Hot Tamales

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As others have written, this was a lot of work but mostly in the assembly. I probably used less than half of the package of husks. I was concerned that the meat filling would be too spicy, but the outer corn breading neutralizes the heat. These are very different than the tamales in a jar my mom loved.

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Fantastic! Never made tamales before, but when we bit into one of these my wife turned to me and said "that's what a tamale is supposed to taste like!"

I confess we only did the meat mixture- we used the masa recipie on the side of the bag for the corn flour- but wow, what a filling!

I think where this really shines is how you never miss a chance to add flavors- we did simmer the tamales in the broth rather than steam and I think it really added an extra depth to them. And not really that difficult. I do agree with one earlier reviewer that you need to let the tamales cool a bit after they come out of the broth in order to firm up a bit- otherwise they will be soggy.

This filling goes on the "all-purpose" list for pork tacos, enchiladas, nachos, you name it. Too good to not use more often!

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This recipe is awesome. I made them once on a whim and my family fell in love! Now ....Chrismas...tamales? ....Thanksgiving...tamales? ....President's Day...tamales? : It's getting out of hand

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The meat mixture is out of this world! I used it with my favorite tamale recipe using masa harina and steaming. I also slow cooked the meat in a slow cooker all day rather than in the oven. Absolutely loved the taste of the cooking liquid in the masa mixture. Will be making this again in the future!

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Wonderful recipe! For those confused by the use of cornmeal, these are Mississippi Hot Tamales from the Delta. They are also simmered instead of steamed like most tamales. And, as mentioned in the recipe, it is custom to serve them "wet" with the simmering sauce. Excellent! There is a site called the tamale trail that is worth looking at for more information about this variety of tamales.

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Great meat recipe but I too used maza flour instead of corn meal. Thanks for the details in the cooking and prep process. Some recipes fall short in that area but not this one!

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I was really inspired by this episode, I remember my grandmother's burrito man would bring a massive box of frozen tamales every three months or so, and she would heat up a little bundle as my after-school snack. So I had to try this for myself.
Despite the difficulty in putting them together while dealing with a four-month-old who had just woken up, it was worth it for the spicy trip down memory lane at dinner that night. I froze most of them, and my wife adds them to her salads for lunch at work.

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I used Ma-Se-Ca Tamale Flour for the dough and braised the meat in my stock pot all day. The tamales turned out perfectly! So delicious!

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The masa was awful, too dense and bland, I should have done more research before I decided to follow Alton with blind faith, to my disappointment. Clearly, corn meal is NOT the way to go, should be masa harina. I will give him a big shout out for the meat prep, it was flavorful and all I adjusted for was the lack of cilantro which gave it a great taste....I only made a dozen and did the taste test before I proceeded to finish the entire quantity, glad I did, I then made a masa with harina and then we had some great tamales....

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This was my first time to try to make tamales and it is definitely time consuming, but it turned out great! I was a little worried after the last cooking part because it looked watery and mushy, but I took the tamales out and let them sit for about 10 or 15 minutes and they firmed up. I am really impressed with these!