Chicken Tamales

There was enough fall-apart juicy tender spicy crock-pot chicken leftover after making some Enchiladas Rojas. It seemed like a fun idea to keep up the Mexican theme this week and make Chicken Tamales.

Some store-bought nixtamalized masa de harina, plus a bundle of dried corn husks were handy in the pantry.

Not too long ago, cassava tamales came about which, while not a unanimous favorite, was not a total reject either.

Quite the standard recipe that was printed on the bag of masa, with minor variations - mainly, no lard.

Ingredients:
2 cups masa instantánea de maíz
2 cups stock or water
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ to ⅔ cup vegetable oil (add in installments while beating)
1 cup shredded chicken cooked in spicy chili sauce, (sauce drained)
6 to 8 corn husks, soaked in water for about 30 minutes

Preparation

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl; add in the stock/water, plus ½ cup oil first and beat until the batter is smooth; if too crumbly and thick, add a bit more oil and water as needed to form a smooth and mildly sticky batter
2. Open out a pliable corn husk that has been soaking, spread the batter in a thin layer, add the chicken filling, top with more batter to enclose the chicken
3. Wrap the filled corn husks and steam for about an hour
4. Serve warm with hot sauce and cooling plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream, if preferred)