Tamale Dough

Cole Cooks: Homemade Tamale Dough

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Making your own tamales at home can be a fun family project.  Of course, the first step is making the masa dough.  This is our recipe for the tamale dough we use in our Instant Pot Tamale Project.

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This dough is easy to make.  That being said, making tamales is a time-consuming process.  You not only need to make the tamale dough, but you also need to make fillings.  We like to make several types of fillings, so this becomes a big project.

Check out our guide to the full process for making tamales.

The good news is you can freeze both the dough and fillings for later use.  If you plan ahead it can be fairly easy to whip up a batch of homemade tamales.

Being in Southern California, most grocery stores carry the masa specifically used for tamales.  If not you can always order it in bulk from Amazon.

Tamale Dough

Most people will note that homemade tamale dough is pretty heavy on lard.  Tamales are not exactly a low-fat dish.  For those afraid of lard, I think you can substitute vegetable shortening, but we have never tried this option.

Tamale Dough
Yes, lard is a key ingredient

We have had problems with our stand mixer (it keeps breaking) so this dough was mixed by hand.  It is messy but really not that much work.

Tamale Dough

Each batch of dough will make about 30 to 36 tamales.  You can make this dough ahead of time and freeze it for later use.

Tamale Dough

Check out our guide to the full process for making tamales.

 

Potential Fillings include Beef Barbacoa (shredded beef), Chicken Tinga, Carnitas, and our Vegetarian Tamales with corn, cheese and peppers.

Homemade Tamale Dough

Dave Cole
This is a dough recipe for making tamales at home.
Prep Time 15 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Main Course
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 30 tamales

Ingredients
  

  • 6 cups corn masa flour for tamales
  • 4 cups chicken broth or water
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 cups lard or vegetable shortening

Instructions
 

  • In a bowl mix masa, baking powder and salt.
  • Add chicken broth or water and with your hands mix into a moist dough.
  • In another bowl mix lard or shortening until light and fluffy. Add masa and beat until the batter is smooth and slightly sticky.

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4 Comments

    1. We used a local farmers market salsa in that case. We do have plenty of salsa recipes and will publish some soon.

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