I have a simple NavigationController based app. The main window shows a TableView and selecting an item loads a sub-view. I used Interface Builder for UI views.
Now
Take a look at the UICatalog sample code. It has lots of great stuff in it, including the transition from one view to the next.
In your case, you need to use the UITableView delegate method
- (void)tableView:(UITableView *)tableView didSelectRowAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
In that method, you'll create and display your tab view controller. This could be a custom controller with an associated Nib, or you could create the whole thing in code depending on your circumstance.