An easy way to have the flavors of tamales on a weeknight, this Chicken Tamale Casserole is super easy and packed with flavor.
If you love a good, Mexican inspired chicken dinner, also check out these Chicken Chilaquiles, Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas, or Smothered Chicken Burritos.
I grew up in New Mexico, so I have a natural love of Mexican food. So when I see a Mexican inspired recipe, I always want to jump right in and try it.
This recipe isn’t really a true tamale pie, mostly a quick way to get those same flavors you would get from a tamale pie or from tamales.
I especially love how fast and easy it is – perfect for a weeknight dinner. And the leftovers are delicious, as well!
Ingredients
- Cheese: I like to use cheddar cheese, but feel free to use a Mexican blend, colby jack, or monterey jack.
- Cream Style Corn: I have only ever made this with cream style corn. I like the texture and flavor it gives. I have had someone say they used regular canned corn with success, though.
- Corn Muffin Mix: I usually use Jiffy, although it will add a bit of sweetness. I have actually really grown to love that sweetness, but if it’s not for you, choose a brand of corn muffin mix that doesn’t have any sweetness.
- Green Chiles: These add lots of flavor without really adding heat.
- Milk: I use 2% milk.
- Eggs: You’ll want to use large eggs.
- Cumin & Chili Powder: You can up the spice amount by increasing the chili powder, or by using a cayenne pepper.
- Enchilada Sauce: Make sure you use a brand that you love, as the flavor will really come through.
- Cooked, shredded or cubed chicken: I make this shredded chicken ahead of time and keep in on hand to make recipes like this one a breeze!
How to Make Chicken Tamale Casserole
Mix part of the cheese, the corn, corn muffin mix, green chiles, milk, eggs, cumin and chili powder.
Pour it into a baking dish and bake just until set.
Remove from the oven and pierce the top with a fork.
Pour the enchilada sauce over the top of the casserole, letting it soak in.
Top with the chicken, then the cheese, and return the dish to the oven. Bake until set and the cheese is melted.
Tips and Tricks
I like to top this with sour cream and cilantro, but you could also add salsa, avocadoes, tomatoes, lettuce, or guacamole.
Make sure to let the finished casserole sit for 5 minutes before slicing so that it will set up.
Switch it up and use ground beef or beef barbacoa instead of the chicken.
You can also use green enchilada sauce instead of red!
More Easy Chicken Dinners
Chicken Crescent Rolls
BBQ Chicken Wraps
Chicken Chimichanga Recipe
White Chicken Enchiladas
Coconut Curry Chicken
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Chicken Tamale Casserole
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
An easy way to have the flavors of tamales on a weeknight, this Chicken Tamale Casserole is super easy and packed with flavor.
Ingredients
- 8 oz shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- 1 (14.75 oz) can cream style corn
- 1 (8.5 oz) box corn muffin mix
- 1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles
- 1/3 cup milk
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground chili powder
- 1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
- 2 cups cooked, shredded or diced chicken
- Sour cream and cilantro, for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Spray a 9×13-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, combine 1 cup of the cheese with the corn, muffin mix, green chiles, milk, eggs, cumin, and chili powder. Stir just until combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or just until set. Remove from the oven.
- Pierce the top with a fork or with a skewer liberally. Pour the enchilada sauce over the top. Sprinkle the chicken over the top, then sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.
- Return the dish to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes, until the cheese melts. Remove from the oven and let the casserole sit for 5 minutes before slicing.
- Serve topped with sour cream and cilantro, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
adapted from Cooking Light November 2008
Nutrition information provided as an estimate only. Various brands and products can change the counts. Any nutritional information should be used as a general guide. Nutrition information does not include sour cream for topping.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1/8 of recipe
- Calories: 384
- Sugar: 9 g
- Sodium: 805 mg
- Fat: 17 g
- Saturated Fat: 8 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 35 g
- Fiber: 2 g
- Protein: 22 g
- Cholesterol: 110 mg
Keywords: chicken tamale casserole
Suz’Ana says
This is so delicious! I will put it in my favorite recipes. Thank you for sharing.
★★★★★
Windy says
This is delicious!!!! If you enjoy the combination of cornbread, cheese, chicken and red sauce…you will want seconds!
Deborah says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Brandi says
Made this tonight and my family LOVED IT!!!!
