Chile Verde Chicken Tamales
Tamales are an interesting beast: Most people are intimidated by the idea of making them because they’ve garnered a reputation as being difficult to make, especially solo. But, I made them on my own and it turns out they’re very easy to make, just tedious to put together, which is where making it a family activity gets its appeal. Here my filling of a delicious chicken chile verde (chicken thighs and breasts, Anaheim and jalapeño chiles, and green onions) is simmered down until the meat is tender enough to shred apart with a fork and the chiles have nearly disintegrated, turning the mixture into a savory and mildly spicy stew. When stuffed into a sweet and soft corn dough, wrapped in corn husks, and simmered in broth, they create delicious pockets of flavor that make the long preparation process more than worth the while. • makes about 40 small tamales
Chile Verde Filling
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 large Anaheim chiles, seeded and diced
- 1 large jalapeño chile, seeded and diced
- 4 large green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
- ½ pound boneless skinless chicken breast
- 1 cup chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon cumin
Tamales
- 3 cups yellow cornmeal
- 3 cups masa harina
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ancho chili powder
- 1⅓ cups (2⅔ sticks) unsalted butter
- 3 to 3⅔ cups chicken stock, plus about 10 cups for cooking the tamales
- 40 dried corn husks, soaked in warm water for at least 2 hours
For the chile verde filling, heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened slightly, about 3 minutes. Add the chiles and green onions and cook, stirring occasionally, for 3 minutes more. Push the vegetables to the sides of the pan to make room for the chicken. Place the chicken in the pan along with the chicken stock, salt, and cumin. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer until the chiles have completely softened, about 1 hour. Remove from the heat, and shred the chicken apart with two forks. Let cool. Place a colander in a large bowl and empty the contents of the pot into the colander. Gently press onto the chile verde mixture to release the juices into the bowl below. Set the chile verde filling and cooking liquid aside.
For the tamales, in a large bowl, mix together the cornmeal, masa harina, salt, onion powder, baking powder, and ancho chili powder. Cut the butter into pea-size pieces above the bowl and pinch them into the dough with your hands until a mixture similar to crumbly wet sand forms. Add the chicken stock and knead until a slightly crumbly paste forms.
Grab one of the corn husks and pat it dry with a clean kitchen towel. Lay it flat on a clean work surface and pat about 2 to 5 tablespoons of the dough about ⅛ inch thick onto the husk, keeping the dough 2 inches away from the skinny and wide ends and 1 inch away from the sides. Take 1 to 3 heaping tablespoonfuls of the filling (depending on the size of your husk) and place it in a line down the center of the dough, running from the wide end to the skinny end, making sure the filling only stays on the dough area and not on the husk. Roll the husk over the filling so the dough surrounds the chile verde, and you’re left with the wider and skinnier ends on each side of the tamale. Fold these ends underneath the tamale, seam side down. Set the tamale aside, seam side down, and repeat to make two more tamales. Stack the three tamales on top of each other so that the seams are held in place by being pressed against each other, and tie the stack of three together with cooking twine. Place them in a large deep stockpot standing upright. Repeat until the pot is full and you’ve used up all the filling or dough.
Empty the reserved liquid from the chile verde into the pot and fill the remainder of the pot with chicken stock until the liquid level is 1 inch below the tops of the tamales. Cover and bring to a simmer over low heat. Simmer for 15 minutes. Remove the cover and continue cooking until the dough is cooked through and peels away from the husk easily when unwrapped, about 1 hour, checking in on it to make sure the broth levels don’t dip below halfway down the tamales. Remove the tamales from the pot with tongs and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.
