What are in these tamales?

I just returned from the city of Tehuantepec, which is in the isthmus region of the state of Oaxaca. During my time in Tehuantepec, I had the chance to sample some regional foods. One of these foods was tamales.

Tamales are a traditional Mexican food consisting of steam cooked corn dough with a filling. Tamales are wrapped in a corn husks or plantain leaves. In Oaxaca, tamales are wrapped in plantain leaves. Tamales were developed as a portable food used by warriors going off to war.

The filling inside of tamales can be anything -- chicken, strips of chile, strawberry juice and raisins, etc. But what was in the tamales that I ate in the isthmus? For years now whenever I visited the isthmus, people laughingly said that they were going to feed me iguana and that it tasted exactly like chicken.

I was in a tiny town that phonetically is pronounced "pee-shee-shee". We were at a school and the parents of the school decided that they were going to have a thank you party for the mission team. The parents set up a table in one of the classrooms and then brought in a steaming pot of tamales. They served them to the mission group members and we began unwrapping the plantain leaves to expose the tamales inside. We began eating and were told that we were eating tamales with chicken inside of them. There was a great deal of laughter and smiles coming from the Oaxacan ladies. We asked what we were eating and were told (with a smile) "chicken".

About half the group believed the ladies and the other half wasn't quite sure. I found a bone in my tamales and sure enough, it looked like a bone from a chicken thigh. The meat looked and tasted like chicken. Then one of the mission group members pointed out that it would have to be a VERY small chicken and that white meat did not come from a chicken's thigh. This information was given with the reminder that this small town was famous for eating tamales of iguana.

So, what did I eat...chicken tamales or iguana tamales? I guess I never will know. I only know that they were delicious!