Tamales and Chuchitos

I was looking for the website of our favorite Antigua bakery, La Reposteria when I came across this article which mentions a woman who sells tamales and chuchitos on Saturday night. So, guess what I did tonight?

Not familiar with tamales or chuchitos? I wasn't too familiar with them either so that is why I read the article linked above just as I know you did. For the insatiably curious, you can also read about them at Wikipedia which also has some information specifically about Guatemalan tamales:

In Guatemala, a variety of tamal is called "Tamal Colorado," which has a chicken or pork filling, a tomato based sauce recado, (hence the "colorado," which means red coloured). It may also contain olives, red bell pepper, prunes or raisins, capers, and almonds.

Chuchitos are like tamales but the masa is firmer. The masa in the tamales was very soft - more like very soft mashed potatoes. The chuchito was firm and could be picked up to be eaten. The tamales are wrapped in banana leaves and the chuchitos in corn husks.

So, with that build up, I give you pictures. Ok, I will warn you, the pictures aren't that great (but you are used to that by now, right?) and they don't make the tamales look particularly appetizing but trust me, they were all delicious.

I had one pork tamale and one chicken one. They were both delicious and had meat, sauce and an olive in them. The pork was tender and incredibly flavorful. The chicken ones were flavorful and tender with the meat falling off the bone...which means that the pieces of chicken inside were still on the bone when the tamale was cooked which kind of made it a pain to eat. The chuchito had pork and sauce and chapin inside and was also delicious. I ate them while streaming the Florida - Florida State game on to our laptop thanks to the amazing things you can find on the internet.