Tamale King

“The name didn’t come until weeks later. When delivering, my friends would say, ‘The Tamale King is here!’ I didn’t have a name for the business at the time and I liked the sound of it so ‘Tamale King’ it was,” says Felix Cornejo.

The Cornejo family has made traditional tamales for years, but one evening last November, they decided to sell their pork tamales to friends on Facebook. Those quickly became a hit. “The Tamale King concept was born that night,” reflects Felix.

This concept is a family endeavor. Felix’s mother, Alicia Cornejo, makes most of the tamales, and Felix assists her along with handling all the other elements of the business: the orders, deliveries, and social media. His fifteen years of experience in food prep and catering has served them well. Even Felix’s thirteen-year-old son has played a part by designing the tamale character logo. One of Felix’s earliest tamale memories is from his childhood in Central America, where he recalls having tamales made with plantain husks that tasted a little different than the traditional Mexican style tamales with which most Americans are familiar.

“We started with traditional pork and then added other flavors as we went along.” In addition to the traditional pork, Tamale King now offers spicy pork, chicken and cheese with jalapeño, and quesabirria, as well as a cheese and/or bean option. Their quesabirria tamale, a combination of queso and birria, the traditional stewed meat from Jalisco state in Central Mexico, is quickly becoming a favorite among customers. A taco variation of quesabirria took parts of California’s Bay Area by storm in 2019.

“We took that traditional [birria] concept and turned it into tamales,” says Felix. “We marinate our beef for 24 hours in our custom chipotle and tomato paste. The meat is then slow stewed for 12 hours in chicken broth. Once the meat is falling-apart tender, we remove it from the stew and chop it.” The quesabirria tamales then get a heavy helping of cheese and are served with the customary side of the consumé for dipping. It’s a deliciously satisfying combination of ingredients.

Tamale King is currently taking orders through Facebook and Instagram and, if you’re lucky, you can also find them in-stock at the Market at Commonplace in Midtown. They’re working on setting up a food truck so they can take their tamales to neighborhoods and festivals and hope to grow the business more from there.

>Tamale King: Facebook and Instagram @tamalekingokc. If you’re lucky, you can also find them in-stock at Market at Commonplace in Midtown.