Christmas Eve Tamales have been 20-plus year tradition around our camp; we first posted our most traditional recipe here back in 2010. Once again we drug out this familiar favorite of a recipe and dutifully cranked out a batch just a few days ago.
Tamales are a great winter treat and worth the time and effort to crank out a big batch. While we agree with the purists who assert that a traditional pork tamale filling and spice array for your Christmas Eve tamales is most authentic, tamales are a great canvas upon which to exercise your culinary creativity and throw together some other tasty food combinations.
Brisket tamales are a great example of a central Texas spin on the traditional tamale; frankly I’d kill for weather dry enough to charge the smoker and get a brisket smoked these days…
A dry weather wish unfulfilled so far, we’re setting up to do a batch of a these Caramelized Onion and Chicken Tamales today for New Years.
The approach to this one is simple; use the masa recipe from the traditional Christmas Eve tamale recipe. For the filling, combine the white and dark meat from a roasted chicken (no skin) with a 3-4 large onion batch of caramelized onions using your favorite recipe (we like butter, balsamic vinegar, a bit of brown sugar and a few grinds of a good salt) and a cup (or more as needed) of your favorite ‘everyday’ barbecue sauce.
You put them together and steam just like the traditional recipe above.
Enjoy.
