MexGrocer.com Día de Muertos Recipe
Three Tamales for Día de Muertos
Green chicken, red pork, and a playful Gansito-inspired sweet tamal bring savory tradition and a little dessert fun to one festive batch.
Tamales are made for gathering. For Día de Muertos season, MexGrocer brings three distinct flavors to the same steamer: bright tamales verdes de pollo, richly seasoned tamales rojos de puerco, and a fun Gansito-inspired sweet tamal with strawberry and chocolate. Prepare the masa together, divide it among the fillings, and let everyone choose a favorite when the husks are opened.
The Mexican Tamal: A Food Wrapped in History
Long before the modern kitchen, Indigenous cooks in Mesoamerica transformed maize into nourishing foods that could travel, feed a household, and mark important occasions. The tamal belongs to that ancient maize tradition. Some food histories estimate that early forms may reach back as far as 8,000–5,000 BCE, although the exact beginning cannot be fixed with certainty. Clearer visual and written evidence comes later, including Classic Maya imagery and accounts of the many tamales prepared and sold in central Mexico around the time of Spanish contact.
Maize was never only an everyday crop. In the K’iche’ Maya creation narrative preserved in the Popol Vuh, successful human beings are formed from white and yellow corn. That sacred relationship helps explain why maize foods carried meaning at feasts, ceremonies, offerings, weddings, and other moments that joined community life with the spiritual world.
The familiar name also carries the method inside it. Tamal comes from the Nahuatl tamalli, commonly understood as a wrapped food. The wrapper made a masa portion practical to cook and carry, while cooks could vary the filling with chiles, beans, squash seeds, fruit, turkey, fish, game, or other available foods. After European contact, ingredients such as pork, chicken, beef, and lard entered many preparations and helped shape styles now found across Mexico.
Tamales continued to travel with families and communities. By the late nineteenth century, tamales were visible at fairs and on city streets in the United States, while regional forms developed their own methods and identities. Today, making tamales still often means more than preparing dinner. It is shared work, family knowledge, celebration, and a living connection to maize.
Historical background consulted: M. Dustin Knepp’s history of tamal tradition , the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian’s Maya creation story , and MexGrocer’s review of historical food accounts. Dates for the earliest tamales remain estimates.
Shop the Tamale Pantry
Build your batch with ingredients selected from MexGrocer.com. Product availability can change, so each card links to its current product page.
Maseca Tamal Masa Harina 
Premium Corn Husks 
Herdez Salsa Verde 
Dried Guajillo Chiles 
Dried Ancho Chiles 
Marinela Gansito
Also useful: Mexican oregano , ground cumin , Mexican vanilla , strawberry jam , and chocolate .
Helpful Tamale-Making Tool
Make Tamale Assembly Easier with a Masa Spreader
Spreading masa across a corn husk can be one of the slowest parts of making tamales, especially when preparing a large batch. The MAS TAMALES Tamale Masa Spreader helps simplify this step by distributing the masa across the husk with a smooth sliding motion.
Using the back of a spoon often requires several strokes, and the pressure can vary as you work. That may leave some parts of the husk with a thick layer of masa and other areas with very little. The wide, angled surface of the tamale spreader is designed to create a more even layer with fewer passes.
An even layer of masa makes it easier to add the filling, fold the husk, and produce tamales with a more consistent size and texture. It also helps prevent overly thick sections that may take longer to steam. When each tamal contains a similar amount of masa, the entire batch is more likely to cook at a consistent rate.
How to Use the Tamale Masa Spreader
- Place a softened corn husk on a clean, flat work surface.
- Pick up a portion of soft, warm masa with the front edge of the spreader.
- Place the masa near the wide end of the corn husk.
- Hold the handle like a small iron and slide the spreader across the husk using steady pressure.
- Add more masa for a thicker layer or use slightly more pressure for a thinner spread.
The spreader works best when the masa is soft, warm, and easy to move. If the dough is cold or too stiff, allow it to soften before spreading. Once you become comfortable with the motion, the tool can make a large tamalada faster, cleaner, and easier on your hands.
- Helps spread masa more evenly
- Uses fewer strokes than the back of a spoon
- Makes it easier to create consistently sized tamales
- Helps large batches move through assembly faster
- Useful for experienced tamale makers and beginners
Ingredients
BASE MASA:
- 4 cups masa harina for tamales
- 1½ cups lard or softened butter
- 3–4 cups warm broth or water, as needed
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1½ tsp salt
- 24 corn husks , soaked
GREEN CHICKEN:
- 2 cups cooked shredded chicken
- 2 cups salsa verde
RED PORK:
- 2 cups cooked shredded pork
- 6 guajillo + 2 ancho chiles
- 2 garlic cloves
- ¼ onion
- Oregano , cumin and salt
GANSITO-INSPIRED SWEET:
- Reserve ⅓ of masa; use milk as needed
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Strawberry preserves
- Chopped chocolate
- Gansito pieces for garnish AFTER steaming
Directions
- Soak corn husks until pliable.
- Beat lard/butter until light. Mix masa harina, baking powder and salt; add fat and broth gradually until soft and spreadable.
- GREEN: Combine chicken with salsa verde and simmer briefly so it is not watery.
- RED: Soften chiles, blend with garlic/onion/spices, then simmer with shredded pork until thick.
- Spread masa on husks, add filling, fold and steam upright 60–90 minutes or until masa releases from husk.
- SWEET: Sweeten reserved masa with sugar/vanilla. Add strawberry preserves and chocolate to center; steam.
- Rest 10–15 minutes. Garnish sweet tamales with small Gansito pieces after steaming.
Serving Your Three-Tamale Spread
Arrange the green and red tamales on separate platters so guests can identify each filling, then give the sweet tamales their own dessert plate. Optional fresh toppings such as crema or cheese can accompany the savory tamales without changing the recipe itself. For a Día de Muertos gathering, let the colors and flavors complement the celebration while keeping the ofrenda and its meaning treated with care and respect.
Ready to Make Tamales?
Find the masa, husks, chiles, seasonings, sweets, cookware, and tamale-making tools for your next tamalada.
Shop Tamale Essentials & Día de Muertos FoodsTamale Questions
How do I know when the tamales are done?
The masa should release cleanly from the corn husk. If it still clings, continue steaming and test again.
Why should the fillings be thick?
A thick filling is easier to enclose and helps prevent excess liquid from making the masa difficult to set.
What does a tamale masa spreader do?
A tamale masa spreader helps distribute masa across the corn husk in a more even layer. This can make filling and folding the tamales easier while helping the batch cook more consistently.
Is a tamale masa spreader easier than using a spoon?
A spoon can work, but it often requires several strokes to distribute the masa. The wider, angled surface of a tamale masa spreader is designed to cover more of the husk with each pass.
Are Gansito-inspired tamales traditional?
No. This is a playful MexGrocer dessert concept inspired by Gansito’s familiar strawberry-and-chocolate flavor combination.
What does “tamal” mean?
The word comes from the Nahuatl tamalli, commonly translated as “wrapped.” “Tamal” is the Spanish singular; “tamales” is plural.