Montucas

This Montucas are a typical recipe in the southern part of Honduras. Montucas are a traditional dish similar to nacatamal. The difference is that the montucas are made with tender conr (sweet corn)  and for its filling you can choose between chicken, beef or pork.

Montucas  can be filled with meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, chilies or any preparation according to taste, and both the filling and the cooking liquid may be seasoned. Montucas are generally wrapped in corn husks or plantain leaves but may also be wrapped in banana, bijao, maguey, avocado or canak leaves. Recently aluminum foil also made its way to Honduran cuisine.

Tamales are one of the favorite dishes of Hondurans but on special festive occasions, such as Christmas and the New Year, they become the stars of the table. A big bag of tamales in the fridge can be used for breakfast, lunch or dinner, or for those drop-in guests, often accompanied by a pork or chicken sandwich.

There are more types of Honduran tamales.

The simplest tamales are called tamales de elote. This means they are made from mature corn (elote) and not from green corn (jilote), which is another class of tamales. The first step is to take the dried corn kernels and cook them with ashes or lime to soften them up and lose their hard skins. After boiling, the corn is ground, traditionally with corn grinding stones, now more recently with hand meat grinders. To this ground corn, only water is added before wrapping it up in the corn husk and boiling.

Tamales de frijoles are made the same as other tamales, except refried beans and a little achiote are added. They are wrapped up and cooked.

Ticucos are also similar. Corn is prepared as if for tamales, mixed with lard and salt. Refried beans are placed in the center, sometimes with other spices like cilantro. Then ticucos are wrapped up in corn husk leaves and cooked.

The process for tamales de maiz verde (green corn tamales) is different because the corn is grated off the cob.

Montucas, like tamales de maiz verde, are made by grating the corn off the cob. A little sugar, salt, milk, cloves, margarine and meat is added and cooked it in the corn husk leaves.

The king of Honduran tamales is the nacatamal, a traditional Christmas food.