This red pork tamale filling is tender and spicy— just how I like it! Serve it with beans and sour cream to complement.
Why I make these Red Pork Tamales
One of our favorite Christmas traditions is Cousin Christmas – we get together with my siblings and nieces and nephews. We make tamales and gingerbread houses and just enjoy each other.
Even though my Grandma grew up in Mexico and made tamales her whole life my mom never learned and so I didn’t either. In fact I didn’t have my first tamale until I was 20, and it was love at first taste.
My Brother in law, a fellow foodie, lived in Mexico for 2 years and also fell in love with tamales so years ago we got my cousin’s wife to teach us how to make them.
It became an instant tradition we enjoy every year at Christmas. Tamales are a time consuming dish but 100% worth it.
While I’ve made them many times alone it’s always faster with an assembly line. We have an amazing system down and it takes barely any time now!
Chelsea (my sister) makes the masa and masa balls and dries the corn husks, I flatten the balls and place them in the corn husks, and Shawn (my brother in law) fills, folds and stacks them.
We fill the pot with tamales and then while the first round is steaming we assemble round two of the tamales and freeze them to steam fresh tamales at home later.
Every year me make green chicken tomatillo filling and this spicy red pork filling! This recipe is not only great for tamales, but we ate the leftovers in burritos, tacos and anything else you can think of- even by itself!
Just take me to the Red Pork Filling Recipe already!
If you’d rather skip my tips and tricks for making tamales, along with links to other Mexican recipes and get straight to this delicious red pork tamale filling – simply scroll to the bottom of the page where you can find the printable recipe card.
Tips to Make the Perfect Red Pork Tamale
- Weigh down your soaking chilies with another smaller water-filled bowl so they soak up the water quicker.
- Keep the leftover chili water for later in the recipe.
- Toast your bay leaves however you like. I cooked them in a dry skillet over low heat on the stove.
- If you’re using stronger peppers add just one to the blender to start with and as you puree the sauce add more peppers, tasting in between.
- If it’s too thick or not blending well add some of your chile water to the blender. I used about half a cup
To make these Red Pork Tamales you’ll need
- Maseca
- Lard
- Plastic bags—I prefer the stronger freezer gallon bags
- Tortilla press
- Corn husks
- Tamale steamer
How to make tamales
First thing you do is soak corn husks. You can always dry them out again so we soak an entire bag at a time – place them in a bowl with water and keep them weighed down with another bowl on top.
Make the Tamale masa dough
Make the Masa dough for tamales – Start with the masa flour – we like Maseca brand – whisk in the salt and baking powder. Now mix in the chicken broth until combined. mixing the broth in here helps soften the masa leaving a smoother final dough
In a separate bowl your going to beat the lard until it is light and fluffy. This is the key to the best texture for your dough. Now add the beaten lard to the masa mixture a little at a time, mixing it together by hand until you get the right texture.
You can always add more lard, but if you add too much it’s hard to “dry out” the dough more – because adding straight masa at this point (without mixing it with some broth first) leaves the dough with a slightly grainy feel.
The final mixture should feel like a mix between playdough and moon sand. To test is make a ball – it should come together easily and smoothly – then flatten it out – it should flatten smoothly without cracking.
You don’t want the dough to dry out while your assembling the tamales so when your not making dough balls keep a damp paper towel on top of the dough. Also we never make a double batch, we make a fresh batch every time, and we do usually do 2-3 batches a session.
Assembling the tamales
Once your happy with the dough start by making a dough ball – about 1 1/2 inches is the size we found we like best.
Pull out a softened corn husk and wipe it dry with a paper towel.
We use a tortilla press and a plastic bag (we like the freezer back for thickness – cut off the sides and top so it’s just the plastic sheet) to flatten our dough.
Place the ball in the plastic in the press and flatten – I turn the bag/dough and flatten again to keep it even. Then peel the bag away from the dough and top with the corn husk – flip and peel the bag off the other side.
if the dough rips it needs more whipped lard – so we always test a ball before starting the full assembly line. Add the circle towards the top, wide side of the corn husk.
Now add 1 1/2-2 Tbsp filling (be careful not to let it get too wet) and now it’s time to fold up the dough and enclose the filling. Start by folding one side of the dough in – using the corn husk to help with the folding vs using your hands.
Fold the other side over as well, now fold up the bottom and now wrap the corn husk around the tamale tightly, fold up the thin side of the husk and now pinch the bottom – this will seal the dough folds we just made.
Now use a finger to fold over the top of the dough enclosing the top and pinch the top to seal that as well. The filling should be completely enclosed by the dough. (see the video if this explanation doesn’t make sense)
If you want to be fancy you can now take a strip of a corn husk and tie a bowl around the tamales, holding the folded bottom into place. Personally we don’t bother – it just takes extra time and if you stack them with the fold down it isn’t necessary.
