Rick Makes Pork Tamales | From the Test Kitchen | Bon Appétit

[Music] [Applause] [Music] so we're making tamales today I'm really excited because I love tamales and normally my family makes them for Christmas as is pretty traditional throughout Mexico and the southwestern United States this recipe is sort of a northern Mexican tex-mex version of tamales this one is my favorite it's pork and red chilies it's what I grew up with my family's from northern Mexico and I grew up in Texas so that's what I make for you today what I have here are some dried Chile's I've got five on toast here I really like these they have a very sweet slightly spicy kind of earthy flavor they also give a really beautiful red color I've got chili Morita's which are dried smoked jalapenos they give you a little bit of heat and some smoke which I also really like these are wahi au which are a little bit earthy that can be a little a little spicy but they also have a really beautiful red color and then these are pasilla which are black that's because they're dried when they're green and then they turn black these have like more of a vegetal kind of Urbino to it I'm gonna take these to the stove and we're gonna make the chili puree first thing that we're gonna do is I've got some lard because there's pork and I like animal fat I'm just using this to saute the onions so I'm using a small onion it can be white it can be yellow white is pretty traditional in Mexican cooking we're just gonna get a little bit of color on these so I'm gonna toast coriander and cumin this is an optional step but I think it adds so much flavor okay so they'll start to get nice and fragrant they'll start to turn color a little bit I'm gonna go ahead and add the tablespoon of cumin to this you want to keep these moving because the cumin will burn and that extra little smoke is just going to add too the smokiness of the dish we're not burning these the fire's off I'm just using the residual heat to finish toasting now I'm going to add my Chili's in many places in Mexico it's common to toast the Chili's I I do like a toasted chili but I think in this dish these are really fresh chiles and I just love the flavor of them they have a really nice bright sweetness that I think pairs very well with the the pork so I'm not gonna toast them I'm gonna add my dry spices I'm gonna add some Mexican oregano I'm gonna add some garlic and I have a cup and a half of chicken stock homemade it's always best but if you don't have box stock is fine and that is coming to a boil and now I'm gonna cover that all that I want to have happen is I want the chiles to rehydrate and soften up it's gonna take about 30 minutes and then we'll puree them it's been 30 minutes here I turned them on so actually they're really hot now that was dumb there's still a little bit warm and now we're just gonna puree this you want these to be as smooth as possible red color can I just tell you my father has a blender that's probably older than I am and when I go home and I'm making tamales like 20 dozen I have to make the chili puree in batches that thing is so horrible like it would probably be easier and faster if I just chewed up and the chilies and spat them out it's so awful yeah don't film this [Laughter] now we're gonna take a quarter cup of this paste and we're gonna hold it back for the masa but just look at that it's really beautiful it's like it's a consistency of a tomato paste it's super fragrant it's all of the the chila is the onion the garlic the spices all right we're just gonna add the rest of this puree I'm using pork shoulder and belly and I'm just gonna give this a stir look that's just so beautiful I I'm gonna heat this up so I just want to give the the oven a little head start I'm just want to heat this up until I see some bubbles then I know it's hot and I'm gonna cover it and throw in a low oven so it'll go 250 degrees for about 2 hours until the meat is just like falling apart tender two-fifty boom this is the masa so masa is just the Spanish word for dough tortilla dough is a little bit finer grind I like the the this is a coarser grind for the the tamales this is also yellow corn I think the yellow has really really good flavor it's a little bit stronger it kind of tastes like a corn nut or and I mean this in like the best possible way that really corn flavor that you get from a frito for tamales because you want almost like a soft pudding-like texture for the masa after they've steamed you need to add a lot of fat so because this is a pork tamale I'm using lard so this is a cup and a quarter of rendered lard melted it really won't work otherwise like if you try and steam the the the tamales without adding a lot of fat it's gonna be really grainy it's gonna break apart it's just gonna be really unpleasant I'm also using a quarter cup of chicken stock tablespoon of kosher salt and actually the salt and then this last thing that I'm gonna add are very very different than how you would see this and done in Mexico and I've actually like I've gotten yelled at by some people that are like this is not the way that you do it in Mexico which I totally I get my mind if you're gonna go through the bother of getting fresh corn masa I want to taste it so I'm gonna add salt to it the other thing that that I do and this is something that my mom did is she seasoned it with a little bit of the chili puree from the pork I think it adds a really beautiful color I think it adds a lot of flavor I'm just gonna use my hands you could put this in a stand mixer which is actually a lot easier but it's kind of fun to play in here what you are actually trying to do besides incorporate all of the ingredients into the dough is you're you're trying to aerate it a little bit make it really nice and smooth and also incorporating all of the lard we'll get it to the point where it won't stick but right now you can see it's definitely sticking to my hand so that tells me that it needs a little bit more fat this is look gross on camera my dad calls this the slap test and so that's how you know when the masa is done if you can slap it down and it won't stick so this one obviously is still sticking so that's why I'm gonna add a little bit more lard to it because basically if it sticks to your hand then it's going to stick to the husk and you'll never be able to pull it out once even once it's steamed and so now you can see did the slap test hand came out clean you can see it's really nice it's a nice consistency it's still pretty pretty smooth it's pretty wet it's kind of like the consistency of peanut butter and that's really what you're looking for but it definitely should not stick that much to your hands