Tamales Rojos de Puerco

These Tamales Rojos de Puerco (Chile Colorado Pork Tamales) are the best, creamiest and most delicious pork tamales. Love them! Serve alone, or top with salsa verde, red chile sauce, hot sauce or all! Make a small batch of 30-35 tamales ready to cook in under 3 hours!

I love, love tamales! Any and all kind! Sweet, savory, meat, seafood, vegetarian, it doesn’t matter, I love them all but my absolute favorite by far are pork and seafood stuffed tamales!

Who can resist a fresh batch of steaming Chile Colorado Pork tamales! Not me!

And you don’t have to wait for the holidays to make this recipe!

Are Tamales Hard to Make?

There’s a lot of chat out there that tamales are hard to make and very time consuming. They’re really not!

First they’re really not hard to make. All you need is to follow a few simple steps!

As far as time consumption, well unless you’re planning on making 300 tamales, making a small batch of a few dozen isn’t so bad!

The biggest thing about making tamales is prepping just a little and staying organized along the way!

Before you know it, you’ll have a delicious fresh batch to steam in less than 3 hours!

Masa for Pork Tamales

If you’re new to making tamales you probably more than once have heard, “the filling, the filling, make sure your filling is seasoned well!” But just as important as it is to flavor the filling, the same is so about flavoring your masa dough!

So before we dive into the recipe, lets talk a little bit about flavoring your masa.

Lard vs Shortening

In Mexico, the masa for tamales is traditionally prepared with lard. However, here in the states it’s sometimes a little hard to come by depending on the state and town you live in, so having another solution is important if you want to have tasty creamy tamales.

Sure you can use olive oil or even vegetable oil but if you want exceptionally creamy tasty and authentic tamales, make sure to use lard.

Can’t get your hands on a good batch of lard? Well make your own or at second best, use shortening!

Trust me lard makes all the difference in your tamales masa. Not only does it flavor the masa but makes them incredibly moist and creamy.

Note: When I run out of pork lard I use my bacon lard or fat that I continuously stock every time I make bacon. I strain my bacon drippings into a plastic container and use it when I run out of lard! My tamale masa comes out all kinds of delicious and creamy! YUM!

Secondly, instead of just adding water to the masa, use the broth the pork was cooked in as well as some of the red chile sauce too!

Both sauce and broth, adds tons of flavor while also giving the masa a beautiful golden reddis hue color.

Ingredients For Tamales Rojos de Puerco

Pork Filling

• 2 ½-3 pounds pork shoulder, butt or country ribs with bone in
• 3 chicken bouillon
• 3 beef bouillon
• 1 whole head of garlic, peeled
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 whole onion, quartered
• 1 tbsp cumin
• ½ tbsp of salt
• 4 tsp black pepper
• 3 tsp oregano
• 2 tsp paprika
• ½ tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp parsley

Chile Colorado Sauce

• 10 dried guajillo peppers (found in the international aisle of your local supermarket or online)
• 2 ancho chiles or chile negros (spicy)
• 2 cups water
• 1 onion quartered
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 garlic cloves peeled or 5 tsp of garlic powder
• salt to taste once sauce has been prepared

Masa Dough

• 4 cups
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 ½ cups lard or shortening
• 2 ½ cups of reserved pork broth
• 1 cup reserved chile red sauce

Corn Husks

• 1 package of corn husks (found in the international aisle of your local supermarket or online)

Note: If you have never made tamales before, do not be discouraged by all the ingredients you see listed above. A lot of these spices you will most likely already have at home and the other ingredients are easily found in your international aisle of your local supermarket or online.

How to Make Tamales Rojos de Puerco

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Begin with cooking the pork. Traditionally you want to use pork shoulder but if you cannot find pork shoulder, you can use pork butt or even country ribs (with bone in) to make the pork filling.

1. Rinse the pork and cut into large chunks (if using country ribs, simply cut in half) and place in a large pot.
2. Add the water, bouillon, bay leaves, garlic, onion and all seasonings. Cook on medium heat for approximately 2 hours or until pork is tender and falling apart.

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3. Once pork is cooked, remove pork and place in a bowl to cool a little. Also remove any bones.

4. Strain the broth and set aside for the masa. Add drippings that you have strained back to the pork you have set aside, making sure to remove the bay leaves and bones, discard.

5. Once pork has cooled a little, shred using two forks. Set aside.

Chile Colorado Sauce

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1. Rinse the chile peppers under cool water to remove any unseen dirt and debris.
2. Pull off stems and remove seeds.
3. Add all the dried chile peppers to a saucepan with two cups of water, garlic, onion and bay leaves.
4. Cook for 15 minutes until chiles have fully rehydrated and softened.
5. Add all the contents to a blender and blend until smooth.