Now in a tamale pot or a steamer basket in a normal pot start stacking the tamales. I see some people stack them vertically but it takes a lot longer to steam that way – we have found the best results by stacking them chimney style, horizontally in a circle then off setting each additional round.
Cover the pot with a damp towel and steam until the mass dough pulls away from the corn husks easily and isn’t wet. It usually takes about an hour we’ve found. Just make sure you don’t run out of water in the bottom of the pot while cooking.
Can you freeze Tamales?
YES! you can freeze the filling if you have extra – always make the masa dough fresh though.
You can freeze the assembled tamales before steaming, just stack in a freezer bag and freeze right away.
You can also freeze them after they’ve been steamed – let them cool til they are easy to handle, stack them in a freezer bag and freeze. They are good in the freezer up to 3 months.
How do you reheat tamales?
You can steam them again – just until heated through as the dough is already cooked so it’s much faster – about 15 mins. (I do this if I’m heating up enough for everyone)
You can unwrap them from the corn husk, wrap the tamale in a damp paper towel and microwave them for a min or two. (I do this if I’m only heating a few for me)
Or you can wrap them in foil and bake them at 350 for about 15 mins – my least favorite way though.
Red Pork Tamales
If you love these tamales as much as I do, I’d love a 5 star review. Be sure to share on social media and tag me if you make it @ashleemariecakes! If you want to stay updated on new recipes sign up for my newsletter and join my Facebook Group!
If you love Red Pork Tamales you’ll love these with them!
Jalapeno Dip | Green Chicken tamales | Grandma’s Pinto Beans
Churros | Homemade Tortillas | Sandies
Connect with Ashlee Marie Online!
To watch me make this Red Pork Tamales play the video in the recipe card. There will also be a short teaser video auto playing.
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Crock-pot Red Pork Tamale Filling Recipe
Ingredients
Red pork filling
- 3½ lbs boneless pork shoulder or Boston butt cut into 3-inch chunks and trimmed
- 2 medium onion roughly chopped
- 9 cloves garlic lightly smashed and peeled
- 4 dried bay leaves toasted
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1/2 Tbsp Oregano
- 20-25 various types of dried red chiles guajillo,New Mexico Big Jim and/or Ancho – they all work well
- 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp Black peppercorns
Tamale dough – you”ll probably need a few batches
- 2 C maseca
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 C chicken broth
- 2/3 C lard
- Dried Corn husks
Instructions
Red Pork Filling
- First de-stem and de-seed your chilies
- Soak the red chilies in hot water until they are soft. Weight them down, to keep them soaking
- Toast your bay leaves however you like. I cooked them in a dry skillet over low heat on the stove.
- Your chilies should be nice and soft now, put them in a blender or food processor, but retain the chile water (use gloves or tongs)
- Add the garlic, onion, thyme, marjoram, oregano, salt and pepper with the chilies to the blender and blend until smooth.
- If it’s too thick or not blending well add some of your chile water to the blender. I used about half a cup
- In a large enough bowl so the meat can be covered (or in a large gallon size zip-lock freezer bag, like me), add the cubed pork, bay leaves and smother with the chile mix so that it can marinate for a minimum of 3 hours.
- After marinating for a sufficient amount of time, add the meat and the chile mixture to your slow cooker and cook on low overnight (or all day depending on what time your going to make your tamales, you want a good 8 hours).
- When it’s done shred the pork and your ready to fill your tamales!
Tamales
- soak the corn husks in water until soft
- whisk the Maseca, baking powder and salt together
- add the broth and combine
- in a separate bowl beat the lard until fluffy
- add add most of the beaten lard to the maseca mixture and combine with your hands – mix until the texture feels right – this might take a little playing – add more lard as needed
- keep a damp paper towel over the dough your not using to keep it from drying out
- roll a ball about 1 1/2 inches wide, flatten it (I use a tortilla press with a plastic bag) – if the texture is right the flattened circle won’t break or crack, if it does add more whipped lard
- dry a corn husk, and place the flattened circle in the corn husk
- fill with a few Tablespoons of filling and fold one side, then the other over the filling, then fold up the bottom and press closed. I recommend using the corn husk vs your hands – try not to touch the filling.
- wrap the corn husk around and fold up the bottom and use the husk to fold and press the top dough down, seal.
Steaming
- stack the wrapped tamales chimney style in a large steamer
- add a damp towel over the top and steam for 1 hour – text to see if they are done – they might need to steam for an extra 30 mins.
- Serve with Beans!
- you can freeze extras before or after steaming
Boy, do these look good! I’m a bit of a wimp when it comes to spice so I’d probably have to cut back on the chilies, but my husband would love it extra-spicy! Either way, your tamales look delicious!