Tamales Oaxaqueños

Once while working at a bakery, I brought in some leftover tamales to share with my overnight crew. What I thought was a nice gesture turned quickly into a heated debate of people from various Latin American countries over whether an authentic Mexican tamal is made inside a plantain leaf or a corn husk. The arguments were impassioned, but, much to my dismay, everyone got to be right.

The tamales that I first ate, usually eat, and usually make (and those on my side of the argument) are made in plantain leaves and are known as tamales oaxaqueños. This variety is most common in southern Mexico (Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, etc.) For some reason, certain varieties of tamales generally go with one of the wrappers or the other. While salsa verde or sweet tamales get a corn husk wrapper, frijol fillings or those with salsa roja belong to the tamales oaxaqueños variety (and I've seen picadillo in both).

Ingredients

1 package of plantain leaves

1 pacakge (or 900 g) Maseca masa for tamales
400 g lard, melted
2 - 3 L chicken stock (or water)
2 Tbsp. salt

1 liter salsa roja

1 whole chicken

Directions

1 - Cut the raw chicken into 1-inch pieces (wings - 2 pieces each, legs - 3 pieces each, thighs - 4 pieces each, breast - 8 pieces each, at least).

2 - Prepare the plantain leaves. If they are whole leaves, cut them into about 8x10 inch squares. Pass each leaf piece over an open flame for about 20 seconds on each side. (This should make them pliable, but they should not get any color.)

3 - In a very, very large bowl (5 L capacity, at least), mix the Maseca, half of the chicken stock, and salt together. Then, add the lard and mix well. Slowly add more stock until you reach a creamy consistency. When you remove your spoon (or hand, as we do it), the mixture should run off back into the bowl.

4 - Fill the bottom part of your tamale pot (steamer) with water, and put it over high heat.


5 - Set up a tamale assembly line in the following order: leaves, masa, salsa, chicken.


6 - Put a small scoop of masa in the middle of the plantain leaf. Put a scoop of salsa on top of the masa, and place a piece of chicken on top.


7 - Fold in the short sides of the leaf first; then the long sides. 


8 - Once wrapped well, start placing the tamales in the tamale pot.


9 - Repeat steps 5 through 7 until there are no ingredients left. (I usually run out of chicken first, but I always have some frozen chicken nuggets on hand, which is actually quite a crowd pleaser, especially for little gringo children. Cheese works, too - most anything not to waste delicious masa.)


10 - Put the lid on the tamale pot, and cook for an additional hour and 15 minutes.


11 - Remove and serve tamales with tongs.

12 - Unwrap and enjoy! (Careful, they will be hot!)