the stems and seeds from the chiles.
- Place the chiles in a pot and cover with water.
- Bring the pot to a boil.
- Immediately turn off the heat.
- Let the chiles soak for 5 minutes or until pliable.
- To a blender, add the rehydrated chiles, 1 teaspoon salt, ½ tablespoon cumin, and 3 cups pork broth (from the reserved pork liquid).
- Blend until smooth.
- Taste for salt. Add salt, if needed.
- Strain the chile sauce.
- With the back of your spoon, push the sauce through the strainer.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of the red chile sauce, and set aside until ready to use.
- Once the pork is cool to the touch, shred the pork meat with two forks.
- Add the shredded pork meat to a large stock pot.
- Pour the remaining red chile sauce to the pork and 1 cup of the pork broth.
- With your tongs, coat the meat.
- Cook for 15-20 minutes.
- (If you are making a saucier meat, cook for 30 minutes).
- Let cool slightly before assembling tamales.
- For the Masa:
- Add ½ cup of the reserved red chile sauce to the prepared masa.
- Mix well until the chile sauce is fully incorporated.
- The masa will have an orange color.
- You can do this by hand or in a mixer.
- To Assemble:
- Shake off water from the corn husk.
- Place the husk in your hand.
- Spread about 2 tablespoons of masa on the corn husk
- (Depending on the size of the corn husk you might need more or less masa).
- Only spread the masa on the bottom and halfway to the top.
- Take a tablespoon of the pork filling and add to the center of the masa.
- Fold one side of the husk in. Then the other.
- Fold the pointy top over to the middle of the corn husk.
- Set aside.
- Continue assembling until you no longer have corn husks or filling.
- Fill the bottom of a large steamer pot with hot water.
- Insert the steamer and add your tamales with the open side up.
- Place corn husks on top of the tamales.
- Cover with a lid.
- Cook on low for 1 ½ hours - 2 hours.
- Add hot water as necessary.
- Turn off stove and let stand for 15-20 minutes before serving.
- The tamales are ready when the tamal pulls away from the husk easily.
Video
Notes
- Make the filling and masa beforehand.
- Soak the corn husks the night before.
- Buy prepared masa and mix it with the chile sauce.
I love tamales, but never tried to make it myself. Thanks for such a detailed recipe, I think I will try to make it next week! Will let you know how it came out!
So glad you enjoyed this! Please do tell me how they came out!
Oh man this looks incredible! This is a perfect dish to make on a winter’s night…comforting, hearty, and so delicious. I cannot wait to try!
The best comfort food! Hope you try this recipe.
This will defnitely be my first time making Red Pork Tamales. So thank you for the tip to buy prepared masa! MUCH appreciated!
Glad you enjoyed this recipe
Thanks for sharing your wonderful family memories in the kitchen. I have had dome tamales when I had one of our workers from El Salvador working with us. He would bring home made tamales. I love how comforting they are and the color you achieved with the pepper sauce is brilliant and am sure it packs some intense flavor! Thank you for sharing, memories and all!
Cheers!
So glad you enjoyed this!
looks like a pretty easy recipe.
It is! Hope you try it!
Your recipe for Red Pork Tamales is the best! You also provide detailed instructions and tips that are so helpful for those of us who do not have a lot of experience in making these wonderful tamales. Thank you!
Thank you! So glad you enjoyed this!
I’ve been making this same recipe for years now and everything about it is perfect. Everyone always enjoys these tamales and look forward to them every holiday. Thanks for such a great recipe.
It’s delicious! So glad you liked it!
I hated to waste all that yummy broth so I made pozole, also. I used 2.5 cups of the meat to make 20 pork tamales and put the rest of it into the pozole. I used your salsa verde chicken tamales recipe and did the same. So I ended up with about 60 tamales total ( the other 20 were rajas con queso) and about 8 quarts of pork pozole and 8 quarts of chicken pozole.
Wow, Lots of tamales! Sounds delicious
Thank you for sharing this recipe. Due to COVID-19 I had to do this on my own fir the first time. My family loved them, and said they were almost ast good as my mother in laws! Huge compliment compliment 😊
So glad you enjoyed this! I’m glad everyone liked it
Hello Maggie,
This is the second year I’ve used your method for making pork tamales. I pretty much stuck to the same recipe but it’s your method I really like. I like the idea of using the pork broth instead of the water when making the sauce. What a difference! Also I use the “prepared masa” instead of the Harina. Saves a lot of time and effort. This year I used a “Hatch chile” from New Mexico with the guajillo. Tamales were great. My wife said this was the best batch I’ve made so far.
Again, thank you for your recipe and the methods. The really make the difference!
CMH
Thank you very much Claude! I’m so happy to read that you enjoyed this recipe!
Love this recipe, the sauce you put in the pork was great, I went ahead and put the sauce in with the pork and let it sit in the fridge overnight and by morning it just had this great taste. My husband loved them
Linda Garza
Sounds yummy! So glad you liked it!
I’ve been wanting to make tamales for quite some time now and these pork tamales sound exactly like what I’ve been looking for. Love all the detailed steps too! Can’t wait to try this!
Hope you try it! It’s delicious
Puerto Ricans make a version of tamales that are just as laborious, but you’ve made these instructions so simple to follow. I know I’ll be successful.
I know you will be! Hope you try it
The directions for this recipe are so easy to follow. With it being my first time making tamales, I think I nailed it!
Easy and delicious!
Definitely an amazing and super delicious recipe. I want to plan my weekend and get going with your detailed recipe. Surely my family will love this Red Pork Tamales.
Hope you try it! It’s delicious