Guajolotas (Tamal en Bolillo)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Stand mixer with paddle attachment, or large bowl and strong arm
• •Tamalera or 10 to 12-quart stockpot with a steamer rack
• •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting the bolillos
• •Wide skillet for frying the salsa
• •High-powered blender
• •Bread knife for splitting the bolillos

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the corn husks

   Place the dried corn husks in a deep bowl or sink and cover with hot tap water. Weight them down with a plate so they stay submerged. They need at least 30 minutes to soften and become pliable. Stiff husks crack when you fold them. Patient husks bend like cloth. While they soak, tear a few extra husks into long thin strips to use as ties.

   Buy the largest husks the mercado sells. Small husks force you to overlap two for every tamal and the seams leak.
2. 2

   Make the salsa verde

   Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Drop in the tomatillos, serranos, jalapenos, and onion. Boil for about 8 minutes, until the tomatillos turn from bright green to a muted olive and feel soft when poked. Drain. Transfer to a blender with the raw garlic, cilantro, epazote, and a teaspoon of salt. Blend until smooth but not pureed to nothing. You want some body left.

3. 3

   Fry the salsa and fold in the chicken

   Heat 2 tablespoons of lard in a wide skillet over medium-high. When it shimmers, pour in the blended salsa. It will sputter aggressively. Step back. Fry for about 6 minutes, stirring constantly, until the color deepens and the salsa thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. This step cooks the raw garlic and the chile, and concentrates the flavor. Salsa verde for tamales must be fried. Raw salsa makes a watery, sour filling. Stir in the shredded chicken, taste, adjust salt, and pull off the heat. Let it cool to room temperature before you fill the tamales.

4. 4

   Beat the masa

   In a stand mixer with the paddle, beat the lard alone on medium-high for 5 to 7 minutes, until it turns pale and almost fluffy. This is not optional. Whipped lard is what makes a tamal light. La manteca es el sabor, pero la manteca batida es la textura. Add the salt and baking powder. Begin adding the masa in handfuls, alternating with splashes of warm broth, until the masa is fully incorporated. Keep beating for another 5 minutes. Test by dropping a pea-sized ball into a glass of cold water. If it floats, the masa is ready. If it sinks, beat in another tablespoon of lard and try again.

   The masa for tamales is a different grind than the masa for tortillas. Coarser, almost gritty between your fingers. If your tortilleria only sells the fine kind, ask for masa martajada or masa para tamal. The two are not interchangeable.
5. 5

   Fill and wrap the tamales

   Take a softened husk and shake off the water. Lay it on your palm with the wide end toward your wrist and the pointed end toward your fingers. Spread about 3 tablespoons of masa across the center, leaving a clean border of two fingers at the wide end and a longer tail at the narrow end. Spoon a tablespoon of the chicken in salsa verde down the center of the masa. Fold the long sides of the husk over each other so the masa wraps around the filling. Fold the pointed tail up against the back. Tie with a strip of husk if you want extra insurance. Stack the tamales upright, open end up, in a tamalera or large stockpot fitted with a steamer rack.

6. 6

   Steam the tamales

   Pour water into the bottom of the pot, below the steamer rack. Drop a coin into the water. When you stop hearing the coin rattle, the pot has run dry and you need to add more. Cover the tamales with a layer of extra husks and a clean kitchen cloth, then the lid. Steam over medium heat for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Do not lift the lid in the first 45 minutes. The masa needs uninterrupted heat to set. After 1 hour and 15 minutes, pull one tamal out, let it rest for 2 minutes, then unwrap. If the masa pulls away from the husk cleanly and holds together, they are done. If it sticks, give them another 15 minutes.

7. 7

   Toast the bolillos

   While the tamales rest, split each bolillo lengthwise without cutting all the way through, like a hinged book. Pull out a little of the soft crumb from each half to make room for the tamal. Heat a dry comal over medium and toast the bolillos cut side down for 30 to 45 seconds, just to crisp the inner surface. The bolillo has to fight back a little when you bite it. A soggy guajolota is a defeated guajolota.

8. 8

   Assemble the guajolota

   Unwrap a hot tamal. Lay it whole inside the bolillo, husk discarded, masa and filling intact. Press the bread closed around it so the crust holds everything in place. That is the guajolota. There is no other assembly. Eat it standing up with a clay jarro of atole or champurrado in the other hand, the way they sell it from carts at the entrance of Metro Pino Suarez at 7 in the morning. Asi se hace y punto.

Chef Tips

• •The bolillo has to be from a real Mexican panaderia. The crust matters. A bolillo bought from a supermarket bread aisle that has been sitting in plastic for two days will collapse around the tamal and you will be eating soup. If your only option is a soft bolillo, toast it harder on the comal to firm up the crust.
• •Masa para tamal is coarser than tortilla masa. Pregunta en la tortilleria por masa martajada o masa para tamal. If you can only get tortilla masa, the tamales will work but the texture will be denser, less open. The grind matters.
• •Beat the lard until it floats a pea-sized ball of masa in cold water. This is the only reliable test for tamal masa. No me vengas con atajos. Underbeaten masa makes heavy, gummy tamales and you will blame the recipe when the fault is in the beating.
• •The traditional fillings for guajolotas in Ciudad de Mexico are salsa verde with chicken, salsa roja with pork, rajas con queso, and mole. Pick one. The other versions of this recipe live for other mornings.

Advance Preparation

• •Both the salsa verde filling and the beaten masa can be made one day ahead. Refrigerate the filling. Cover the masa with plastic pressed directly on the surface and bring back to room temperature before assembling.
• •Assembled raw tamales freeze beautifully. Lay them in a single layer on a sheet pan, freeze until firm, then transfer to a freezer bag. They keep for three months. Steam directly from frozen, adding 30 minutes to the steaming time.
• •Steamed tamales can be refrigerated for four days. Re-steam for 15 minutes before stuffing into the bolillo. Never microwave a tamal you plan to use for a guajolota. The husk and the bread both need the steam to stay alive.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 215g)