Pork Tamale Casserole Authentic Taste No Husk

This Pork Tamale Casserole takes homemade tamales to an entirely new level. You get all the authentic tamale taste and texture without making individual corn husk filled tamales. Let's get started!

Prep Time10

Cook Time2 20

Slow Cooking Time8

Total Time10 25

Servings: servings

Author: Christian Guzman

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Equipment

6 quart Crock Pot
9x13 rectangle bakeware AND 10x15 rectangle bakeware
Standing Blender

Ingredients

Preparing Pork Roast

▢ 2 pounds Pork Roast
▢ Salt and Pepper as desired

Masa Dough

Assembly

▢ Cooking Spray like Pam

Instructions

Preparing Pork Roast

Rub salt and pepper, as desired, on all sides of pork roast. If you don't want to use salt here, use onion, garlic or chili powder, or any combination. A garlic pepper blend would make a nice rub for the roast.
Place in Crock Pot on low and cook for 6-8 hours, or overnight, until fork tender.
Remove and shred with a fork. Using a knife, cut the shreds a few times so that they aren't too long and stringy.

Preparing Red Sauce

Note: Prepare the sauce while the roast is cooking and place in refrigerator for later. Place chiles, tomato, onion and garlic cloves in saucepan. Add enough water to cover. Place on stove top on medium heat for about 20 minutes, until vegetables are softened.
With slotted spoon, remove everything from water to blender. Add indicated amount of chicken broth and cumin to blender. Process until smooth.

Preparing Pork Filling

You will only need about 1 ½ cups sauce for the shredded pork. Start mixing about one cup sauce with the pork and add only enough to make it nicely coated but not dripping. Any leftover sauce can be used as a serving sauce or to flavor the masa.
Set aside to prepare masa.

Preparing Masa Dough

Whisk together masa harina, baking powder and seasonings.
Melt lard. You can melt it on the stovetop. I melted it in a glass measuring cup in the microwave for two minutes.
Add melted lard to masa harina mixture. Mix well. It will look like wet sand like you would use to make sand castles.
Add one cup of stock at a time and mix well after each addition.

Assembling the Casserole

Preheat oven to 350℉.
For this process, you will need two baking dishes, one that will fit in the other. I've used a 9x13 rectangle baking dish for the casserole itself. It fits into a 10x15 rectangle baking dish which will hold the water. Check your cupboards to see what you may have available. You can use anything that will allow you to cook inside another pan, as a water bath. It doesn't need to be a 10x15 baking dish. You could have a turkey roasting pan that will work, for instance.
Spray the 9x13 rectangle baking dish with cooking spray. Spread half the masa dough in the same pan. Use the back of a spoon or spread and press down with your fingers. Spread all of the pork roast mixture on top of the masa dough. Drop spoonfuls of remaining masa dough evenly on top of pork roast mixture then carefully spread or press it until pork mixture is completely covered.
Place the 9x13 baking dish inside the 10x15 baking dish. Cover with foil. You may need to cut two pieces of foil and fold them together vertically in order to make it wider. Leave a little opening so you can pour in water. Very carefully, place the baking pans into the oven. Using a spouted measuring cup, pour water into the lower baking pan, being careful not to overfill because it will boil and you don't want it to boil over into the casserole. Secure the foil.

Baking the Casserole

Bake for 1 ½ hours. Check after an hour to see whether you need to add more water.
When you remove from the oven, be very, very careful. If possible, remove the foil and take out the smaller baking dish first, leaving the one with the boiling hot water inside the oven until cooled. Once you remove the casserole, be certain the foil is still covering while it cools. When making the tamales as close to authentic as possible, you need to keep them covered so they don't dry out.
Allow to cool for about 15- 20 minutes before serving. Cut into square pieces or cut into rectangles to mimic the look of a tamal that's been cooked in a corn husk.

Notes

If you're not into using lard, you can use vegetable shortening.

If you don't want to use a crock pot, you can cook the pork roast in a pan with enough water to cover on the stove top or in the oven at 350°. It will take approximately two hours.

Serve with avocado, lime slices, tomato salad, red cabbage, sour cream, red sauce and Mexican crema.

Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet. All amounts are estimates and 24Bite® takes no responsibility for actual figures since calculations vary by packaging and supplier. Please calculate the amounts yourself based on package labeling if you have specific dietary requirements. 24Bite®, Kim Guzman or Christian Guzman shall not be liable for adverse reactions or any other outcome resulting from the use of recipes or recommendations on this website or actions you take as a result.