tamale pie;
Corn bread, and beef, and cheese, oh my!
This is a great make-ahead meal! We had a game night with a friend coming over, and I was going to try to not actually be in the kitchen making dinner for like half of his visit (like I usually am most times when people visit for dinner). I do love our current place for the fact that it has an open layout, and I can actually be in the kitchen talking to other people in both the living room area and the dining room area, and the kicker–NOT in my kitchen. It’s the best!
Tamale Pie was a quite tasty recipe from Karen over at 2Teaspoons! I think in making the cornbread ahead of time, I left it a touch undercooked thinking it would cook in the oven the next day, but it was still very soft even after the second baking. It was juuuuuust firm enough to keep its shape as we scooped out pieces, but barely, and as soon as you touched it with a fork, it would kinda bloop and spread out. But since we all ended up mixing the layers together, it didn’t matter much. It could have also come from the creamed corn possibly, so I could always try just regular corn next time. It was delicious and I kind of like bread-like-things a little underdone so I’m not sure I’d want to change it. But it was definitely a nice make-ahead meal with relatively low stress and ingredients I already had around. I was curious if it would be a keeper recipe because it was fairly simple, but I would definitely make it again!
To make ahead: Bake the cornbread for 17 minutes and then let it cool and set. Cook up the ground beef with the spices and set aside! Then the next day pour over the enchilada sauce, and top with the beef and cheese and put it in the oven while pre-heating. Bake @ 350 for 20 minutes with foil, and then uncover and bake 5-10 minutes without foil. You can always broil the top as well to get that little bit of extra crisp on the cheese.
092-TamalePie
