Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Tamales Colorados
Soft corn masa tinted with a red recado of tomato, chile, and toasted seeds, wrapped around pork with an olive, and steamed in banana leaf.
Guatemalan · advanced · serves 8
prep 60 min · cook 90 min
~565 cal · 31g protein · 79g carbs · 17g fat · 10g fiber · 35g sugars · 5g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Tamales colorados are Guatemala's red tamal, the big, soft, banana-leaf-wrapped tamales eaten on Saturdays and above all at Christmas, when whole families gather to make them by the dozen. Colorado means red, and the colour comes not from heat but from the recado, a -like sauce of tomato and built on mild dried chiles and toasted seeds.
They are a double-cooked tamal, which is their secret. The is first cooked in a pot with broth and lard until it thickens and turns silky, beaten through with part of the recado, then wrapped around a piece of pork, a spoon of sauce, an olive, and a strip of roasted red pepper, and steamed a second time inside the banana leaf. That pre-cooking gives them their tender, almost custardy texture.
The banana leaf is essential, lending a grassy, floral aroma that corn husks cannot match. Rich, savoury, and deeply tied to the Guatemalan calendar, tamales colorados are as much a ritual as a recipe, a dish that means home and holiday to Guatemalans everywhere.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally gluten-, dairy-, nut- and egg-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
1.5 lbs fresh corn (or harina prepared to a soft dough)
8 oz lard (manteca)
1.5 lbs pork shoulder, simmered until tender and cut up
1 lb ripe tomatoes
8 oz , husked
3 red bell peppers
5 total dried guaque and pasa chiles, stemmed and seeded
1/4 cup total pepitoria (raw pumpkin seeds) and sesame seeds, toasted
1 tbsp and 1 piece () and a small piece of cinnamon
16 green olives
16 pieces banana leaves, softened over a flame
to taste salt
Instructions
1
Simmer the pork in salted water until tender, then lift it out, cut it into pieces, and reserve the broth. Roast one red pepper, peel it, and cut it into strips for the filling.
2
Toast the seeded chiles lightly and soak them soft; toast the pumpkin and sesame seeds; and char the tomatoes, tomatillos, and remaining peppers until blistered.
3
Blend the soaked chiles, charred vegetables, toasted seeds, achiote, and cinnamon into a smooth recado, then fry it down in a little lard until it darkens and thickens, and season with salt.
✎ Chef’s note
Cooking the recado down until it turns from red to brick is what separates a deep, savoury sauce from a flat, raw-tasting one.
4
Cook the masa with about two cups of broth and the lard over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it thickens and pulls from the sides, then beat in most of the recado and salt so it is soft and glossy.
5
On each softened banana leaf spread a palm-sized layer of red masa, add a piece of pork, a spoon of the reserved recado, an olive, and a strip of roasted pepper, then fold into a sealed packet.
6
Steam the packets upright in a lined pot with an inch of water, covered, for about an hour, until the masa is set. Rest a few minutes and unwrap to serve.
Guatemalan ladino-Maya tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Sacatepéquez (Antigua). Sacatepequez is colonial Antigua under its volcanoes, where pepian, a stew thickened with toasted seeds and dried chiles, is cooked for saints' days and family gatherings. Corn tortillas, black beans, and tamales wrapped in banana leaf are the everyday foundation.
🗺️
Guatemala. Corn is still worked by hand in a great many kitchens. The piedra de moler, a sloped grinding stone worked with a stone roller, sits in the corner and does what a machine does elsewhere, and tortillas are patted out and cooked on a comal to order rather than bought in packets. Black beans go with almost everything, whole or fried down to a paste.
🌍
North America. The most consequential technique on this continent is nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime or wood ash. It loosens the skins, makes the dough that becomes tortillas and tamales, and frees up niacin the body cannot otherwise absorb, which is why maize spread around the world without the technique and took pellagra with it.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Guatemala
Pepián de PolloChicken in a deep, toasty sauce of charred tomatoes, chiles, and ground seeds, Guatemala’s Mayan-rooted national stew.
Desayuno ChapínThe full Guatemalan breakfast plate: eggs, soupy black beans, fried sweet plantain, fresh cream, and warm corn tortillas.
Tostadas GuatemaltecasCrisp fried tortillas topped three ways, with guacamole, tomato salsa, or black beans, a light Guatemalan street lunch.
Browse all Guatemala recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan, Oven, Steamer, Blender.
Storing it: Keeps 2 to 3 days refrigerated. Resteam or warm through gently to serve.
Make it a Guatemala meal
Atol de EloteDrink
Rellenitos de PlátanoDessert
Tostadas GuatemaltecasLunch
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Themes
Frequently asked questions
What is Tamales Colorados?
Soft corn masa tinted with a red recado of tomato, chile, and toasted seeds, wrapped around pork with an olive, and steamed in banana leaf.
Where does Tamales Colorados come from?
Tamales Colorados is a Guatemalan dish from Sacatepéquez (Antigua), Guatemala.
Can Tamales Colorados be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Tamales Colorados recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Tamales Colorados safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Tamales Colorados take to make?
About 150 minutes total (60 minutes prep, 90 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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