it's it's a lot better now than it you that it was now we're gonna check the pork it has been about two hours I think I'm just gonna go ahead and pull this oh it smells so good and I haven't even open the lid so this is what you're looking for you're looking for just with the spoon just being able to smash that meat and see how like it just kind of flakes apart so good okay so I'm gonna use a masher smash the meat into the sauce look at that it's just like it's coming apart that's exactly what you want you want to break it up as much as possible so that the the shreds of meat can observe all of that sauce and then this is not necessarily traditional but I went whenever i braised meats for a long period of time I like to hit them with a little bit of acid at the end so I've got a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and I'm just gonna stir this in it's just gonna wake up all those flavors it's gonna give it a really nice tang you're not gonna be able to tell that there's vinegar in there it's just going to make the Chili's tastes more like chili I'm gonna let this sit and cool down for a little bit and I'm gonna transfer it to a container wrap it up put in the fridge let it chill and solidify that it's gonna make it a lot easier to assemble on the back end so these tamales are going to be wrapped in corn husks these are dried and one thing that you need to do before you before you actually assemble the tamales you need to wash them and soak them if you try and spread the filling onto this right now it's a you'll run the risk of tearing the husk we've got our masa that's ready this is the pork we've let it cool off and refrigerated it for a few hours it's much easier to scoop and fill when it's hard because it holds its shape if you try and do this win the chili is still warm it's just gonna ease out the sides and the ends of the thumb ow okay I'm gonna show you everybody watch okay so it's gonna be an assembly line okay so the way that you do this is basically just take your putty knife and just work down and then work to the sides you just want a nice even layer about four to five inches from the bottom of the the husk once we're done with all the husks then we'll start the meat what do you mean nobody what you broke the putty knife oh my god okay you're so strong I'm gonna scoop a little ball of the filling in the center and then you just make a little log in the very center fold one side over hold that side pinch it and then fold the liver just make a little divot and then I'm like why can't I get any filling in there wait okay that's how you like trying to cram I feel like well it's a good thing we made this video yeah thank you you guys are amazing we had that amazing time another party and we have our beautifully assembled tamales ready to be steamed so now I'm gonna show you how to prep the pot there are a number of different ways to do this there's a special tamale pot with like an a steamer insert that you can get I find this is sort of the the hack for that so what I like to do is take these are all the little trimmings from the husks and just kind of line the bottom of the pot with this so what this is gonna do is it's gonna prevent the tamales from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan they're also going to absorb some of the liquid as that the model is steamed and so they're gonna impart a little bit of flavor they're gonna hold on to some of that moisture and make sure that that the steam is always present and the water is not going to completely evaporate and then we're gonna take a piece of aluminum foil and you just want to wad it up into a ball and so what this is gonna do we're gonna put this in the center of the pot we're gonna rest all of the tamales around the ball if I try to like without the ball they're just gonna lay flat and once we put the liquid in the the filling is gonna ooze out so the ball is just gonna keep them from falling down and you just want to stack them around the ball seam side out make sure that the the tail is down because that's going to prevent any water from coming in and you want the the filling the opening on the filling to to be pointed up so that it's not gonna leak out and then just stack and this is gonna make sure that they steam evenly that is everybody all right now I'm going to add chicken stock you just want to pour it along the side try and not pour it into the seam of the tamales all right so now we're gonna take this to the stove I'm gonna bring this to a boil and then I'm gonna reduce to a simmer it's time to check that the mile is so you tell me when you're ready okay so yeah we're gonna check that them all is they look really good oh it smells so amazing okay so it's really really hard to tell just by looking whether they're done or not so what I find to be the best method for doing this and just pull one out and let it sit and we're gonna let this sit for about five minutes cool down if we try and unwrap it right now you're not gonna be able to tell whether it's raw or not the masa needs to cool off a little bit because it's really soft in about five minutes we'll unwrap it and if it comes cleanly off the the husk and we taste it and it tastes like it's cooked it's done it's all ah okay all right you're gonna this is our tester okay all right so it might be raw but yeah God so it's coming off the husk so that is a very good sign that it's done and just by looking at it I can kind of tell that it's done and I just want to put the whole thing in my mouth but I'm not I have to share half with you so I'm gonna give you that half preciate it I know that it's actually cooked it's remember she's going to enjoy this Cheers yeah so they're done let me turn the pot off I'm going to transfer these over to a rack inside of a sheet tray to let them cool off the thing about the tamales is that they need at least five minutes to just set if you try and open them up when they're super hot it's going to stick to the husk okay it should if it's properly larded and properly cooked it should just peel right off the husk just like that you want me to just keep going since yeah I just love that the corn but also liked about the at the filling verses corn like it just to me that's like it's the right amount a really good balance yeah let's just keep going yeah this is what my family does we just like the first pot is done you open the lid and everybody just like goes in for the kill thank you thank you actually no but really thank you because you guys helped and like that's that's what's great about the mothers is that you know everybody helps everybody eats fun at the party yeah do it do it my fire island body thanks you you

