Chicken Tamale Pie and Corn Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing

Tamale Pie

The Tamale Pie I made was absolutely delicious. I'm not joking, it is one of the best recipes I've ever tried. It isn't authentic in any fashion, but it has a similar taste from real tamales. real tamales are super difficult to make. My family is Mexican and they'd always buy them because they are just so hard to do. I found this to be a nice substitute still. The real tamales my fam would buy actually use pork though, so you could always substitute pork for the chicken.

The only thing that's annoying is that shredding the chicken takes longer than I would like. It gets irritating, but is well worth the finished product. The only thing I changed with the recipe was that I used the Mexican Queso Quesadilla shredded cheese with a pinch of Philadelphia Cream cheese. Honestly, this is the most delicious cheese ever, but I think this tamale pie needs a little heavier flavor of cheese, because the kind I used got a little lost. So next time I think I'll use the Queso Quesadilla with the Mexican Four-cheese or just straight up cheddar.

Watch out, my pie dish wasn't deep enough or possibly was just a little too small all around and when I poured the enchilada sauce over the top a lot of it ran off the sides, so be careful. You might have to use a little less of the cornbread batter, or just not pour all the enchilada sauce, or just put the pie plate over something in case spillage happens.

The original recipe comes from the blog Pinch of Yum:

• 1/3 cup fat free milk
• 1/4 cup egg substitute
• 1 1/2 tablespoon taco seasoning, divided
• 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (14 3/4 ounce) can cream-style corn
• 1 (8.5 ounce) box corn muffin mix (such as Jiffy)
• 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
• 1 (10 ounce) can red enchilada sauce – I recommend going with an authentic Mexican brand
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast
• 1/2 cup shredded white cheese
• 1 cup Mexican cheese blend shredded cheese
  
• cilantro and crumbled Cotija cheese for topping

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400°.
2. Combine the first 7 ingredients (milk through green chiles), using just 1/2 tablespoon of the taco seasoning, in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a round pie plate (mine was glass) coated with cooking spray.
3. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes. While corn is baking, toss the chicken in the remaining 1 tablespoon taco seasoning. When corn is done – it will be just barely set and golden brown – pierce entire surface liberally with a fork. Pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with chicken; sprinkle with cheese. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces; top each serving with cilantro and Cotija cheese.

Corn Salad with Queso Fresco

This would be such a good and healthy cold side dish to bring to a pot luck or to make to go along with any Mexican or Tex-Mex style dish. Super easy and super delish. Also, if you make the whole recipe for the Cilantro-Lime dressing, you have extra to put over salad.

I originally got this recipe from Our Best Bites.

Ingredients:
4 cups fresh or frozen corn kernels
8 ounces queso fresco or cotija cheese
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped (and seeded if desired)
1/2 recipe (about 6 ounces) Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette
1 large avocado, pitted, peeled, and cubed
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Optional: For an easy one-dish meal, add leftover rotisserie chicken

Instructions:
Bring about 1 inch of water to a boil in a large stock pot. When the water boils, add the corn and cook for 2-3 minutes. Drain and rinse and then add to a large bowl. Toss together the corn, red bell pepper, red onion, jalapeno pepper, and crumbled cheese. Toss with Cilantro-Lime Vinaigrette. Chill until ready to serve. Right before serving, gently toss in the avocado and season with salt and pepper. Serves 10-12.

Flan

I also made flan to go along with this meal. Unfortunately, I am only one person so I couldn't finish it, but it turned out well. It was just flan from a box like you would get Jello, and I found it in the Hispanic section of Walmart - that's where I shop for groceries. I picked it up because I had a ton of milk I needed to use before it went bad.