The Recipe Corner - Tasty Chicken and Super Sweet Tamales

I used to live in Mexico, and was a home health nurse in L.A. for Cubans. Both have their own way of making tamales.  I sort of combined them and added my own takes. We made both the sweet and the chicken tamales the other day and they were fantastic. Also, now that there is the maseca, which is tamale corn flour, you don't have to spend four hours just boiling the corn meal, then another 4 hours boiling the tamales.

For the Chicken Tamales, follow the Maseca package recipe, but add a can of creamed corn to the tamale mix; the final mix should be thick enough that you can form it.  All the maseca recipes say steam the tamales, but we just boiled them covered with water for 1/2 hour and they came out great!
You do have to add more spices because both the boiling and steaming will somewhat diminish their strength.

Chicken filling for tamales:
Slow cook chicken (thighs are best)  in a crock pot set on low with chicken broth, fresh bay leaf, garlic, fresh rosemary, fresh or dried thyme, splash of white wine and an herb mix such as Cavender's Greek Seasoning. I slow cook the chicken over night.

After boning chicken fry in pan with olive oil, white wine, onion, red bell pepper, garlic, fresh bay leaf, fresh or dried thyme, Cavender's Seasoning and a bit of fresh ground nutmeg. Salt to taste. If you would like your tamales hot add a chopped hot chili of your choice. 


SWEET TAMALE RECIPE
2- cups tamale flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup butter (margarine), whipped
1-1/2 cups liquid
1/2 can pineapple, crushed
cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, grated nutmeg
nuts
Mix dry ingredients, add in butter  then liquids. Let sit for a few minutes; should be consistency
of thick peanut butter; need to form and put channel in for the filling.

Filling:  1/2 can pineapple (crushed)
             1 tsp of each allspice or pumpkin pie spice; cinnamon; 
             1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
              a dash of rum
              1/2 cup of pecans (small pieces)
              2 tbsp brown sugar
              1/3 cup of raisins (preferably soaked first in pineapple juice and rum!!!)

Put about 2 tbsp maza in the lower third of shuck, towards skinny end.
Put in about a tsp or 2 of filling; add another tsp or so of maza to cover; fold  and tie with
string.
Boil for 1/2 hour. (better than steaming!)
We ate some of each then froze the rest with our old vacuum sealer. They last for 6 months easily.

Recipes compliments of FlowersForRealJewelr.