Tamales verdes de pollo are made with a tender filling of shredded chicken cooked in a flavorful and bright tomatillo sauce. Enjoy along with atole or your favorite hot beverage!
Prepare a steamer or large stock pot with a steamer basket. Fill the pot with water just before it touches the basket.
Make the filling
Place tomatillos, chilies, onion, garlic, cilantro, oregano, black peppercorns, and cumin in a blender.
Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth and blend until you’ll have a thick green sauce.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, and carefully pour the green salsa.
Add shredded chicken and bring to a simmer. Cook for 8-10 minutes of until the sauce has thickened and slightly reduced.
Adjust salt to taste and turn off the heat. Set aside.
Make the dough
In the bowl of a stand mixer place lard with a pinch of salt. Mix at high speed until the lard will be smooth and puffy (about 10 minutes).
Add masa harina, baking powder, and 2 cups of chicken stock. Mix for 5 at medium speed.
Adjust salt to taste and set aside.
Assemble tamales
Remove husks from the water and lightly pat dry them with a kitchen towel.
Place 2 spoonfuls of tamales dough in the middle of a husk and using a spatula, spread it a little bit.
Spoon some of the chicken mixture in the middle.
Fold the right side of the corn husk to the center of the tamal, trying to cover a little bit more than half the piece.
And then repeat with the left side, making something similar to a burrito.
Take the narrow end of the husk and fold it towards the center.
Place the tamal in the steamer you prepared before, standing up with the open side up. Repeat until all tamales dough is used.
Bring the water in the steamer to a boil, cover the pot, and cook the tamales for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, checking occasionally and adding more water to the steamer when needed.
Once done, allow the tamales verdes to rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Notes
You can make the salsa verde and chicken mixture a day or two in advance to save time.
Make sure to spread the tamales dough evenly on the corn husks so that the tamales cook evenly.
If you want your tamales to have the same size and weight, use a kitchen scale to divide the dough.
Add enough chicken filling to each tamal, but not to the point that will make it difficult to wrap.
Take in mind that right after cooking the tamales will be very soft and moist, but as they cool down the tamales will become firmer.