Buying tamales by the dozen in DFW: bulk orders, delivery, and pricing

A dozen of my tamales is $60, a half-dozen is $30, and you order as many dozens as your crowd needs in our online store. Bulk orders by the dozen are how churches, school groups, sports teams, and fundraisers in north Dallas feed a crowd without hiring a caterer, and they are a big part of what my family kitchen does every week.

The short answer: tamales by the dozen from my kitchen are $60 a dozen and $30 a half-dozen, which is $5 per tamal, in pork with red salsa or chicken with green. Plan two per person with sides and three without, and order in our online store for delivery or pickup, today or a date ahead, paid online.

This guide covers what a dozen actually is, how the pricing works at volume, how a bulk order is different from a catering order, who orders this way, and how the tamales get from our kitchen in Plano to your church hall in McKinney.

What you get in a dozen

Twelve full-size tamales, in their husks, in one of two kinds: pork in red salsa or chicken breast in green tomatillo salsa. For a big order, mix the dozens any way you like: so many of pork, so many of chicken. All of them are made with gluten-free masa, from scratch, the morning they go out.

The word “full-size” is doing work in that sentence. A reviewer once described ours as “huge” and “packed with meat,” and I have watched a grown man be defeated by three. When you are planning how many dozens you need, count on two tamales per person as a meal with sides and three without, not the four to six that recipe sites assume for little market tamales. My article on how many tamales per person has the full chart.

Pricing by the dozen

The menu has two sizes, and the math is simple:

• Half-dozen, $30. The family size, a taste before you commit to fifty dozen, and the piece that lets you order for 27 people instead of 36.
• One dozen, $60. Five dollars a tamal. This is the unit bulk orders are built from.

That is the whole price list, and I publish it because I want you to be able to do the math at your kitchen table before you order. When you order many dozens for an event, the online store adds them up and shows the delivery fee at checkout, so you see exactly what you are paying for before you pay. The per-dozen figure is the anchor and it does not move around on you.

What we bring and what you arrange

People call a big order bulk or catering interchangeably, and in my kitchen it is the same thing: chicken or pork tamales by the dozen for your group. The difference between a smooth event and a scramble is everything around them, so here is who handles what.

If your event has volunteers and folding tables, you have everything you need. We make the tamales; your group adds the rice, the tea and the serving line. The catering hub explains how ordering for a group works, and every order goes the same way: in our online store, paid online.

Who orders tamales by the dozen

Churches and community groups

A church supper, a Sunday after-service lunch, a parish festival. The kitchen ladies handle the rice and the tea, and I handle the tamales. Ordering by the dozen keeps the count easy, and I always tell church groups to set out extra salsa, because church crowds like it.

Schools, PTAs, and teacher appreciation

Teacher appreciation week is one of my favorite orders of the year. A PTA parent counts forty staff and orders four dozen online. The staff eat in the lounge between classes, which is why bulk in husks works better than a plated lunch: a tamal waits patiently and reheats without complaint.

Sports teams and booster clubs

Team dinners before a game, booster-club concession stands, end-of-season banquets. Teenage athletes eat three each, sometimes four. I tell every booster parent to round up.

Fundraisers

Tamale sales are a long Texas tradition, and a lot of groups buy from me by the dozen and resell them to raise money for a trip, a mission, or a uniform fund. I do not set your resale price and I would not presume to, but the per-dozen cost is published, and ordering by the dozen makes the tamales easy to count and hand out. Groups doing this should read the bulk tamales page first; it is written for exactly this.

Big families and holidays

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year are tamale season in Texas, and families who used to spend two days rolling their own now order five or ten dozen and spend the day together instead. Order as soon as you know you are hosting; our holiday tamales page has the details, and for the freezer there are frozen tamales by the dozen.

How a bulk order is delivered

We are a kitchen, not a restaurant: there is no dine-in and no walk-in counter. Every dozen is delivered to your address or picked up at our Plano kitchen; the pickup address and time come with the order confirmation. Here is what that looks like for a large order:

1. Made that morning. Masa mixed, meats cooked, tamales rolled and steamed in big pots. Nothing is frozen and thawed.
2. Husks on. The tamales travel in their husks, which is how they hold heat best.
3. Delivered across north DFW. Allen, McKinney, Fairview, Frisco, The Colony, Plano, Murphy, Carrollton, Addison, Richardson and Far North Dallas, with the delivery fee shown at checkout. A church in Frisco can check the Frisco catering page for its own details.

