Grilled Chicken Tamales

Tamales are one of the classic real Am erican foods. They consist of corn meal, usually with some kind of fillin g, wrapped in the corn husk or banana leaf and cooked. They taste great, and require some grilling and some steaming.

Today we’re gonna do a little Mexican variety from the Yucatan. I don’t really measure my ingredients, so I’m estimating here. Use your own judgement.

Get 2-4 chicken breasts, and marinate them for at least 4 hours in a blend of lemon, orange, and lime juice, with some cilantro and salt.

Get out your charcoal grill ( I did mine on the Weber Performer) and grill up the chicken. Once that’s done, cut it up into cubes.

Add the chicken to this mixture and let it rest for now:

1/2 cup cilantro

1/2 cup crumbled cojita cheese

2-4 diced serrano chiles

1/2 cup orange juice (fresh as possible, not from concentrate ever)

Take like 10-15 corn husks and soak them in warm water for about an hour, or the same time as the chicken mixture is soaking up all its flavors.

Now, you could get tamale dough pre-made if you want at this point. It will save you a lot of trouble.

If you want to make the dough by hand check out this site: Sweet Corn Tamale Dough

Now to put these things together.

Remove the husks from the water and pat them dry.

Place a spoonful of the dough in the middle of the corn husk.

Flatten it out a little bit and add some chicken to the middle.

Roll the tamale into a torpedo shape while folding the ends in so none of the filling will ooze out. You can tie them shut with an extra corn husk.

Place tamales in vegetable steam basket with 1 1/2 inches of water in saucepan, cover; cook over medium heat 55 minutes.Check pan regularly to make sure there is enough water.

If you don’t have a steamer, just use a gas grill. Put a pan of water on the bottom, and put the tamales on the upper grate then close the lid. Just refill the pan as the water evaporates. Warning: it might take a couple of batches to get this method to work right.

Remove tamales from pan, cool, then place in covered container and store in refrigerator until ready to grill.

Ten minutes before you’re ready to serve them, just throw the tamales on a hot charcoal grill again for some nice charring and last-minute cooking. They’ll be hot and ready to eat.