Tamales de Pato en Mole Oscuro con Salsa de Cerezas (Duck in Dark Mole Tamales with Tart Cherry-Chive Salsa)

Cooks Without Borders’ resident Mexican cooking expert Olivia Lopez created this recipe for tamales filled with duck in a dark mole sauce for a story we collaborated on for The Dallas Morning News about making tamales for the holidays. We had wanted to feature a tamal using turkey, but in the recipe-development process we were made aware of a pandemic-related shortage in the supermarkets of the turkey legs or turkey thighs we’d planned to use. Duck was the answer: Roasted whole duck legs are easy to prepare, the shredded meat is absolutely delicious in a dark mole, and — how cool is this? — you can substitute leftover dark turkey meat if you happen to have some from your holiday cooking.

This recipe may look daunting, and making tamales does involve a lot of steps. However, it is much less work than it might appear, as none of the steps is difficult or terribly labor-intensive. It makes about twice as mole as you need for 10 tamales. Either use the rest for another dish (cooking it in olive oil first, as described for the duck), or you can double the masa and duck parts of the recipe to make 20 tamales, using all the mole.

READ: Olivia Lopez’s Tips for Brilliant Tamales

The (optional!) salsa balances the rich mole beautifully; it’s also really good served with roasted turkey or chicken. (Feel free to substitute dried cranberries for the dried tart cherries, if you like!)

RECIPE: Salsa de Cerezas (Tart Cherry-Chive Salsa)

We love the subtle fragrance the banana-leaf wrappers impart to the duck mole tamales, but feel free to use corn husks, if you prefer. (See the instructions for soaking the husks and wrapping the tamales in the Sweet Potato and Vegetable Picadillo Tamales recipe.) 

If you want to substitute leftover dark-meat turkey for the duck, skip the duck roasting instructions, shred about 8 ounces / 219 g. of turkey meat (to make about 1 1/3 cups to 1 ½ cups shredded meat). If you don’t happen to have duck fat, you can substitute extra virgin olive oil.

Makes 10 tamales.

Ingredients

For the duck part of the filling:

 2 whole duck legs (drumstick and thigh), about 1 pound / 454 g. total

Sea salt

Freshly ground pepper

For the wrappers:

12 banana leaves, cut into 7 ½ X 9-inch rectangles

For the mole:

6 pasilla chiles

6 guajillo chiles

3 ancho chiles

1 teaspoon cumin seed

1 teaspoon coriander seed

3 whole allspice

¼ teaspoon black peppercorns

2 cloves

½ medium tomato, cut in quarters

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and cut in quarters

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 tablespoon golden raisins

½ tablespoon brown sugar (light or dark)

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

½ ounce / 13 g bittersweet chocolate (at least 80% cacao), chopped (about 1 tablespoon)

2 cups chicken broth

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 ripe banana or ripe plantain

For the masa:

 250 g / 8.75 ounces yellow masa harina (about 2 cups plus 3 tablespoons)

2 ¼ teaspoons sea salt

¼ teaspoon baking powder

3 tablespoons duck fat (rendered from roasting duck legs, above, or purchased, or substitute olive oil if you’re using leftover turkey instead of duck)

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

For the filling:

1 tablespoon of rendered duck fat or olive oil

The shredded duck meat (or about 8 ounces / 225 g. of shredded leftover turkey, if using)

1 ½ cups mole

For the steaming and serving:

Corn husks soaked 15 minutes in water, to line the steamer

Salsa de Cerezas (Tart Cherry-Chive Salsa), optional

Instructions

1. About an hour before you’re ready to roast, pat the duck legs dry and use a needle or the sharp point of a knife to prick the skin of the duck all over. Try not to pierce the meat; the best way is to prick at a sharp angle. Salt the legs very generously and let them sit for 1 hour. (While they’re sitting, you can prepare the banana leaves and start on the mole, below.)

2. Heat the oven to 285 degrees F. Line a sheet pan (a small one is fine) with parchment and lay the legs, skin-side up, on the it, not touching each other. Roast them for 90 minutes, or until they have started rendering some fat. If there is fat collected on the pan, turn the oven up to 375 degrees and roast for another 10 minutes, until the skin is crisped and more fat has rendered. Remove the pan from the oven, transfer the duck legs to a plate to cool, and strain the collected fat into a small pitcher, jar or bowl. Set aside. Once the duck is cool enough to handle, remove the skin, shred the meat, and discard the bones. (The skin will be delicious – you can either nibble it as a delectable cook’s treat, or crumble it on a salad or over roasted Brussels sprouts or other vegetable.) You should have a little less than half a pound / 225 g. of shredded meat, between 1 1/3 and 1 ½ cups. Set aside.

3. To prepare the banana leaves, if you have a gas stove, use tongs to hold each leaf about 4 inches above the flame until the whole leaf turns bright green. If you have an electric stove, heat a griddle or comal over medium-high heat, then lay the leaves, one at a time, on the hot surface, pressing lightly with a wooden spoon so there’s contact. Keep the contact brief – just until that part of the leaf turns bright green. Do not let the leaves turn brown or burn. Cut two of the leaves into long strips to be used as ties — you’ll need about 20 strips. Set strips and leaves aside until ready to use.