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5. Using a wire colander, strain sauce into a bowl.

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6. Season sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Add Sauce to Meat

7. Begin with adding 2 cups of sauce to meat and stir. If you would like your pork filling a little extra saucy, add more sauce. Set aside until ready to use.

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Preparing the Corn Husks

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1. Remove corn husks from packaging and gently separate individual husks.
2. Rinse each husk under cool water to remove any dirt and debris.
3. In a large pot, bowl or even your kitchen sink, add husks with plenty of warm water to cover and let soak for 1 hour.
4. After one hour, remove husks from water and wipe dry with a kitchen towel or paper towels. Set aside until ready to use.

Preparing the Masa

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1. Add 4 cups of Maseca to a large bowl with baking soda and salt. Mix with a fork.
2. In a separate bowl, whip 1 ½ cups of lard or shortening until smooth. (If you do not have a hand blender to whisk lard, it’s ok, you can briefly warm lard/shortening in the microwave to melt a little or simply leave it as is and incorporate really well to masa.)
3. Add the lard, 2 ½ cups of pork broth and 1 cup reserved chile sauce.
4. Using clean hands, incorporate all the ingredients really well into the masa.
5. Continue mixing really well until the masa takes on a consistency of smooth frosting.
6. Masa is ready for tamales.

How to Assemble Tamales

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When you prepare to assemble the tamales, you will notice corn husks have one side that is smoother than the other, you will spread masa dough on the smooth side. Let’s begin…

1. Using the back of a large spoon, spread a thin layer (2-3 tablespoons) of the masa on the smooth side of corn husk on widest side of husk, leaving about 3 to 4 inches free of masa from the bottom.
2. Add two tablespoons of pork filling to center of dough. (Note: I also like to add an olive or two, a sliver of red pimiento and raw potato slice for extra yumminess.)

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3. Fold one side of corn husk over and then fold over again to cover.

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4. After both sides are folded, fold pointy end up, so that one side of tamale is open. Keep tamale folded side down on plate or counter until ready to cook or freeze. (Tip: Could also tie bottom with a thin strip of corn husk.) Check out this post of Beef Mexican Tamales for reference.

5. Repeat procedure until all the masa dough has been used to form tamales.

6. Once tamales are assembled, you can immediately cook or freeze them.

Tip: You can put masa on all corn husks first and then add pork filling for quicker assembly.

Cooking Tamales Rojos de Puerco With or Without Steamer

I use a tamales steamer but if you do not have one, use a seafood or vegetable steamer.

If you do not have any steamer at all, simply use a large pot and follow instructions below.

Using a Steamer

• Add enough water to the pot and place steam tray on top.
• Add a few corn husks to the steam tray. This helps in preventing too much water from seeping in onto tamales.
• Add as many tamales as you would like to cook at a time to pot. Leaning against one another.
• Cover pot and steam tamales for one hour.
• Carefully remove cooked tamales with tongs and enjoy immediately or top with one of the delicious toppings mentioned at the bottom of this post.

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Cooking Tamales without a Steamer

• If you do not have a steamer, use a large pot to cook tamales.
• Tear a few sheets of aluminum foil and loosely crumble into a ball. Layer bottom of pot with aluminum balls.
• Repeat until the bottom of pot is full of aluminum foil balls. The balls will act as a steamer.
• Add water to just below the tops of balls.
• Arrange tamales on top of aluminum balls. Cover pot with a lid and cook for one hour.
• Carefully remove cooked tamales with tongs and enjoy immediately or top with one of the delicious toppings mentioned at the bottom of this post.

How Long and How to Freeze Tamales Rojos de Puerco

Once you have assembled all the tamales, simply add them to a freezer safe container or freezer plastic bag for 4-6 months.

Although tamales may last even longer, you will need to watch out for freezer burn.

How to Reheat Cooked Tamales Rojos de Puerco (Chile Colorado Pork Tamales)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add tamales to a baking sheet and cook for 15 minutes.

Microwave Instructions for Pork Tamales

Add one or two tamales at a time to a microwaveable plate and cook for 3 minutes (depending on the strength of your microwave you may need to do more or less time).

Salsa for Tamales

Here are a couple tamale topping sauce ideas to highly consider…

Super Easy Jalapeño Salsa

Best Mexican Salsa Recipe (Salsa Verde!)

Habanero Tomatillo Salsa (if you’re looking for a spicy salsa!)

Creamy Sour Cream Salsa Verde Sauce

Reserved Chile Colorado Sauce

Tamale Sauce by The Anthony Kitchen