Chicken Tamale Pie

This meal is easy and full of flavor. It also includes a lot of pantry items which is great for putting a quick meal together. It is ready in under and hour and super simple to make ~

I made this recipe as simple as possible and even used canned chicken. Believe it or not you can really get a can of chicken to taste really delicious by adding in a few spices and warming it on the stove-top in a pan. This comes in handy when you are out of chicken or need a quick meal ~

Prep: 20 minutes / Cook: 25 min / Yields: 1 Pie

Ingredients:

For the Chicken Filling:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 onion (peeled and diced)
• 2 cans (12.5 oz) white chicken breast, in water or 2 cups cooked and shredded chicken
• 1 1/2 cups green salsa
• 1 can (15 oz) beans (pinto, black, red, your choice), rinsed and drained
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon taco seasoning

For the Cornbread Topping

• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter (at room temperature)
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup crumbled goat cheese (or cheese of choice)
• 1 can (15 oz) golden sweet corn kernels (or 1 cup fresh or frozen)
• 1-2 teaspoons dried cilantro (or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh)

Optional Toppings:

• 4-6 green onions, rinsed and chopped
• Chopped black olives
• Sour cream
• Sliced avocados

Steps To Make It:

1. Get your butter out of the fridge and dice it up, set it on a plate to come to room temperature.
2. Dice your onions. Open all your canned items and drain / rinse as indicated above.
3. Preheat your oven to 400 F.
4. Warm your cast iron skillet on medium and add in the olive oil and diced onion. Cook on medium heat, stirring often until the onions are translucent. (About 4-5 minutes)
5. Add in the garlic powder, black pepper and taco seasoning, stir and cook another 1-2 minutes.
6. Add in the chicken, beans, and green salsa. Stir in to combine, remove from heat and set aside.
7. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar together. Add the softened butter and stir to combine.
8. In a separate bowl, stir (or sift) to combine the flour, cornmeal, salt & baking powder.
9. Stir in half the milk and half the dry mixture to the bowl of eggs, sugar and butter until combined.
10. Stir in the remaining milk and dry mixture, until combined.
11. Fold in the corn, cheese, and cilantro until combined.
12. Place dollops of corn bread mixture over the cooked chicken mixture in the cast iron skillet and even out as good as you can.
13. Sprinkle top with a little extra cilantro and bake for 25 minutes.
14. Once done cooking, I let the pan rest for about 5 minutes and spoon the portions into a bowl, top with diced green onions and options or choice ~

Notes:

If you do not have a cast iron skillet, no worries ~ Simply follow steps 1-6, then spoon chicken mixture into a ceramic or glass (oven safe) 9×13 baking dish, top with cornbread mix and bake.

I imagine that a combination or red salsa and black beans would also be good as a substitute or to change it up from time to time.

Adding a squeeze of fresh lime juice to top it off before eating may bring a bit of zest and flavor to the meal as well. I love fresh lime juice over the top of most anything Mexican flavored 😊

Hope you like it and let me know in the comments if you tried this or added anything different to change it up a bit.

xoxo

Links to baking items: