Salsa Verde Chicken Tamales
By: Katie Mae Stanley
Published: Sunday, April 29, 2012 - 3:34pm

Ingredients




Roasted Chicken
4 to 5lb chicken (preferably free range grass feed)
10 cloves of garlic
1/2 large onion
Cumin
Sea salt
Olive oil
4 Cup of water
Salsa Verde (Green Salsa)
10 tomatillos
1 Pablano chile
1 Jalepeno chile
2 Serano chiles
1/4 yellow onion
1/3 of a bunch of cilantro
1 tsp Sea salt
Tamale Dough (Masa)
I would have liked to use an organic version of masa but I couldn't find one at the time of making the tamales. I used Maseca brand. You can find an organic masa on amazon.
6 cups Masa (corn flour, NOT corn meal)
2 tsp Sea salt
6 TBS Organic Palm Shortening
4 cups Chicken broth (reserved from roasting your chicken)
1 cup Salsa verde

Preparation

1 Roasted Chicken 2 1. Place your chicken into a roasting pan or dutch oven. I left the organs and the neck for added flavor. 3 2. Put garlic cloves under the skin of the chicken 4 3. Chop the onion and scatter around the bottom of the pan. Pour in water. 5 Salsa Verde 6 1. Remove the hulls from the tomatillos. They will be sticky, don't worry if you can't wash it all off. Remove the stems. 7 2. Place all the tomatillos and chiles into a sauce pot. Cover with water and boil until soft. 8 3. Remove the tomatillos and chiles from the water and place in a blender. Add all the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. 9 4. It's as simple as that. A yummy salsa perfect for tamales, eating with chip or putting on top of whatever you're eating! 10 Tamale Dough (Masa) 11 Mix all together to make a soft, sticky dough. 12 Salsa Verde Tamales 13 Tamale Dough 14 Shreded chicken 15 2 cups Salsa Verde 16 10 to 40 green olives 17 4 medium potatoes 18 1. Remove the corn husks from the bag and place them in a pot of hot water. Continue to heat on low for   at least 30 minutes. You want them to be pliable. 19 2. Add your shreded chicken to a skillet and cover with  about two cups of salsa verde. 20 3. If you have large olives you will want to cut them in 1/2 or in 1/4. If they are small you might just want to leave them whole. I prefer to remove the pit but you don't have too, just watch out when you bit into the tamale. Place in small bowl and set aside. 21 4. Cut the potatoes into small, thick strips. You don't have to remove the peel.  I used red potatoes because that is all I had. Normally I would use  regular old potatoes. Place in a small bowl, cover with water  to previent them from turning brown and set aside. 22 5. Now comes the fun part! Asembling the tamales! It is best to do this with a firend. My sister helped me since I am visiting her right now. Remove the soaked corn husks from the pot. 23 6. Pick out the husk you want to use. Normally one big one is enough. If the are small you may have to use two, overlapping a bit. 24 7. Spred about 2TBS of the dough across the bottom half of the husk, narrow end pointing away from you about 1/8 in thick. Going a little more than half way up, leaving a tiny bit of room on the sides. 25 8. Now place a small amount of chicken in the middle of the dough. I can't remember the exact amount I used. 26 9. Place a potatoe sclice in the middle of the chicken and an olive at the end. 27 10. Fold in one side and then the other. Fold up the bottom. If you want you can tie them closed with a small strip of husk. I don't. 28 11. In a large pot pour in a about two cups of water. Place as many tamales that will fit in the pot, open end facing up. Place the lid on the pot and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn down the heat and steam for 30 to 45 minutes. 29 12. Remove from the pot and enjoy!! You will know that they are done when the husk can be pulled away from the masa and not stick. I served mine with refried beans and rice. The rice recipe will soon to follow, hopefully! This recipe made almost 4 dozen tamales. They can be frozen to save for later. Simply let them defrost and steam until warm.

About

Who doesn't love tamales? They are one of my many favorite Mexican foods. All that goodness wrapped into a delicious package. They, along with Pozole are a traditional Christmas food in Mexico. Who can wait all the way until then to eat them? I sure can't, tamales are one of those foods that you want to keep around in your freezer to heat up and enjoy all year round. I have helped make tamales many times but have always been disgusted by the massive amounts of lard that goes into them. Now I know lard can be a healthy fat if it's from a grass feed cow but I don't have that option so I don't use lard. Plus I don't really like how greasy it makes them. So I decided to dedicate a day to making salsa verde tamales con pollo (chicken tamales with green sauce). I thought that I would consume my entire day but it didn't! Of course I only made about 4 dozen, normally people make 100 plus. Since this was an experimental batch I didn't want to make very many. I hope you enjoy this yummy treat!!
So first off I started my morning off with roasting my chicken. I popped it into the oven and then went for a walk. When I walked in the door I was greeted by the intoxicating aroma of chicken mingling with garlic, onions and spices!