So, tamales…love ‘em, don’t have the first clue how to make ‘em. Though I could probably figure it out, it just seems more practical to take the ingredients and throw them together in a one-and-done casserole. Casseroles are one of my very favorite things. For this reason exactly—I can quickly recreate the flavors and taste of practically any dish I love with minimal preparation and clean up. Who doesn’t love that concept? I mean, really.
So, without further adieu, here is my culmination of various mashed-up recipes for Tamale Casserole (with the usual photo disclaimer, of course!):
Photo Quality Disclaimer: If you haven’t read any of my previous posts, I just need to mention this… My photos are not great. They. Just. Aren’t. Sorry. We live a pretty frugal lifestyle and at the time of this recipe experiment the only camera equipment I had was an iPod. No flash. Gritty and out of focus results. What’s a girl to do? I guess just take pictures anyway and hope for the best. So, first, I apologize if the photos don’t come across as appetizing as they should. I wish you could have been in the kitchen to witness this creation in person. And, second, I challenge any of my readers to test this recipe out in their own kitchen and take beautiful pictures of the entire process. If you send me your photos, I’ll happily trade mine out for yours and give you photo credit on my blog.
The beautiful thing about tamales is that they can be made with any meat, really…which makes this casserole an easy way to stretch leftovers. I happened to have some cooked chicken on hand that I just shredded up, but if you are in a hurry, just pick up a hot rotisserie chicken from the store and go to town with that. The first step of this recipe is to prepare the two fillings that make it up. The first filling is a meat and sauce mixture, the second is a cheesy, creamy concoction. You’ll want to pre-soak the dried chiles before using them in the sauce; you can find an easy method for doing this here. And, if you have the time to toast the cumin in a dry sauté pan before starting the recipe, you absolutely won’t regret it. Soooo good.
You can prepare the saucy meat filling and additional filling for this casserole ahead of time and pop it in the refrigerator if you didn’t feel like creating the entire casserole in one shot. Your call. You could always feed the fam the rest of the rotisserie chicken tonight and you’ve got your tamale casserole halfway done for tomorrow night’s dinner. Now that’s efficient meal planning!
The last thing to prep before putting this casserole together is the MASA dough base. It’s really a dump and blend formula that really contributes an authentic tamale flavor to this dish.
Of course you can use any cheese in this recipe, but I prefer a mexi-blend to up the flavor ante a bit. And, voila, you have created a Tamale masterpiece in your kitchen, without the effort of individually filling, shaping, wrapping and steaming! Enjoy!
Be Still & Know…
- 2 cups of pre-cooked, shredded meat of your choice
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 2-4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2-3 dried Ancho chiles, soaked
- 2 Tbs. cumin
- 1/2 cup onion, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
- salt, to taste
- 4 cups corn MASA flour
- 1 Tbs. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 4 cups broth, chicken or beef
- 1 cup shortening
- 1/4 cup shredded cheese
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 tsp. cumin
- 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
- 1 can creamed corn
- 1 4oz. can of chopped chilies, drained
- Brown the onion and garlic in a pan. Add shredded meat and stir on low heat to mingle the flavors.
- In a sauce pan, bring the chiles, cumin, onion, garlic, and water to a boil. Allow the sauce to continue to cook and thicken up a bit, adding salt to taste and stirring in the meat mixture when at your desired consistency. Remove from heat.
- To create the MASA base, mix together the MASA flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Add the broth in a little at a time and work into the dry ingredients with your fingers. Beat in the shortening little by little until the batter is fluffy and spongy.
- Spray a 9x13 casserole dish. Pat the MASA batter into the bottom of the dish evenly.
- Mix together the additional filling of cheese, milk, cumin, red pepper flakes, creamed corn, and green chilies in a bowl and pour over the MASA layer in the casserole dish.
- Pour the meat and sauce mixture evenly over the filling and top with additional cheese before baking.
- Bake at 400°F for 20-30 minutes. Serve with cool sour cream and enjoy!
- Any cooked meat will work for this recipe.
- Be sure to soak the dried chiles for awhile before using in this recipe.
- For an added flavor boost, try dry toasting the cumin before using it in this recipe.