Father’s Day food ideas: tamales, salsa and the game on

Every June I get the same phone call: “Maggie, it’s Father’s Day, he says he doesn’t want anything, and I know that’s a lie.” Good Father’s Day food ideas start right there. Dad does not want a project. He wants to sit down, eat something hot and real, and watch whatever is on. Tamales were built for that man.

The short answer: order two big tamales per person for lunch or three for dinner, split between pork in red salsa and chicken in green, add a bowl of extra salsa and something cold to drink, and have it delivered or picked up before the first pitch. For a table of six that is one dozen at $60; a family of ten needs two dozen. Nobody grills, nobody cleans a grill.

Here is what I have learned feeding dads across Richardson, Plano and the rest of north Dallas: the man who says he wants nothing usually wants three things. He wants his people around him. He wants to not be in charge of the food. And he wants it to taste like somebody cared. A dozen big tamales, still steaming in the husk, checks all three boxes before anyone has said grace.

Father’s Day food ideas that keep dad out of the kitchen

The trap with Father’s Day is that the “treat” turns into work for the person being treated. Brisket needs somebody up at five. Burgers need a grill master, and in most houses the grill master is the guest of honor. Even a steak dinner means someone is standing at the stove while everyone else is laughing in the other room.

Tamales flip that. They arrive from my kitchen ready to eat, and they hold in a covered pan or a low oven for a couple of hours without drying out. The food is done the moment it lands on the porch. That is the whole idea: dad sits, the tamales wait, and nobody watches a thermometer.

They also fit the way men eat on a day off. A tamal is one-handed food. It goes on a paper plate, next to a cold drink, in front of a screen. Reviewers on Google describe ours as huge and packed with meat, and that is exactly the dad-sized portion I am going for. Two pork tamales in red salsa is a real lunch, not a snack.

How many tamales for a Father’s Day table

My rule has not changed in all the years I have been steaming: two tamales per adult for lunch, three for dinner, and one or two each when the tamales share the table with a lot of other food. Teenagers count as adults. Kids under ten count as half, and grandpa counts as one and a half no matter what he tells you.

Because we sell by the half dozen at $30 and the dozen at $60 (that works out to $5 per tamal) the math stays simple. Round up to the next dozen; leftovers are the best part of Father’s Day anyway, and I explain how to warm them in my guide to reheating tamales without drying them out.

If the family is bigger than that, you are ordering for a party, and the same arithmetic still works. My article on how many tamales per person goes deeper on mixed crowds, and the catering page has a headcount calculator if you like to play with the numbers first.

Pork in red or chicken in green: which one is dad?

I make two tamales and I am not shy about either. The pork is slow-cooked and folded into a red salsa built on dried chiles, some of them carried up from Mexico in my grandpa’s suitcase. It is the deeper, smokier one, with what a reviewer once called a little kick. The chicken is breast meat in a green tomatillo salsa, brighter and tangier, and it is the one people who “don’t do spicy” come back for.

For a Father’s Day table I split the order, leaning toward whichever one dad reaches for at a restaurant. A household of red-salsa people can go all pork. If you have a brother-in-law who claims he can handle heat and a grandmother who cannot, the half-and-half saves everyone. I wrote a whole comparison of pork tamales versus chicken tamales if you want the long version.

Both are made with gluten-free corn masa from scratch. If one of the dads at the table has celiac disease, read the fine print on my FAQ page first; the kitchen is not certified gluten-free.

What to put next to the tamales

Tamales do not need much company, but a few things make the table look like somebody planned it.

• Extra salsa and sour cream. Any grocery has them. A bowl of red, a bowl of green and a little sour cream turn a dozen tamales into a spread.
• Something crunchy. Tortilla chips, a quick cabbage slaw with lime, or pickled jalapeños and carrots from any Mexican grocery.
• Something cold. Rice and beans are traditional but heavy in June heat; a watermelon-and-cotija salad or sliced cucumbers with chile and lime does the same job and takes ten minutes.
• The drink dad actually drinks. Cold beer, horchata for the kids, iced tea for the grandparents. Buy twice as much ice as you think you need.

Skip the heavy sides. When people build a full Tex-Mex buffet around tamales, the tamales get lost, and they are the thing that cost money. My list of what to serve with tamales has more ideas if you are feeding a mixed crowd.

