boot's famous hot tamales
When my mother passed away years ago, her famous tamale recipe had never been written down. This recipe is the closest my sisters and I have ever been able to come to it. It originated with an 80 something year old, "Boots" , who also had never written the recipe down. We watched her make her version and tried to record the ingredients and amounts to make a written record. However, the actual ingredient amounts will depend on the the amount of ground chuck you are actually using so you could say that this is still an "unwritten" recipe as the amounts could vary from batch to batch.
prep time
3 Hr
cook time
20 Min
method
No-Cook or Other
yield
Makes 6 - 8 dozen
Ingredients
- - 5 + lbs corn meal
- - corn oil
- - warm water
- - 5-6 lbs ground chuck
- - 1tablespoon onion powder
- - 3/4 cup chili powder plus more to taste
- - salt to taste
- - 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
- - 1 10 oz can rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies
- - tamale papers
- - zip loc 1 gallon freezer bags
- - 4 ply yarn or twine 6" long
How To Make boot's famous hot tamales
-
Step 1In a large saucepan, mix ground chuck, salt, onion powder, tomato sauce, Rotel tomatoes and chili powder. Adjust the amount of salt and chili powder depending on the actual amount of ground chuck you are using. Cook thoroughly, mixing occaisionally.
-
Step 2Cool in pan - then refrigerate in pan over night,
-
Step 3When ready to assemble, soak tamale papers in warm water. Tamale papers are usually found in with the Mexican foods or in the meat department at my grocery store and are sold by the pound.
-
Step 4Put on food handling gloves and roll chilled meat mixture into 2 - 2 1/2" oblong balls. Larger will make fewer tamales. Set aside.
-
Step 5To mix corn meal mixture, start with one 5 lb bag of self-rising corn meal. Add enough warm water to get a mix with consistency of cornbread mix. Add 1/2 - 1 C of corn oil and mix thoroughly. You will need to make more as needed depending on the amount of ground chuck you are using.
-
Step 6Wring water out of tamale papers and lay on flat service. (I put them on freezer paper on a kitchen table due to limited space)
-
Step 7Put a large spoon of meal mixture on each paper and pat out flat.
-
Step 8Put an oblong meat ball on each meal mixture.
-
Step 9Roll up the tamale paper being sure that the corn meal mixture is covering the meat ball. Tie with the 6" yarn or twine.
-
Step 10Put in 1 gallon freezer bags and keep frozen. You can fit 10 - 12 in each bag depending on how big each tamale is.
-
Step 11To cook -- Put in boiling water for 20-25 minutes. Remove each tamale from the boiling water, cut twine and remove tamale paper. Suggested toppings - chili, cheese, diced tomatoes.
- Last Step: Don't forget to share! Post a picture of your finished recipe here and on your favorite social network. Don't forget to tag Just A Pinch and include #justapinchrecipes!
Discover More
Culture:
Mexican
Category:
Other Main Dishes
Keyword:
#hardy
Keyword:
#mexican
Keyword:
#good and delicious
Ingredient:
Beef
Method:
No-Cook or Other
Comment & Reviews
ADVERTISEMENT
Just A Pinch Sweepstakes