Shredded Beef Tamales perhaps take the title as best comfort food of central and south America. If you have never enjoyed making homemade tamales, then you are in for a treat. They are actually quite simple to make.

Think about making a double batch of these shredded beef tamales for a few reasons. They go quickly, but they also store well for later. Easily reheated, they work for snacks or meals.

Smoked Shredded Beef Tamales

A tamale is typically made with a meat and vegetable inside a masa paste (corn flour stuffing),  and then wrapped in dried corn husks. The wrapped tamales are then steamed to cook the ingredients and served atop the unwrapped husks.

With a simple production line, you can wrap them up quickly and get them stacked in your steamer or slow cooker. Add a bit of liquid to steam them, and you are off to the races.

This recipe starts with preparing your beef for shredding. Season the beef and cook it until it is easy to shred with a fork. Then mix it with the other ingredients and let it soak up the flavors while it cools long enough to handle it.

The more flavorful the beef, the better the tamale.

The masa tastes good and gives a bit of sweetness, but you really want that beef flavor to permeate the entire tamale.

More Traeger Beef Recipes here!

Shredded Beef Tamales Shopping List

The list is pretty long, but all of the ingredients are found in normal grocery stores. 

• 10 pounds sirloin tip roasts
• 2 – 8 ounce cans El Pato jalapeño tomato sauce
• 1 large yellow onion
• 2 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoon cumin
• 6 cups masa flour
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 3 cups lard
• corn husks (30-40)

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Where will you find the corn husks?

In case you have never made tamales before, your first question is most likely “where do I find corn husks for making tamales?”.

Most supermarkets have a hispanic foods aisle, and there you typically find a rack of seasonings in little plastic bags. Usually at the bottom or side of the rack you can find the corn husks.

To get the corn husks ready for wrapping, soak them in enough water to cover them. You can add a touch of salt and lime juice to the soak water. It helps not only add a wisp of seasoning to the masa filling, but also helps make the corn husks just a bit more pliable.

More South-of-the-Border Inspired Recipes here!

Do you need to tie up the tamales after they are rolled?

Some folks like to get super fancy and use a bit of shredded corn husk to create a neat little tied bow on the tamale before steaming it. Go for it if you want, but guess what?

It won’t make a shredded beef tamale taste one bit better. It looks swell, but it is sort of unnecessary unless you are trying to impress the Pope or someone like that. The wrapped tamales stay intact during the cooking. They are nestled together and packed in so falling apart just isn’t an issue.

If you are having trouble with that, I find it easier to tie them with baker’s twine or similar. No need for a fancy bow though. 😉 

See all of my grilled recipes with BEEF here!

Suggested Substitutions and Additions

You can spice the tamales a bit by adding some chopped up peppers like hatch chilis or jalapenos.

Make sure if you use chilis that you remove the skin first. This is easy to do – either briefly parboil them, or put them on top of a gas stove and singe them on the outside. Take them out of the hot water or off the flame, then cover a few minutes to cool.

When they are cool enough to touch then you can easily scrape off the outer waxy skin and chop them up.

If you don’t have beef roast, any shredded meat will do. You can cook up some shredded chicken breasts, shredded pork, or ground beef even.

Check out all of my Traeger Recipes!

What toppings are best for shredded beef tamales?

Any salsa or your preferred hot sauce work wonderfully. You can also use a bit of sour cream and guacamole too. If you can find Mexican style sour cream then that is nice and creamy and easily pours.

Tamales also go really well with mole or adobo style sauces. There a wide variety of these sauces that come in cans or jars and can be easily heated to serve with your tamales.

I know you guys will probably yell at me, but I also like a big pile of shredded iceburg on top of my tamales too, and I’ll never say no to a scoop of guacamole.

How about my blender salsa on top?

How to store and reheat leftovers

Tamales are so convenient since they actually come out already wrapped and ready to store. In the fridge, you can store them for up to a week no problem. In the freezer, you can get six month out of them as long as you store them in a proper freezer zip lock style bag.

To reheat, you can either use a microwave or the oven. The convenience of a microwave cannot be underestimated! Such a convenient and comforting food is even better when you can snatch it out and heat it up quickly to offset that jaguar growling in your stomach!

You can also re-steam them if you want to be authentic.

Don’t forgot to whip up a few of our 18 Amazing BBQ Side Dishes too!

More Mexican-Inspired Recipes

If you like the shredded beef tamales, then check out some of my other tamale favorites and some dishes and a sauce I recommend for them:

• Chicken Tamale Pie
• Beef Tamale Pie
• Traeger Smoked Salsa Verde
• Spicy One-Pot Mexican Rice
• Grilled Mexican Street Corn