Channel: Bon Appétit

Views: 1,065,997

Keywords: rick martinez, how to make tamales, rick makes, rick bon appetit, rick makes tamales, rick tamales, tamales bon appetit, tamales, pork tamales, tamales recipe, how to tamales, make tamales, making tamales, pork tamales recipe, make pork tamales, making pork tamales, how to pork tamales, how to make pork tamales, mexican food, mexican recipe, mexican cuisine, mexican food bon appetit, mexican tamales recipe, easy mexican recipe, food, bon appetit

Id: 1kC51RAGef4

Length: 16min 46sec (1006 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/Hefty_Umpire]

I thought Rick was gonna say his dad's blender is amazing and could grind a cinder block or something.

[u/Mistorious]

C O R N N U T S

[u/Tibbox]

Triple Rick!

[u/resoIush]

WE LOVE YOU RICK.

[u/13nobody]

I think this week is Rick week

https://gfycat.com/alivetangiblefrogmouth

[u/Font-street]

MORE RICK EFF YEAH

ALSO THAT INTRO EFFING YEEES

Also, he cooks in an all-white outfit? Wow.

[u/spidersVise]

This is exactly how we make tamales at home. I'm so happy to see a Mexican recipe that I recognize.

[u/BigMax55]

R I C K W E E K

[u/Schmetterlingus]

My God that chili paste looks amazing, I gotta make that