The kitchen runs Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, 9 AM–2 PM. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. Only confirmed orders will be delivered as requested. If you have a Sunday event, order for Saturday and hold and reheat the tamales, which brings me to the next section.

Keeping fifty dozen hot, and what to do with the rest

Bulk orders usually feed people over a couple of hours, so holding heat matters more than it does for a sit-down meal. What works:

• Leave them in the husks and keep the pans covered. A covered foil pan of tamales stays hot far longer than people expect.
• A chafing rack with a water pan holds a pan at serving temperature for hours. Most church halls have a few, and party rental shops carry them.
• A slow cooker on warm, with a splash of water in the bottom, is the home version. Stand the tamales upright, lid on.
• Put out one pan at a time. The pan in the kitchen stays hot; the pan on the table is the one that cools. Swap them.

And then there are the leftovers, which are the best argument for rounding up. Tamales freeze better than almost any party food: husks on, wrapped in foil or a freezer bag, laid flat. They steam straight from frozen and taste like the day they were made. I wrote a whole guide on freezing and storing tamales, and a church group that ends up with three extra dozen has just solved lunch for the office volunteers for a month.

Ordering in bulk: what to tell me

A bulk order has few moving parts. Before you open the online store, have these answers ready:

• The date, the address, and the time you want it on the table.
• How many dozens: a headcount times two with sides, or times three without, divided by twelve and rounded up.
• The pork-to-chicken split. For a mixed crowd, split it evenly; for a group with more people watching what they eat, lean toward the chicken.
• Delivery or pickup. Delivery goes to the address you enter; pickup is at our Plano kitchen.
• Who brings the serving pans, plates and tongs, if you are running a line.

The more notice, the better, especially for a big order around the holidays. Small orders, a dozen or two for the house, go through the same online store, and the ordering page walks through each step. Questions? Call or text (469) 888-8398.

For a bigger event, tamales by the dozen are the least expensive way I know to feed a lot of people something they will actually talk about. If you want to see how the per-person numbers shake out against other options, my catering budget guide for DFW does the math with real figures. And two fillings turn out to be all a crowd needs: one rich and a little spicy, one lighter and milder.

Frequently asked questions

How much is a dozen tamales in Dallas?

From my kitchen, a dozen big tamales is $60 and a half-dozen is $30. That works out to five dollars a tamal in pork with red salsa or chicken with green salsa. For a bulk order of many dozens, the online store shows the full total, with the delivery fee, before you pay.

What is the smallest order, and how big can a bulk order be?

The smallest order is a half-dozen, and it is ordered in our online store the same way as fifty dozen: chicken or pork, delivery or pickup, today or a date ahead, paid online. For a large bulk order, give the kitchen as much notice as you can. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. If you have a question about a very large order, call or text (469) 888-8398.

Do you deliver bulk tamales to churches and schools in DFW?

Yes. Churches, schools, PTAs, sports teams, and fundraising groups across Allen, McKinney, Fairview, Frisco, The Colony, Plano, Murphy, Carrollton, Addison, Richardson and Far North Dallas are a big part of what we do. Tamales arrive in their husks, by the dozen, and the delivery fee is shown at checkout. Pickup at our Plano kitchen is the other option.

Can I buy tamales in bulk to resell for a fundraiser?

Many groups do. You buy by the dozen at the published price, set your own resale price, and hand them out to supporters. Ordering by the dozen keeps the counting easy. Order with as much notice as you can, especially around the holidays, and plan the count with two tamales per supporter so you do not run short.

How do I keep a bulk tamale order hot for a few hours?

Leave the tamales in their husks and keep the foil pans covered. A chafing rack with a water pan holds a pan at serving temperature for hours, and a slow cooker on warm with a splash of water works at home. Put out one pan at a time and keep the rest covered in the kitchen. Freeze any leftovers in their husks and steam them from frozen.