Gino's Tamales

Ingredients:
Chicken thighs (6 pieces) (boneless works best)
Garlic (4-5 gloves of garlic)
Red Onions (4-5 small size or 2-3 medium size)
Salt
Pepper (black)
Chicken broth (3-12 oz) or home made
Crisco (1 cup)
6- envelopes of achiote goya (seasoning packets)
Vegetable oil

Eggs (5-6)

Corn Meal (Goya) (2- 24 oz bags) 1 bag of Coarse and 1 Fine.
Banana leaves (1 package) This will need to be cut to size. (with a pair of scissors or knife.)

Prep work:
Boil the eggs in a separate pot. Once ready, peel and set aside.
Red Onions - mince really small (it's best to use a food processor)

Cooking the ingredients:
Saute the onions in 1/2 cup of vegetable oil. Add about 3 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of chopped garlic, 6
packets of achiote goya, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper. Stir and after about 5 minutes add chicken thighs. Let it cook for about 10 minutes. Then add the chicken broth. Stir and let it boil for approximately 30 - 40 minutes.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove the chicken from the pot and add the Crisco. Place chicken on the side.

Stir until Crisco is incorporated into the mixture. Then remove from heat. Gradually, add corn meal to the pot.
Gino recommends you use 1/2 fine, 1/2 Coarse Corn Meal. add enough Corn meal to reach the desired texture.
Gino added about 1/2 of each bag.

If you use all Coarse, the Tamal will have a sandy texture to it, if you use all fine the Tamal will fall apart too easily.
Stir constantly until the corn meal has a consistence of dough (not too thick but you don't want it to feel or look soupy). The dough should have a somewhat solid not lose texture. As far as the texture it should be mostly solid. When you scoop it
from the pot it should stay on the spoon.

Preparing to make the Tamales:
Place the Banana leaves (size should be cut according to the size of the Tamale) it should be big enough to have it folded over the Tamale four times.
Place the tin foil first, then the banana leaf (place on the center) Add cornmeal dough on top of the leaves then add a piece of chicken and a slice of egg.
You can also add any other vegetables or ingredients you might like, such as olives, peppers, hot peppers, you can use pork, beef instead chicken.
you can add chicken, pork and beef all in one Tamal, this is your choice.
Fold the banana leaf over the Tamal and then fold the tin foil. It needs to be a tight fold. So, when it boils it will not unfold during the cooking process. The size of the Talmal is up to you. Gino suggests to make about a dollar size Tamal. Make as many as the dough allows.

This batch will make about 18-20 Tamales.

Once all the Tamales are ready place all of them into a tall pot. Add water to cover them and let them boil for about one hour.
Now they are ready to eat! Bon appetite.

Troubleshooting tips: If the texture is too hard and falling apart then add some water to the texture.