In her small Pueblan hometown San Juan Pilcaya, María Mozo was a cocinera tradicional (traditional cook), hand-picked by her community to prepare large-scale meals during festivals. At her restaurant in Chicago, she has created a menu that’s a collection of everyday food and celebratory dishes. The menu features the staple green and red pork tamales and a couple of regional specialties. Try the tamales cenizos, a flat and square delicacy that has been leveraging charcoal as an ingredient for centuries, way before it became hip. The flat, fragrant bundle is perfect for sopping up your mole. El Sabor Poblano also serves bean tamales stuffed with beans and mole, and extraordinarily fluffy corn tamales, which you could very well enjoy as dessert. 

This destination for freshly made tamales across the street from El Sabor Poblano has catered to the Rogers Park community since 2007, and bills itself as “the best of Guerrero,” though the meny also features a few variations from different Mexican regions. Order one, six, or a dozen of the green or red salsa tamales with a choice of pork or chicken. Vegetarian options include beans with cheese and jalapeño with cheese; there are also strawberry and pineapple for dessert. Other interesting choices include the regional oaxaqueño (flatter and smoother than their counterparts and perfumed by the banana leaves they are wrapped in) and the corundas, which hail from the state of Michoacán and are used as a vehicle for sauces or moles.

Kie-Gol-Lanee (“old stone” in the Zapotec dialect) is the phonetic spelling of Santa María Quiegolani, a small Oaxacan village in the Sierra Sur region. This is where most of the team behind this two-time Bib Gourmand Award-winning eatery grew up and learned to cook from recipes passed down through generations. The menu includes Oaxacan-style red or green tamales cooked in banana leaves, which gives them a unique perfume. The vegetarian options include cheese and jalapeño tamales and a variation featuring mushrooms in a yellow mole. It is easy to get distracted by the tlayudas on the menu or the seasonally available grasshoppers, but the tamales are a solid choice. Pair them with a chocolate champurrado, a delicious thick drink made with corn masa.

Chef Eufemia López gifts Chicago with the flavors of Palmar Chico, a small village in the state of México, where Otomí culture still prevails. Her dishes include a red and green mole and what in her town is known as chimpa, a mole that incorporates green and red chiles. Tamales here are what’s for dessert. The chocolate, flourless tamal is rich and may remind you of molten lava cake.

This is not a destination to enjoy only tamales: patrons of this Belmont-Cragin establishment rave about the uchepos gratinados. These irresistible tamales are traditional of the state of Michoacán and are made with tender corn ears. Sol de México’s chef serves them au gratin with a delicate chile chilaca sauce. 

Locals flock to this West Humboldt Park establishment to place their party orders. Behind the counter, the tamales are steamed in pots reminiscent of those pushed in carts by street vendors in Mexico. If you want a breakfast that packs a punch, have some tamales on your way to work: Chilo y Chela opens at 6 a.m. Try the rajas con queso tamales (jalapeño and cheese), which are flavorful and not too spicy. Unique atole options such as the eggnog-like rompope are available on the weekends.

For more than 20 years, Claudio Velez has fed hungry revelers at bars around town from his red cooler full of tamales and his signature green salsa. Being constantly on the move and keeping his location a secret eventually turned Velez into a Chicago legend, to the point that a Twitter account was created to track his sightings. He is currently operating out of Bangers & Lace in Wicker Park. But it you don’t want to wait to try to catch him at a bar or if you’d like to hire him to cater an event, you can order via his online shop.

Bar Sótano pays homage to the Yucatecan chachawa with its mushroom “pibil” corn tamal, featuring roasted tomato-habanero salsa, pickled onions, and micro epazote. The banana-wrapped delicacy is baked to achieve a crispy texture.

Launched during the pandemic by 5 Rabanitos owner Alfonso Sotelo, Fiesta Tamalería el Barrio reflects the Tompolobampo and Xoco alum’s love for his home state of Guerrero in its menu. The fluffy and airy tamales have plenty of pulled meat in every forkful, and patrons can enjoy regional options like the spicy bean tamales, a Guerrero favorite. The atole choices feature difficult-to-find flavors, such as guava, coconut, and sweet potato, which are clear giveaways of the chef’s regional flair.

Hailing from the state of Michoacán, the epicenter of carnitas know-how, Inocencio Carbajal opened Carnitas Uruapan in 1975. Here, patrons can order either one taco or a whole pound (or many) and choose from different pork cuts. Traditional cactus salad, pickled chilis, chicharrón, and brain quesadillas are also available. Recently, Michoacano-style tamales, known as corundas made with two different masa types and stuffed with either queso fresco or swiss chard, were added to the menu. The dense tamales which can also be served as a vehicle for moles or other dishes are served with chile de árbol sauce, sour cream, and cotija cheese.

Rain, shine, or snow, there’s always a long line at the Tamale Lady cart. A QR code on the cart directs customers to the menu, and her name and logo on it makes it clearly recognizable among others who, wanting to capitalize on her word of mouth, stand around her. The Tamale Lady offers corn husk and Oaxacan tamales wrapped in banana leaves. The filling choices include pork and chicken in green salsa, pork in red salsa, bean tamales, and a couple of sweet options. Do not forget to pair your bounty with champurrado. Find her early. She is out at 7 a.m. and sells out quickly.

Mexico City natives would agree that everything tastes better stuffed inside a bolillo roll, including tamales. The carb redundancy is found in the popular streetside breakfast torta de tamal, also known as “guajolota,” in which a roll, is stuffed with the patron’s tamal of choice. Fat Johnnie’s serves a local variation known as the Mother-In-Law, which features chili-covered hot tamales instead of a sausage in a poppy seed hot dog bun. Smaller than its Mexican counterparts, the mass-produced hot tamale (known as such in the singular in the Southern vernacular; the others are known as “tamal” in Spanish) is made from cornmeal, which gives it a gritty texture.