Tamale Pie

Tamale Pie is an old school casserole with layers of seasoned beef or chicken, cornbread, and melted gooey cheese. Made from scratch, yet quick and easy, Tamale Pie is perfect for a family favorite weeknight meal! 

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Meijer. The opinions and text are all mine.

Nothing beats an old school, classic comfort food recipe. My mom’s tamale pie casserole came from the source of all her cutting edge recipes – church cookbooks. 

They were all the rage before Food Network, celebrity chefs, and, well, food blogs.

Recently my mom stumbled across her old tamale casserole recipe and passed it on to me with a personal plug written on it: “I made this a lot years ago. It was very good and very easy.” 

Sounds right up my alley. 👌

What is Tamale Pie?

If you aren’t familiar with Tamale Pie, let’s get you properly acquainted. 

It’s traditionally baked as a casserole, layered with ground beef, a cornbread crust, and cheese. Although the flavors are inspired by Mexican food, tamale casserole is better categorized as Southwestern cuisine. 

Variations of tamale casserole uses chicken, chorizo, ground pork, or vegetarian with beans. The mexican flavors come from salsa, chili powder, and enchilada sauce mixed in with the protein.

Tamale Pie with Cornbread

When made from scratch, cornmeal, masa, or polenta is used to make the cornbread layer. Any of these corn grains are mixed with eggs, butter, baking powder, and cream style corn to make something similar to tomalito or a sweet corn cake.

Shortcut Tamale Pie uses a Jiffy mix for the cornbread layer, which was the version my mother made growing up. 

For my purposes, though, this doesn’t work because Jiffy cornbread mix isn’t gluten free. Fortunately Tamale Pie from scratch still uses very simple ingredients and the cornbread takes 5 minutes to mix together in one bowl.

Healthy Tamale Pie

This recipe falls in that classic comfort food repertoire, which usually means they are ways save on calories. If you’re looking for a lighter version of tamale casserole, use any of these suggestions to make it healthier.

• Use reduced-fat cheese or halve the amount of cheese
• Instead of ground beef, substitute ground turkey or chicken
• Make Vegetarian Tamale Pie by substituting a sauteed onion, pepper, canned corn, pinto, and black beans mixed with the salsa, enchilada sauce, and chili powder.
• If using ground beef, be sure to use ground sirloin or lean ground beef

Tamale Pie Ingredients

This is great weeknight dinner option because most of the ingredients are kitchen staples, like butter, sugar, eggs, baking powder, milk, and chili powder.

I made a quick stop at Meijer for the handful of other required ingredients – ground sirloin, cheese, cornmeal, cream corn, enchilada sauce, and salsa. 

To get in and out of the store as fast I possible, I used Meijer’s app with their new Shop and Scan feature. Just grab what you need, scan it using the app, and throw it in your shopping bag.

I even used Shop and Scan to add fresh produce, like avocado and lettuce, by utilizing Meijer’s digital scales to print out scannable labels. 

When you have everything you need, stop by the self checkout to scan the barcode and pay. It’s a great timesaver for those quick in-and-out shopping missions! 

How To Make Tamale Pie

1. Mix together easy cornbread ingredients. 
2. Pour into a greased cast iron skillet, pie dish, or baking dish and bake for 20 minutes.
3. Use a handle of a wooden spoon to poke holes in cornbread.
4. Pour 1/2 can of enchilada sauce and set aside.
5. Brown beef and mix in remaining enchilada sauce, salsa, and chili powder.
6. Spread onto cornbread, top with cheese, and return to oven for 15 minutes. 

How to Make Chicken Tamale Pie

Easily adapt beef Tamale Pie into Chicken Tamale Pie following these simple steps:

1. Use 3 cups shredded chicken to replace the ground beef. (Either cover 1 1/2 pounds chicken breasts with water and boil for 20 minutes or cook in Instant Pot for 8 minutes with 1 cup water.) 
2. Bake cornbread, poke with holes, and pour over half enchilada sauce.
3. Combine shredded chicken, chili powder, salsa, and remaining enchilada sauce in a bowl.
4. Layer chicken mixture on cornbread, top with cheese, and bake at 375ºF for 15 minutes.

Tamale Casserole with Polenta

Some recipes for easy tamale casserole substitute prepared polenta for the cornbread layers. For Tamale Pie with polenta you will need 2 tubes of prepared polenta.

1. Slice or crumble on of the tubes on the bottom of a greased pie dish or cast iron skillet.
2. Pour over half enchilada sauce and top with beef or chicken filling.
3. Slice or crumble remaining polenta tube, top with cheese, and bake 375ºF for 20 minutes, or until heated through and cheese is bubbly.

Other Favorites Mexican Inspired Dishes

• Mexican Chicken Casserole – Combines the best parts of taco night into one easy, hearty, flavorful dish with chicken, rice, cheese, and tortilla chips.
• Mexican Fish – Easy fish recipe is bursting with robust flavors, but quickly comes together in 30 minutes and uses only one pot.
• Shrimp Avocado Salsa – Uses fresh garden ingredients, easily tossed together to make one surprisingly flavorful and addictive appetizer.
• Skinny Margarita – Absolutely perfect version of a fantastic drink that’s lighter in calories and uses fresh ingredients.
• Mexican Tater Tot Casserole – Creamy seasoned ground beef is layered under golden crispy tater tots and lots of gooey melted cheese.
• Instant Pot Chicken Fajitas – A quick, easy, healthy and flavorful dump-and-go meal perfect for busy weeknights! 

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Meijer. The opinions and text are all mine.

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