Learn how to make tamales - red Chile sauce and burger filling in this video with Merrilee Jacobs, founder and CEO of 3 Hot Tamales.

Video Transcription


Hi! I am Merrilee Jacobs with 3 Hot Tamales. And today, I am teaching you how to make tamales. We are going to show you now how to make the red chili sauce for the burger filling. One of the things you are going to look for is New Mexico chile pods dried like this and some arbol chiles as well. These are really hot, so you don't want very many. This recipe calls for about six of the New Mexico chiles and two of the arbols. You soak them in a pan like this with about three quarters of a cup of water to soften them. The New Mexico chile pods need to be seeded otherwise the sauce will be so hot, you are not going to be able to eat it well. So, you soak them in little hot water, softens them up, allowing you to remove the seeds. Then once they are softened and seeded throw, those into a blender with the arbol chilies, three quarters of a cup of water and blend until you end up with a paste that looks just like this. So, now that we have made the red chili sauce, we are going to throw all the rest of the ingredients in to the burger filling. I have already chopped up one-and-a-half cups of onions, one tablespoon of garlic and 16 ounces of ground beef in here. We are going to add half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of cumin, and a tablespoon of oregano that's in here. And the red chili sauce, about a half-a-cup of red chili sauce, that's what makes it nice, rich and spicy. You want to saute that up a little bit, heat it and just mix it real well making sure that it all sticks together. I might need to add a little bit of water to add a little moisture to it so that it’s not too dry. Remembering now when you steam your tamales, a lot of the moisture of the steam will also create moisture within the filling. Now, after mixing really well, you have your burger red chili sauce filling for your tamales. Now, that I've showed you how to make the red chili sauce and the burger filling, we are going to show you how to make the potato green chili cheese fillings for your vegetarian friends.