Tamales are one of my favorite meals to order at a Mexican restaurant. I figured since I love them so much, why don’t we make them! They are definitely a process and the more help in the kitchen the better. We had a little assembly line going, which worked out great.

These tamales are a two-day process, so we planned a weekend well in advance and got to work! Most of the time in the process is slow cooking the meat and steaming the tamales. It was a fun way to get together and make something delicious!

This recipe made over 100 tamales. We divided them amongst family, which was so much fun to share. We were able to freeze a few dozen for a special lunch or dinner later. I guess I figure, if you’re going to put in the work to make these tamales, may as well make enough for the crew helping and enough to enjoy them for a few meals.

They are simple to reheat from frozen, just thaw overnight in the refrigerator and microwave on a covered plate. Remove the tamale from the corn husk and enjoy!

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Shredded Beef Tamales

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Cuisine Mexican

Equipment

Large cast iron skillet
6-7 quart crock pot
Blender
Medium saucepan
Large hard sided cooler (chest cooler)
sheet pan
Steamer pot

Ingredients

Shredded beef

5 lbs Chuck roast
5 lbs Short ribs
2 tsp Sea salt
2 tsp Black pepper
1 Yellow onion
6 cloves Garlic
2 cups Beef broth

Chili Sauce

16 Guajillo peppers
4 Chiles Arbol
Hot water
1 Yellow onion (cut into quarters)
6 cloves Garlic
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Coriander
2 tsp Sea salt
1 cup Tomato sauce
1/2 tsp Mexican oregano
up to 4 cups Beef broth (added before assembly)

Corn Husks

2 lbs Corn husks
Hot water

Masa

4 cups Lard
1 tbsp Sea salt
2 tbsp Baking powder
12 cups Masa (Maseca)
12 cups Beef broth
1 cup Chili sauce

Instructions

Day 1- Preparing the meat

Begin by seasoning the beef with salt and pepper on both sides. Sear the chuck roast and short ribs in a cast iron skillet to sear the meat and lock in the flavor of the beef. This should be done in increments, so the pan is not overcrowded. The purpose is to sear, the meat will not sear properly if there is too much in the pan at one time. As each piece is done, place them in 6–7-quart crockpot on low.
Cut onion into quarters and mince the garlic. Spread onion pieces and garlic around in the crockpot.
Pour beef broth into the crockpot, cover and cook on low for 10-12 hours, or until meat can easily be shredded with a fork.

Day 1- Chiles Sauce

For the chili sauce, begin by toasting the chiles on a cast iron skillet on high, being careful not to burn them. The chiles toast quickly, as they are toasting, flip with a tongs to toast all sides.
Rehydrate chiles in a bowl of very hot water for about 20 minutes.
On the same hot skillet, toast the onion and garlic to slightly char the outside.
Remove the chiles from the water and remove the stems.
Place the onion, garlic, and chiles into the blender with a 1/4 cup of the hot water the chiles were soaking in.
Blend until very smooth.
Pour through a strainer into a medium saucepan to remove all the chiles skins and seeds.
Add tomato sauce, cumin, coriander, sea salt, and Mexican oregano to the saucepan.
Once the meat is ready to be shredded, turn off the crockpot, remove, cover and rest for about 10 minutes.
Using the strainer, pour 2 cups of beef broth from the crockpot into the chiles sauce. Heat on medium low for about 15-20 minutes. Save any remaining strained beef broth for the next day.
Return the shredded beef to the crockpot.
Pour the chiles sauce over the shredded beef and mix with a spatula to cover all the meat with the chiles sauce.
Place the crockpot in the refrigerator overnight to continue the next day.

Day 2- Preparing the tamales

Place all the corn husks into a large cooler and fill the cooler with very hot water. Keep cooler closed and only take a few corn husks out as needed.
Remove the shredded beef from the refrigerator and add broth to add moisture. Add just enough that it is easy to mix the beef with a fork.
If making the masa in a stand mixer, this recipe will need to be cut in half and mixed two times.
Begin by whipping the lard in the mixer on high until it is fluffy like frosting.
Add sea salt, baking powder, masa, and beef broth to the lard and whip again. The masa should be smooth but not runny.
Remove mixing bowl from the mixer and mix in chiles sauce with a spatula.

Assembling the tamales

Fill the steamer pot with 2 inches of water and place steamer insert into the pot.
Place a few softened corn husks on the bottom of the steamer insert.
Take a few corn husks out of the cooler and shake off excess water.
One at a time, spread about 1/3 cup of masa onto the top half of corn husk. Scoop roughly 2 tablespoons of shredded beef in the middle of the masa. Fold the corn husk over so that the masa sort of encases the meat mixture. Fold the bottom of the corn husk upward and place on a sheet pan until about 30 tamales are assembled.
When the first batch is ready to be steamed, turn the steamer pot on high to boil the water. Gently place the tamales, open end up, into the steamer pot. Cover the tamales with a few corn husks and place the lid on the steamer pot.
The tamales will steam for 90 minutes. Be sure to monitor the water level in the bottom of the steamer pot. Add water if the pot is running low.
We used two steamer pots to make this recipe and still had to do two rounds of steaming.
Once the tamales are done, remove from the pot, allow to cool for 10 minutes and remove corn husk before serving.