After years of watching Pati Jinich I decided it was only fair to use one of her recipes for tamales. I had to make a few changes, but it all worked out great in the end.

Heres the recipe I used: https://patijinich.com/chickengreensalsatamal/

Despite having a large Hispanic population, my town had zero dried corn husks to speak of and good luck finding tomatillos. I bought salsa verde from the store *gasp* I know. I know. I always like to make things when I can, but the fact is..you can’t make it if you can’t find the ingredients. I was able to find banana leaves in the international section in the freezer aisle so I decided to go with the tropical Mexican version.

I’ve never made tamales before, and these were super easy and delicious. A bit time consuming but its all passive time so plenty of wiggle room to do other projects while you’re cooking. I assume the same can be said for the corn husk tamales, but they are very forgiving. I was so happy knowing that it was super hard to fuck anything up. Split a leaf open? No problem, just wrap another one around that sucker! Other than split leaves, the biggest concern you’ll have is making sure you have enough water in your pan. I just set a timer in 30 min increments and it all turned out just fine 🙂

Since I used banana leaves, if you make this and decide to do the same, get 2 packages. You’ll have extra, but 1 package isn’t enough to line your steamer and your tamales.

It might not look like much, but its so delicious 🙂