I made some changes simply because I didn’t have some ingredients. I used green enchilada sauce and I didn’t have creamed corn so I mixed frozen corn with cream of chicken soup. Huge hit with the family. I’ll make it per the recipe next time to see if we like it just the same.
asfre fgorgh says
Made this tonight and the only things I changed were: green enchilada sauce because that’s what I prefer, and no canned chilis because they would have been too spicy for my 5&6 year olds. This tasted nothing at all like actual tamales, but I didn’t really expect it too. It was OK in taste, not fantastic. My husband and I liked it well enough, my 6 year old LOVED it and my 5 year old cried and threw it up – I did not expect my 5 year old to like this whatsoever, and was surprised that my 6 year old liked it. I will probably make this again but also make a sandwich for my 5 year old. It was really easy to make, tasted fine, and a great way to use left over chicken. I packed up and froze the left overs (half the tray) for a night of ‘screw you I’m not making dinner’ – probably happening in a week or 2. Overall a good recipe for people to try, and I’m glad I tried it even though I was skeptical.
Christina says
I made something really similar to this tonight (based on your recipe) but I didn’t measure and made homemade guajillo chile sauce to stand in for the canned ench sauce. I also had roasted hatch peppers in the chicken (I made it two days ago for tacos and was specifically looking for a recipe to use it in. It was SO good. My hub was a biiig fan. Thanks for the inspiration!
Deborah says
Awesome! It sounds wonderful, and I’m so happy I could provide the outline!!
Ada Howe says
I have made this dish so many times… My whole family LOVES IT! and my 4 year old gets seconds everytime, which says ALOT! I’ve also made this for big get-togethers and people always ask for the recipe! Thank YOU for such a quick and easy recipe that is also DELISH! I was wondering if you’ve ever frozen this? either before baking or after? I was hoping to make it a freezer meal for my family when i’m out of town but wasn’t sure if it’d work. Let me know if you (or anyone else) have any tips!
THanks!
Deborah says
I’m so glad it’s such a hit with your family!! I haven’t tried freezing it, so I’m not sure how it would work. I must add it to my list to try freezing. If you try, please let me know how it goes!
IndianaAnna says
I made this dish this evening for dinner and my family loved it. I used a Hodgson Mills whole grain corn muffin mix rather than the Jiffy mix other people seemed to have used. (It is only 7.5 ounces, but that didn’t seem to matter) The result was not at all too sweet and was very delicious. I made Joy the Baker’s charred Mexican zucchini for the vegetable side dish and it made for an awesome meal!
Deborah says
I’m so glad it was a hit! And I’ll have to look for the Hodgson Mills brand!
Rebecca {foodie with family} says
Helloooooo. This would leave me happy and speechless at the table. How perfect and filling!
Nicole de B. says
My husband is a novice in the kitchen (he had to look up a recipe for how to boil eggs. SRSLY). He wants to learn how to cook so that he can make dinner on his days off so I don’t have to. He requested that I find some simple recipes for him. I gave this to him for his first attempt at making dinner on his own. IT turned out fantastic, despite the fact he dumped the enchilada sauce into the mix, instead of on top. IT still worked! And it tasted great. HE wanted me to write and let you know he appreciates the recipe and it’s a keeper! Thanks for a great recipe and for helping my husband gain a little bit of confidence in the kitchen!!
Chels R. says
Looks fabulous! And probably right up my alley since I can’t handle any kind of heat, lol!
Charlotte says
I hear you about the extra mild salsa! I’m down here in El Paso. I don’t think I could bring myself to ever purchase it.
Sarah says
Thanks for a great recipe. I make this often. My husband loves it!
Sarah ~ http://www.stickyphrases.com
J says
This dish is good, but doesn't produce the true taste of a tamale. It was too sweet, not spicy enouth and needed that traditonal masa taste that makes a tamale a tamale. Has anyone experimented with revising this recipe to accommodate these things?Would love to hear revised recipes!
Camille says
Hi there!!! New to your blog and I just LOVE IT!!!!! Made this for dinner the other night and my hubby and kids all loved it!!! My daughter wanted the leftovers for breakfast the next morning?!?! LOL!!!! I let her have them for lunch!!! Great recipe!!!
ashley says
we made this too after seeing it in your blog, it was pretty good but the sweet was strange. I had moments where I liked the sweetness but overall, I think it was too sweet too. We used jiffy as well. it was so easy to make though!
Nikki says
My family enjoyed this recipe tonight. My husband said that he really liked the sweet taste 🙂 I messed up and bought sweet whole kernel corn instead of creamed corn. So I used that and added a little sour cream. It still turned out good. Thanks for the recipe.
Kim says
This is my kind of dish for sure! Thanks for the light version.
white on rice couple says
What a beautiful state New Mexico is! So lucky are you to be able to grow up there!
And thank you for the amazing casserole recipe! This is definitely something I can eat all day long!
Kevin says
Lots of great flavours here. It sounds really tasty!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sophie says
🙂 I’m the same way when it comes to cornbread. I like it sweet but I don’t like it sweet in anything else, like stuffing. I’ve encountered a similar ‘problem’ after moving to the East Coast from TX, it seems like folks just don’t eat Mexican food around here :)!!
