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Chicken tamale casserole is loaded with the flavor of tamales with none of the hard work! It’s perfect for a quick weeknight dinner!
My husband had the flu this week and I served him Chicken Tamale Casserole. He sorta thought that was a mean thing for me to do.
In my defense, I asked him on Sunday if he had any special dinner requests for the week (he said no), and I did my grocery shopping Monday morning.
He came home sick and pukey and ouchy feeling on Tuesday. If he didn’t have the good grace to warn me that Mexican food would be a no-no for the week, how can he blame me?
So, I stuck with my original meal plan and I ate the crap outta some Chicken Tamale Casserole. He ate it, too, but he glared at me the whole time.
Which, let’s be honest, isn’t really anything new for me.
I have children. I tend to get glared at during most every meal. It’s part of being a mom. Unless I’m serving these fried tacos, of course. Errbody loves some fried tacos.
My son and I scarfed this down, but Chaddy (the husband, who I am sure loves it that I call him Chaddy on the internet) ate a small portion (against his will, he says), and my daughter took her required 3 bites and asked for something else. Please don’t tell anyone, but I just gave her a box of graham crackers and called it a day.
Chicken Tamale Casserole
Ingredients
- 4 ounces Cheddar cheese grated
- 4 ounces Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese grated
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 14.75 ounces cream-style corn 1 can
- 8.5 ounces corn muffin mix (Jiffy works great) 1 box
- 4 ounces chopped green chiles 1 can
- 10 ounces red enchilada sauce 1 can
- 1 pound ground chicken turkey or beef work just as well
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Fresh chopped cilantro or parsley to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Spray a 13x9 baking dish with cooking spray.
- Combine the cheeses in a small bowl.
- In a large bowl, stir together 1/4 cup of the combined cheese, the milk, egg, cumin, red pepper, corn, muffin mix, and the green chiles. Stir until just combined.
- Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes or until just set.
- While the cornbread is baking, cook your ground chicken in a skillet over medium heat until cooked completely through. Drain, if necessary, and salt and pepper the chicken.
- Remove the cornbread from the oven and pierce all over with a fork.
- Pour the enchilada sauce over the corn bread.
- Top with the chicken and remaining cheese.
- Return to the oven for another 15 minutes.
- Sprinkle with the chopped cilantro or parsley and serve.
Nutrition Information:
recipe adapted from Cooking Light
Looking for more Mexican flavors? I’ve got you covered!
Cream Cheese Chicken Enchilada Dip
Southwestern Avocado Salad Dressing
Lauren says
This was absolutely amazing. Thank you so much! We just tried this tonight and my boyfriend was in food heaven (“terrific”, “amazing”, “just what I wanted”, “just enough kick”). We will definitely be adding this to the usual. Thank you!
Karly says
So glad you liked it!
Lauren says
So I’m not very good at meal planning and decided a bit last minute to make this tonight as a comfort food treat given the cold weather we are having. Anyway, I don’t have any creamed corn in. I have a can of regular corn. Do you think doing a homemade creamed corn recipe would work? I’m worried since cans of creamed corn don’t actually have cream in them lol
Karly says
Hi Lauren!
I hope I’m not too late to help! I would just swap in the regular corn (drained) and call it a day. No need to make your own creamed corn, unless you really wanted to. I do think homemade creamed corn would work just as well, though. 🙂
Jayne says
This looks delicious! But I got great joy by hearing that you have your little graham crackers and called it a day! My littlest is so finicky, I’m going to start the 3 bite rule!
Karly says
@Jayne,
Hope the 3 bite rule helps! My kids complained at first, but they’ve gotten used to it. 🙂
Marie says
Will be trying this recipe sometime this week but I’m going to attempt to sub the red sauce for Verde as I don’t like the traditional kind…..guess we’ll see how that goes 🙂 Thanks for the recipe, love finding new recipes!!
Karly says
@Marie,
I bet that will be amazing! 🙂
Kate says
I tried to print the recipe, but error code appears every time I click on the “Print Recipe” button and the page is blank, so cannot print recipe? I want to make this! Thanks for
Karly says
Hi @Kate,
I’m not sure what the problem is! The print button is working just fine for me. You may just need to copy and paste the recipe section into word or notepad and print from there for this one. Sorry about that! I’m not much help with the technical side of things if I can’t replicate the problem myself. 🙁
Cyndi from My Kitchen Craze says
Your kids sound like mine. Son will scarf down whatever I cook but my daughter will only eat nibbles and that’s after I ask her if she wants dessert. I hate when the spouses come home sick. It screws the whole plan you had for dinners or anything really, hehe. This casserole looks so yummy. I’m gonna cook it next week! I heart anything Mexican! Yum! Pinned!
Marci says
I recently discovered your site and it is the bomb-diggity. I’m sharing this recipe on my blog today because we love it so much! It’s all linked back to you 🙂 xoxo
http://www.marcicoombs.com/2014/07/chicken-tamale-casserole.html
Thanks for feeding my family!
McKenzie says
OMG! You are a master of the kitchen. I’m drooling! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Robin says
I made this tonight for dinner and it was delicious!!! Thank you! 🙂
Karly says
@Robin,
So glad you enjoyed it!
Destiny says
What an awesome recipe. My Grandmother has a metabolic disorder where she cannot have gluten. We are always looking for recipes that dont have flour in them! Thank you so much!
laly says
i love chicken very much. thank uuuuuuu……
vadeem @vadeem says
This is great, would definitely like to try this. Seems different than what I’m used to.