How much beef for tamales
Buy 1 to 1.5 lb of raw chuck or shoulder roast per dozen tamales. I opened five beef tamale recipes on 2026-10-17 and divided each beef weight by its yield. Four of them land between 0.67 and 1.6 lb per dozen, so a pound of beef makes roughly 7 to 18 tamales, depending on how full you fill them. The 7 assumes Mama Maggie's 30 servings are 30 tamales.
| Recipe | Beef as printed | Masa as printed | Yield | Raw lb per dozen | Masa cups per dozen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food Network, Tyler Florence beef tamales | 2 lb beef shoulder roast | 4 cups masa mix | 3 dozen | 0.67 | 1.3 |
| Nibbles and Feasts, red chile beef tamales | 4 lb boneless chuck | 8 cups masa harina | 40 tamales | 1.20 | 2.4 |
| Vallarta Supermarkets, tamales de carne con chile rojo | 1 1/2 lb boneless chuck | 3 cups masa flour | 12 tamales | 1.50 | 3.0 |
| Mama Maggie's Kitchen, beef tamales | 4 lb beef shoulder roast | 5 cups masa harina | 30 servings (read as tamales) | 1.60 | 2.0 |
| Doe's Eat Place via Food Network (cornmeal, outlier) | 5 lb ground chuck | 7 1/2 lb plain cornmeal | 25 to 30 tamales | 2.00 to 2.40 | not given |
Per-dozen values are my own division of each printed amount by its printed yield, sorted from least beef to most. Mama Maggie's lists 30 servings, which I read as 30 tamales. Doe's Eat Place is a Mississippi Delta recipe: cornmeal instead of masa, boiled in a seasoned liquid, and Food Network notes it has not been tested for home use. That is a different tamale, so I left it out of the range (it works out to 2.0 to 2.4 lb per dozen).
Why the numbers spread
Tyler Florence stretches 2 lb of shoulder roast over 3 dozen, about two-thirds of a pound per dozen. Vallarta puts 1 1/2 lb of chuck into just 12 tamales and says the beef comes to about 2 3/4 cups once it is mixed with red chile sauce. That is about twice the 1.1 to 1.4 cups per dozen the planner allows for a filling. Nibbles and Feasts sits between at 1.2 lb per dozen. Mama Maggie's is the highest at 1.6 if its 30 servings are 30 tamales. It also calls for 40 to 45 husks, and if each husk is a tamale it is 1.1 to 1.2 lb per dozen.
The masa column shows the same split from the other side. Vallarta uses 3 cups of masa flour for its 12, Tyler Florence about 1 1/3 cups per dozen. Masa and beef tend to rise together: Tyler Florence is small on both (1 1/3 cups, 0.67 lb), Vallarta large on both (3 cups, 1.5 lb). Tamale size is probably the reason, but none of the recipes says so. For the dough itself see how much masa per dozen tamales.
Chuck is the cut three of the five recipes name. Nibbles and Feasts says to trim the large chunks of fat and to buy a little extra if the meat is fatty. All five give raw weights, and none prints a cooked weight, so I have no sourced figure for how much you will shred from a pound.
Pounds of beef by dozens
| Dozens | Tamales | Raw beef, lb | Filling with sauce, cups |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 24 | 2 to 3 | 2.2 to 2.8 |
| 3 | 36 | 3 to 4.5 | 3.3 to 4.2 |
| 4 | 48 | 4 to 6 | 4.4 to 5.6 |
| 5 | 60 | 5 to 7.5 | 5.5 to 7 |
| 6 | 72 | 6 to 9 | 6.6 to 8.4 |
| 8 | 96 | 8 to 12 | 8.8 to 11.2 |
| 10 | 120 | 10 to 15 | 11 to 14 |
| 15 | 180 | 15 to 22.5 | 16.5 to 21 |
The beef range is my pick. It covers Nibbles and Feasts (1.2) and Vallarta (1.5). Tyler Florence is leaner, and Mama Maggie's is higher if its 30 servings are 30 tamales. The filling cups are the planner's allowance for any meat filling. A dozens link opens the planner at 1 per guest.
A 20-guest example
Twenty guests at 4 tamales each is 80, which rounds up to 7 dozen (84 tamales). That takes 7 to 10.5 lb of raw beef. Open the tamalada planner for the masa, lard, husks and steamer loads at the same count, and ignore its pork line.
Related: how much pork for tamales, how much chicken for tamales, how much red chile sauce for tamales for red beef tamales, and how many tamales per person.