4. Now make the mole. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Place the dried pasilla, guajillo and ancho chiles on a sheet pan, and place them in the oven to roast for 8 to 10 minutes, until they puff up with air. Remove from the oven, and set aside to cool.

5. Heat a small, dry skillet over medium heat. Place the cumin seed, coriander, allspice, peppercorns and cloves in the skillet and let toast until fragrant, about 4 or 5 minutes. Transfer to a spice grinder or mini food processor and grind until fine. Set aside.

6. When the chiles are cool enough to handle, use kitchen shears or a knife to cut off the stem end, and shake out and discard all the seeds. If some are stuck, you can cut open the chile to empty them out.

7. Set a fine-mesh strainer or a chinois over a medium bowl and set aside. In the bowl of a blender, place 1 cup of the chicken broth, the tomato chunks, onion and garlic and blend. Once it’s smooth, open the feeding hole in the cover, and with the motor still running, drop in the seeded chiles one or two at time, waiting until they’re blended to add the next ones. Continue until all the chiles are incorporated. If the mixture starts seeming too thick to process, add chicken broth about a quarter cup at a time to loosen it up and make blending easier. Add the ground spices, raisins, brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, chocolate, salt and banana or plantain, and blend to a smooth purée, adding more chicken broth as needed. You’ll probably want to use between 1 ½ cups to 2 cups total of broth. If the blender is working too hard, you can transfer some of the smooth paste to the strainer to make room. The paste should be thick enough to hold a ridge when you stir it, but not as thick as mashed potatoes – it should be thin enough to pour. If it’s too thick, stir in a little more chicken broth.

8.Transfer the mole to the strainer, and use a wooden spoon to press it all through into the bowl. Add a little more chicken broth to the blender to rinse out the rest of the mole, add that to the strainer, and push through. Taste and adjust seasoning. You should have about 3 cups of strained mole. Set aside.

9. Now make the masa. Place the masa harina in a large mixing bowl with the salt and baking powder; whisk to combine well.

10. Pour 1 1/2 cup of water into a separate medium bowl. Whisk in the 3 tablespoons of duck fat and the olive oil. Gradually fold the liquid into the masa harina, using a rubber spatula. Once it’s all added, use the spatula to smear the mixture onto the bottom of the bowl to help the dry and wet ingredients combine. Continue folding and smashing until the mixture is completely smooth and uniform, about 10 minutes. When it’s ready, it should be about the texture and thickness of Play-Doh. If you pick up a handful of it, it should hold together without crumbling. If it’s too dry, add a little more water a tablespoonful at a time, mixing it in completely before adding the next addition and assessing texture before adding more. If it’s too wet, sprinkle on a little masa harina a tablespoon at a time, working it in completely and assessing texture before adding more. Once the mixture feels like Play-Doh the masa is ready.

11. To complete the filling, heat the 1 tablespoon of duck fat or olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Standing back (as it may splatter), pour in 1 ½ cups of the strained mole. Stir to combine, reduce the heat to medium-low (if it’s sputtering too much), and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 minutes. Stir in the shredded duck meat or turkey meat and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the flavors have melded. Remove from heat, taste and adjust seasoning. Place transfer the mixture to a small bowl for convenient assembly.  

12. To assemble a tamal, place a banana leaf on your work surface, shinier side down. Measure out a ball of masa about 60 g / 2 ounces, about the size of a ping pong ball. (Note: If you have a ¼ cup measure, it should just about fill it up, or use a 4-ounce ice-cream scoop.) Use your fingers or a small offset spatula to spread the masa in an oval shape in the center of the leaf about 1/8-inch thick. On top of the masa, place about 1 ½ tablespoons of the duck in mole sauce, leaving a masa border of about an inch all around.

13. With one of the two long edges of the leaf facing you fold the bottom half of the leaf up to meet the top so the two edges meet, then pull the top edge toward the center, rolling firmly, as if you’re rolling a burrito, but a little flatter. Open it up again, fold the bottom third up over the filling, and the top third down over the bottom third. Flip it over, and fold the left flap to the right to cover the part with the filling, and fold the right part to the left to cover again — you’ll have a neat rectangular packet. Use two banana-leaf ties to close the packet. Repeat until all the masa is used.  

14. Set up a steamer, filling the bottom with water and inserting the steamer insert. Use the soaked corn husks to line the steamer insert, also covering the seam between the insert and the side of the steamer (you can have the husk come partway up the sides of the pan). Arrange the tamales on the corn husks — not too tightly together; adding a second or even a third layer, if necessary. Cover the steamer, and bring the water to a rapid boil over high heat. Once the water is boiling (you can open, look and listen), cover again, turn the heat to medium and steam for 60 minutes. Being very careful not to be burned by the steam when you remove the cover, check one tamal for doneness: Open it partway. If it is holding ridges formed by the banana leaf, it is done. If the masa is too soft, you can let them steam another 15 or 20 minutes. Once the tamals are finished steaming, use tongs to transfer them to a platter. Let them sit without opening them for 5 or 10 minutes so they continue to set.

15. Serve immediately, with Tart Cherry-Chive Salsa, if desired. Or store in the refrigerator in a sealed bag (up to 4 days) until ready to serve. Reheat them by steaming again for about 15 minutes. They may also be frozen up to 3 months.