How to freeze and reheat tamales
A tamalada makes more than anyone eats that day, so the leftovers and take-home bags matter. Get the cooked tamales into the fridge or freezer within two hours, keep the freezer at 0°F, and reheat them in the husk until the middle reaches 165°F. From frozen a steamer takes about 30 minutes, an oven about 45 and a microwave 3 to 4. This page combines two sources I opened on 2026-10-14 and adds the part a big batch needs: how many reheating loads you are signing up for.
Cooling and storing
- Penn State Extension's holiday leftovers guide says to discard food left at room temperature longer than two hours, and to cool it in shallow containers. Tamales are small, so spreading them in a single layer on a tray does the same job.
- Fridge at 40°F or below. Penn State gives 3 to 4 days for cooked poultry and side dishes. Hola Jalapeno says up to a week for tamales in an airtight container. I would follow the shorter number, which is the extension service's.
- Freezer at 0°F or lower. Penn State lists 4 to 6 months for cooked poultry dishes. It does not mention tamales. Read it as a quality guide for meat fillings.
- Thaw in the refrigerator, never on the counter (Penn State). Tamales also reheat straight from frozen, which takes longer.
Source: Penn State Extension, Holiday Leftovers. The pages I opened say nothing about freezing tamales raw, so this page covers cooked ones only.
Reheating times by method
| Method | From frozen | Cold or thawed |
|---|---|---|
| Steamer: water to the insert line, boil, then medium heat | 30 min | 15 min |
| Oven at 350°F: 1 cup water in a 9x13 dish, foil on tight | 45 min | 20 min (thawed) |
| Microwave: damp paper towel, loose plastic wrap, 30-second bursts | 3 to 4 min | 1 to 2 min |
Times are from Hola Jalapeno's reheating guide.
165°F or 160°F
Hola Jalapeno gives 160°F for the inside of a tamale. Penn State says reheat leftovers to 165°F, checked with a calibrated thermometer. The difference is 5 degrees and I use the higher number: slide an instant-read thermometer into the middle of one tamale at the end of the time and keep steaming if it reads lower.
Reheat loads for a big freezer
The times above are per load, and a pot only holds so many tamales. These are loads for a freezer full of tamales, at 30 minutes per load from frozen and 15 from the fridge. They exclude the time to bring the water to a boil.
| Pot holds | Dozens | Loads | From frozen | From the fridge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 | 5 | 3 | 1 h 30 min | 45 min |
| 24 | 10 | 5 | 2 h 30 min | 1 h 15 min |
| 36 | 5 | 2 | 1 h | 30 min |
| 36 | 10 | 4 | 2 h | 1 h |
| 62 | 5 | 1 | 30 min | 15 min |
| 62 | 10 | 2 | 1 h | 30 min |
Loads are the planner's own arithmetic: tamales divided by pot size, rounded up. A 62-tamale steamer is the 20-quart size 5280 describes.
Worked example: 20 guests and a take-home bag each
5280's tamale party guide sends every guest home with at least half a dozen. For 20 guests that is 120 tamales, 10 dozen to cool, bag and freeze. With 4 tamales each to eat on the day, the planner comes to 17 dozen (204 tamales) in all. Whoever takes a bag home reheats it later. If one cook reheated all 120 frozen ones in a 36-tamale pot, that would be 4 loads of 30 minutes. A single dozen is one load. Open the planner with these numbers to see the masa, filling and husks for the whole batch.
Related: how long to steam tamales covers fresh batches. For how many to make, see how many tamales per person, or go back to the tamalada planner.