Timing it around the game or the nap

The best Father’s Day meals I have delivered were timed to the man, not the clock. Ask yourself when dad is going to be sitting down anyway and put the food there.

1. Kickoff or first-pitch lunch. Have the food home about an hour before the game starts. Tamales come out of the box, salsas go on the table, and everyone eats during the first inning instead of missing it in the kitchen.
2. Late lunch after church or the golf course. Plan for early afternoon. Keep the tamales in a covered pan; they will still be warm when he walks in.
3. Evening dinner. My kitchen is open from 9 AM to 2 PM, so a dinner order arrives, or is picked up, by early afternoon and waits. Hold it covered in a low oven and bring the salsas to room temperature before serving. Nothing about a tamal suffers from a few hours of patience.

If Father’s Day gets folded into a bigger backyard party, with cousins and neighbors and a cooler on the patio, the same rules apply, just with more dozens. My party catering page explains how to order by the dozen when the headcount climbs past twenty.

Ordering for Father’s Day

Father’s Day falls on a Sunday, and my kitchen is closed on Sundays. That is the one wrinkle, and it is an easy one. Most families do one of two things:

• Order for Saturday. Tamales delivered Saturday reheat beautifully on Sunday. Twenty minutes in a steamer, or a covered dish with a splash of water in a low oven, and they taste like the day they were made. Plenty of families move the meal to Saturday and give dad two days off.
• Order by the dozen and freeze part of it. A dozen for the weekend, a dozen in the freezer for the first weeknight dad has to cook again. My guide to freezing and storing tamales covers how.

Every order, a half dozen or five dozen, goes through our online store: chicken or pork, delivery or pickup, today or a date ahead, paid online. The order page walks through it. We deliver to Plano, Frisco, McKinney and the rest of our area, with the delivery fee shown at checkout. The weekend before Father’s Day fills up with graduation parties too, so order a week ahead to get your Saturday. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day.

Ready to feed dad?

Count the people coming to your Father’s Day table, decide whether it is lunch or dinner, and take the number from the table above. Maggie’s delivers across Allen, McKinney, Fairview, Frisco, The Colony, Plano, Murphy, Carrollton, Addison, Richardson and Far North Dallas, or you can pick up at our Plano kitchen, and every tamal is made from scratch. Order online for Saturday and let the man have his chair. Questions? Call or text (469) 888-8398.

Frequently asked questions

What are good Father’s Day food ideas if dad says he wants nothing?

Feed him something he would never make himself and that asks nothing of him. A dozen big tamales delivered to the door, a bowl of salsa, a cold drink and the game on covers it. He gets a real meal without a grill to light or a kitchen to clean, and the family gets to sit with him instead of cooking around him. Two tamales per person for lunch is plenty.

How many tamales should I order for Father’s Day lunch for eight people?

Sixteen tamales at two per person, which means rounding up to two dozen for $120 if the group eats well or if you want leftovers. If the tamales sit beside a big salad, chips and a dessert, one dozen and a half-dozen comes to eighteen and covers eight adults comfortably. Teenagers eat like adults, so count them that way.

Can I get tamales delivered on Father’s Day itself?

My kitchen is closed on Sundays, so I deliver for Father’s Day on Friday or Saturday. Tamales reheat in about twenty minutes in a steamer or a covered pan with a little water, and they lose nothing overnight in the refrigerator. Many families simply hold their Father’s Day meal on Saturday, and our online store takes orders for today or a date ahead.

Pork or chicken tamales for a dad who likes spicy food?

Pork in red salsa. The red is built on dried chiles and carries a little kick that spicy-food dads notice right away, and the slow-cooked pork stands up to extra hot sauce if he adds it. I still suggest a few chicken tamales in green tomatillo salsa on the same tray, because someone at the table always wants the milder one, and the contrast makes both taste better.

How do I keep tamales hot until dad gets home from the golf course?

Keep them in a covered pan and hold them in a low oven, or wrap the whole pan in a towel and set it in a closed cooler. Either way they stay hot for two hours or more. If they cool off, ten minutes in a steamer or a covered dish with a splash of water brings them back. Keep the salsas out of the heat until serving.

How far ahead should I order tamales for Father’s Day?

Our online store takes orders for today or a date ahead. For two dozen or more, or a party, ordering a week ahead is a comfortable cushion, because the weekends in June are busy with graduations. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. Only confirmed orders will be delivered as requested.