I’m visiting my sister, her husband and my nieces and nephew in Florida for Christmas like I do just about every year. This time, before traveling down to Miami to meet more family, we had a nice Mexican dinner in honor of Las Posadas, which my brother-in-law was used to celebrating when he lived in Mexico. I myself have experienced Las Posadas in San Francisco. Unfortunately for us, the kids are still in school, so we could not go all out.

That said, my brother-in-law is such a diehard purist about Mexican food, he refused to let me do things half-way. Where the meal was concerned. The idea was to make tamales. He has some left over roast pork and chicken in the freezer. We defrosted that and together with the Herdez Salsa Verde, we would make green tamales with the chicken. We used Herdez Salsa Casera to make red pork tamales. An added bonus was a few delicious sopes which are small corn flour (masa) vessels filled with refried beans, shredded pork, queso fresco and HERDEZ® Salsa Verde.

His point was that since we were making the masa, we might as well make sopes.

So in we went into the kitchen. We mixed the pre-made corn flour with baking powder, salt, chicken stock and lard. The way we made the masa was to add 5 cups of masa for about 1 tablespoon of baking powder. Then we added a couple pizcas of salt and slowly added the chicken brother as we mixed the masa up to a soft malleable consistency. Then we added the lard (about ½ to 1 cup of lard) and mixed that into the masa.

Yes, he’s one of those cooks who never measures, so I am winging it here.

We shredded the chicken and the pork. We added a large tablespoon of the prepared masa into a cornhusk, and spread it out. We added chicken and HERDEZ® Salsa Verde (or pork and HERDEZ® Salsa Casera). Then folded (like rolling) the open cornhusk over, then folded the top (like folding a burrito). We made a few of these until we filled the pot that had a vegetable steamer inside. We added some water and placed it in the stovetop to cook. We kept  listening to make sure the water didn’t completely evaporate. If it did, he told me we needed to add more water.

While the tamales cooked, we had help from my nieces to hand make the small round vessels with the leftover masa to make the sopes. My brother-in-law then fried these in a pan until they were golden brown. We used a can of refried beans to spread on each sope, then whatever shredded pork or chicken was left, and a little diced onion and queso fresco. We topped these off with Herdez Salsa Verde. And they were perfect. Especially since we had to wait for the tamales to be ready, (about 45 minutes to steam).

I know this is labor-intensive cooking, but it is fun to be with my family in the kitchen listening to music and laughing and getting our hands (and the whole kitchen) full of masa. In the end the tamales were as perfect as I have ever tried them. But even better was hanging out with the family, enjoying the time together, while making something with our hands.

Oh and then eating them. That was the best part! I hope you enjoy making or any other recipes with Herdez. For ideas, you can visit their recipe page! You won’t believe how many wonderful platillos you can cook for Las Posadas.

Enter Las Posadas Instagram Contest!
So in order to help you enjoy your time with friends and family even more, HERDEZ® is hosting a #MisPosadas Instagram contest which you can´t miss out on!

When:
December 7th – January 6th.

How:
Each week, a fill in the blank question relevant to the holiday will be posted for fans to answer with a photo. Three top winners will be selected, as well as honorable mentions. You will need to share your photo with the hasthag #MisPosadas on Instagram.

Follow HERDEZ® on Instagram to join!

Prizes:
Grand Prize: Dinner prepared by a personal chef for up to 4 people in your very own home!
2nd Place: $250 Gift Basket
3rd Place: $200 Gift Basket
Honorable Mention: Custom T-shirts