RecipeGirl says
Sounds terrific to me. I’m a Mexican food fanatic. When I was pregnant, all I ate was Mexican food. I had mad cravings for enchiladas!
Your package is on its way! Happy Thanksgiving!
Maryann says
I love casseroles at this busy time of year! This one is a keeper 🙂
Marisa says
That cracks me up about the extra mild salsa. How sad that they probably make that for me….I have such a whimpy mouth. although I guess I can now say that I can do the mild okay–I’m not quite whimpy enough for the “extra mild”. Maybe it’s a Utah thing because here in the Midwest I can rarely even find the mild version but usually only medium. I guess that’s another reason why I need to move back home to Utah :-). Okay…so it’s like 1 a.m. here and I realize that this is the longest rambling comment ever. Sorry :-)?!?
kellypea says
Sounds yummy! I’m thinking it was the cream corn that added the sweetness more than the cornbread mix. No matter, since I’d liberally shake my hot sauce bottle over it. I’m with you on the heat! Hope you’re feeling fine — been thinking about you and wondering about baby!
Caroline says
Love tamales, this looks so much easier to prepare. Not just mild but extra mild?!? Too funny!
Cathy - wheresmydamnanswer says
What a great combination of wonderful flavors. This is comfort food at its finest – Looking forward to making this one!!
Rosie says
This really sounds good Debs. I love Mexican food.
Rosie x
farida says
Sounds like a delicious Mexican dish. Yum!
Mrs. L says
If I used extra mild salsa I’d probably be throwing in some jalapenos to compensate! Recipe sounds great, and I’d probably just use Jiffy cornbread too.
Debbie says
Love Mexican food and this sounds delicious.
Patsyk says
I’ve seen the extra mild salsa here in NJ… although not in quite awhile!
I love the sound of that casserole… wonder if I could get my boys to eat it if it does have a bit of sweetness to it. I would think the cornbread mix and creamed corn are the culprits when it comes to the sweetness.
eatme_delicious says
What a gorgeous photo Deborah!
Mary says
I’ve put this on my “must try” list. Have a wonderful holiday.
maybelle's mom says
Alright, this looks delicious. But, I think you will need to produce pictures of extra mild salsa–no such thing I’ve seen in Ohio.
As for the corn mix, could I use masa?
Mary says
um, extra mild salsa is kinda of silly. Even for us totally midwestern kind of people.
And this casserole looks really tasty!
Grace says
i’m pretty much a fan of any type of mexican food too. i don’t know if noble pig was being sarcastic in her comment above, but it made me laugh out loud. 🙂
noble pig says
It sounds delicious. I didn’t even know there was extra-mild salsa? Isn’t that just tomato sauce?
Abby says
Actually – I really like that picture! The colors are great. (And I’ve never heard of extra-mild salsa!) (I do know Jiffy, however, and it’s cake! Ha. J/K. We don’t eat much sweet cornbread!)
This looks like a dish Brad would love.
Cookie baker Lynn says
Quick easy Mexican food? That sounds like a must have for my recipe file.
Marthe says
I left you an award on my blogsite. . come on over and pick it up when you can!
MeetaK says
lol! extra mild salsa! this looks delectable Deborah!
Melanie says
This looks delicious and pretty easy. That’s my kind of meal!
Maria says
Will have to try this one. We love Mexican food at our house!
Deborah says
redhead – I guess I should have mentioned that! I used Jiffy, but I’m going to agree with Cara, too, and say that the creamed corn probably made it a little sweet as well.
B says
So if you were to make this again now, would you not go with creamed corn–Since it may have added the sweetness? I’d love to try this out but I don’t want it to be too sweet. Thanks! 🙂 Looks amazing
Deborah says
I actually made it again with the creamed corn, and while it does have some sweetness to it, it grew on me. 🙂 You do notice the sweetness, though, so if you don’t want that sweetness, I would substitute the creamed corn. I haven’t tried it with a substitution, but I’m guessing it would work with an equal amount of regular corn.
Dianne Evans says
How about using the 20-oz. roll of FROZEN fresh corn? We have that at Ingles grocery store here in the South>
Deborah says
I haven’t tried it, but I’m guessing it would work. There was another commenter who said they used regular canned corn plus some sour cream and it worked. It’s definitely worth a try!
Cara says
This sounds yummy! The creamed corn probably made it on the sweet side too, but I bet it tastes good that way!
readhead says
What kind of corn bread mix did you use? If I were to make this I would use my stand by corn bread mix, Jiffy. However if that is what you used and it turned out too sweet then I might have to look for alternatives.
kat says
Extra mild salsa?! We don’t even have that in Minnesota