This Sweet Corn and Green Chile Tamale Pie (aka cazuela de tamal) has all the tamale flavor with half the work!
This Texan loves herself some tamales. I have so many fond memories of making them with my friend’s abuelita, and my dad bringing them home around the holidays from his “tamale lady” at work. We’re serious about our tamale ladies too. You find the one you love (sometimes a neighbor, the wife of a coworker, a friend of a friend’s tamale lady, or occasionally someone sort of random in a grocery store parking lot), and then you pretty much order from her for life. My dad has had his tamale lady for at least 15 years.
Traditionally, we make tamales every year for Christmas at our house in Colorado. (I haven’t found a tamale lady here yet – hit me up if you have a lead!) I usually have a group of friends over, we make a few hundred, and then I stock the freezer for the rest of the year. We spent Christmas in Texas with my parents this year, so I don’t have a freezer stocked with tamales and I’ve been craving them like crazy.
My favorite shortcut to tamale flavor is this tamale pie. It’s ready in less than 2 hours (even less time if you skip the dough resting, but that helps make the finished product nice and fluffy), you don’t have to individually fill and wrap all the corn husks, and you can make just 6 servings of your favorite filling instead of hundreds.
This version of tamale pie is inspired by my favorite Muenster and green chile tamales, but you can really fill it with any sort of filling you’d like: cheese, beans, meat, roasted veggies, you name it! My mom even makes deer and elk tamale pie (my dad’s a hunter). Enjoy!
Sweet Corn and Green Chile Tamale Pie (Cazuela de Tamal)
- Cook Time: 60
- Total Time: 150
Description
Sweet Corn and Green Chile Tamale Pie – all the tamale flavor with half the work!
Ingredients
For dough (masa)
- 3 cups (1 lb) masa harina para tamales*
- 3 cups warm chicken stock or water
- 6 ounces (3/4 cup) cold lard or Crisco
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
For filling
- 8oz Meunster Cheese, shredded
- 1 (7oz) can diced green chiles, drained
- 1 (7oz) can sweet creamed corn, undrained
Instructions
To make the masa dough
- In a medium bowl, combine the masa harina and chicken stock and stir with a spoon until completely moistened and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer**, whip the cold crisco, salt, and baking powder on medium speed for about a minute.
- Add in the moistened masa harina, about a third at a time, and mix at medium speed until incorporates. Continue adding and mixing until fully combined. It should have the consistency of a thick hummus.
- Cover the masa with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for about an hour to rest.
To make the pie
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
- Remove masa from fridge and whip again in the mixer for about a minute to add some air back into the dough.
- Lightly grease a 12″ skillet or 8x8in baking dish.
- Add about 2/3 of the dough to the skillet and spread it out across the bottom of the skillet and up the sides. About 3/4 inch thick.
- Make the following layers of filling: half the shredded Muenster cheese, all the creamed corn, all the chiles, and the remaining cheese.
- Take the remaining masa and pat it out into a circle on a piece of plastic wrap.
- Invert it over the top of the filling and seal the edges to the bottom of the crust.
- Bake for 45 minutes.
- Serve topped with salsa, hot sauce or sour cream.
Notes
- *This is different than the standard masa harina for corn tortillas. Maseca brand is the best.
- **No stand mixer? This will turn out fine with a handheld mixer, and will still come together by hand. The resulting dough will just be a bit denser.
- Feel free to substitute other fillings. Taco meat, beans, pork, steak, roasted veggies, the possibilities are endless!
- Gluten-free: Maseca is gluten-free, so this is gluten-free. Just make sure your baking powder is gluten-free.
- Vegetarian: Use vegetable stock or water, and crisco in place of lard.
- Vegan: Use vegetable stock, crisco in place of lard, and your favorite vegan cheese or other vegan filling.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 6
Meal Plan Monday 4/13-4/19:
Click Here for the (Now Mobile-Friendly) Weekly Shopping List Printable!
This meal plan is designed to feed approximately 4 adults at each meal or two adults with lunches left over. Feel free to double or add to it as needed. **You’ll need to open it with the free Adobe Reader App (Android or iOS) to be able to use the check boxes on mobile, so install that first if you don’t have it already.**
Monday: This Sweet Corn and Green Chile Tamale Pie (gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan option)
Tuesday: Breakfast quesadillas with smashed avocado, eggs and spinach from The Perfect Pantry (vegetarian, gluten-free if using gf tortillas)
Wednesday: A baked potato bar with Slow Cooker Baked Potatoes from The Yummy Life (gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan)
Thursday: Chinese Chicken Spaghetti from Melanie Makes (vegan/vegetarian option, gluten-free if using gf pasta and gf soy sauce) – I don’t have a wok, so I made this in a saute pan and it turned out just fine. 🙂
Friday: Pizza Night! with this easy Caprese Pizza from Two Peas and Their Pod (vegetarian, gluten-free if using gf pizza dough)
Saturday: Date Night – Eat Out.
Sunday: Y.O.Y.O. (You’re on your own.)
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Yes yes yes, gimme this any day of the week…yum! Great post 🙂 xo
I made this, cut down the chiles to 4 oz and added a cup of fresh sweet corn with a dash of garlic, onion, cumin, oregano to the filling. at 50 min, top wasn’t browned and masa at bottom still doughy. It seemed right after one hour 5 min of baking (15 min more baking) but… no more room for sampling the pie! I will try it later tonight.
Next time, I will use 7 oz chiles as recommended, maybe a bit more fresh sweet corn, and bake one hour or until browning on top crust and knife comes out clean. thank you! I love tamales.