Honduran Style Tamales

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Honduran Style Tamales

Course:

Main Dish

Cuisine:

Hondurian

Preparing the Tamales:

1. Prepare masa: In a mixing bowl, add 1 ½ cups of water to the prepared masa (4 lbs of masa)(you buy prepared masa at "ethnic markets") and beat until it has consistency of creamy mashed potatoes.
2. Reserve about a cup of prepared masa for the "recado" sauce.
3. Prepare banana leaves: cut large leaves into 12"-inch sections, cut off the tough outer perimeter fiber, wash each leaf, and boil for 5 minutes to soften them for folding.
4. Prepare the sauce by blending all of the sauce ingredients in a blender
5. Cook chicken with recado sauce: 4 lbs of skinless boneless chicken, white or dark meat. Cut chicken into 2-3 oz cubes, then place chicken cubes in sauce pan and add recado sauce and enough water to cover. Cover and let boil until cooked.
6. Thicken the recado sauce with chicken broth: Remove all the liquid from cooked chicken and place in a bowl. add a few tablespoons of the masa mix until the recado filling sauce thickens and is just a bit runnier than the prepared masa. return this thickened sauce to your cooked chicken and mix in.

Assembling the tamales:

1. Layer aluminum foil with a banana leaf
2. Add about 1/2 cup of masa to leaf
3. Add piece of chicken with sauce
4. Add filling ingredients, 1 tsp of each: cooked rice, diced potato, peas, garbanzos, bottled red pepper, and olive
5. Wrap tamale like a burrito
6. Steam in large pot for about 30-40 minutes until potato is cooked