(Spicy chicken tamale with Candeleros brand mole (mo-lay) sauce)After watching Rick Bayless win Top Chef Masters I purchased one of his cookbooks. This delicious tamale recipe is adapted from "Mexican Kitchen".
Instead of using salt in the filling, I ground up 2 TBS of roasted pumpkin seeds.
I added them to 2 cups of cooked chopped chicken breast.
I combined that with 2 TBS of chili sauce, 1/2 TBS of dried cilantro, and 1 tsp Adobo powder.
The dry mix was one cup of masa harina, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp. salt (the broth in the batter step was already seasoned), and 1/2 tsp Adobo powder, whisked together.
I beat 1/4 cup of chilled Crisco - I'm fresh out of the lard the recipe called for.
The dry mix was added alternately with seasoned chicken stock. I used about 2/3 cup of liquid in all. The batter was soft, the texture of commercial peanut butter.
About 4 TBS of masa was smeared on a prepared corn husk and topped with 3-4 TBS of chicken.
Rolled and ready for steaming. It took about 2 hours in all to cook these through.
I think that two cups of chicken was a bit much for this recipe, since some of the tamales fell apart, and there was still a bit of chicken filling left over. The flavor and texture were spot-on hot, spicy, and delicious.
