Chicken Tamale Pie

So I've played around with Pinterest like everybody else in the world. My main focus has been on food (of course). There are so many desserts that are posted I try and find savory dishes. Mainly because I want to pin stuff I might make and as much as I love dessert, I don't make it very often.

So I was going through my pins and found this recipe. It just looked comforting from the picture.

Chicken Tamale Pie

Author: Tracy adapated from Pinch of Yum, adapted from Cooking Light

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup fat free milk
• 1/4 cup liquid egg 
• 1 1/2 tablespoon taco seasoning, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (14 3/4 ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 (8.5 ounce) box corn muffin mix (such as Jiffy)
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1 (10 ounce) can red enchilada sauce 
• 2 cups shredded cooked turkey breast
• 3/4 cup shredded cheese (I used a colby/monterrey jack blend)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine the first 7 ingredients (milk through green chiles), using just 1/2 tablespoon of the taco seasoning, in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a round pie plate (mine was glass) coated with cooking spray.
3. Bake at 400° for 20-30 minutes. While corn is baking, toss the chicken in the remaining 1 tablespoon taco seasoning. When corn is done – it will be just barely set and golden brown – pierce entire surface liberally with a fork (it might stick a little bit to the fork). Pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. 

So I used turkey instead of chicken since I had a frozen cooked breast in the freezer and I'm all for using what you got. Make sure you use a deep dish pie plate, otherwise you are going to flow over. The corn mixture cooks to the top of a deep dish. I wondered how I was going to get the sauce/turkey/cheese on it without a mess but it worked. I did cook it on a cookie sheet for the last part because I was afraid of spillover.

If you like tamales you will probably like this. The corn mixture turns sort of into the mushiness I associate with tamales. It had a kick to it but not overpowering.

We liked it but probably won't make it into our regular rotations. Just not special enough for us. But still tasty and lots of leftovers. I don't think they will freeze well though so we'll be eating it to finish it up.