Tamale pie
A saucy chili-spiced beef and bean filling baked under a golden cornbread crust, cozy and cheap enough to make every week.
- 55 min total
- 25 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $2.20 a serving
- 540 calories
- Good the next day
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 cup shredded cheddar
- 1 package corn muffin mix
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup milk
From your pantry
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp salt
Each serving has about 540 calories, 28 g protein, 53 g carbs and 25 g fat, and costs about $2.20 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No green bell peppers? Red bell peppers or yellow bell peppers work.
- No tomato sauce? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No pinto beans? Black beans or kidney beans work.
- No frozen corn? Canned corn works.
- No shredded cheddar? Cheddar cheese or Mexican blend cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No milk? Half-and-half works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the oven to 400°F. the onion and pepper and the garlic.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Cook the beef, onion and pepper in a large over medium-high 7 to 8 minutes, breaking up the beef, until no pink is left. Spoon off the fat.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the garlic, chili powder, cumin and salt for 30 seconds, then the tomato sauce, beans and corn. Let it bubble 5 minutes.
Medium heatTimer: 5 min
Spread the filling in a 9x9-inch baking dish and scatter the cheddar over it.
Stir the cornbread mix, egg and milk in a bowl just until no dry streaks remain.
Dolly’s tip: Lumps are fine. Stirring it smooth makes the cornbread tough.Spoon the batter over the filling and spread it gently to the edges.
20 to 25 minutes, until the cornbread is and a toothpick poked in the middle comes out clean.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Timer: 22 min 30 sec
Let it sit 5 minutes, then scoop onto plates.
Timer: 5 min
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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