Tamale Pie

This meal can easily be translated into a vegetarian offering or a seafood dish by swapping out the protein and/or broth.  Consider this recipe like a Mexican pot pie.  The crust, instead of a traditional pie crust is replaced with a sweet cornbread.  The inside of the pie is a savory stew of onion, Poblano peppers, hominy, and corn along with chicken thighs.  These flavors were further freshened by the addition of chopped fresh cilantro and finished with some cheese.  I was surprised by how wonderful the smell of cooking Poblanos with onions was and vow to increase my use of these wonderful peppers.  They satisfy my need for that authenticity while not adding any remarkable heat for Tim.  


This recipe is further celebrated for it's use of a single oven safe and stove top safe 12" stainless steel skillet.  In the making of this meal I discovered that I have a 10 inch skillet which did prove to be too small, so I dirtied more than one pan as I switched to my 4 quart saute pan mid way through.  The saute pan is similar to a skillet yet with straight sides instead of the sloped sides of a skillet; this gives more surface area in the base of the pan.  On with the show.


Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.


Step 1: Brown the Chicken
If you are making this dish vegetarian, omit the chicken (clearly) and replace with a meaty bean like a dark kidney or a black bean.  You can skip this step.  If you are making this dish with shrimp, they will get tough if you cook them in advance of the other ingredients, you may also skip this step.

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 t olive oil
• salt & pepper

Heat the oil in your skillet pan over medium high heat, brown the chicken on both sides, (approx. 8 to 12 minutes).  Remove the chicken from the pan, but leave any remaining fat in the pan.  Set chicken aside on a clean plate covered with foil.

Step 2: Assemble the Stew

• 1 onion, diced
• 3 Poblano peppers, seeded and diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 T all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 C chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
• 1 can (~15 oz) hominy, drained and rinsed
• 1 C frozen corn kernels, thawed
• 1 C combined Monterey Jack and Sharp Cheddar, shredded
• 1/4 C fresh cilantro, chopped

Add the onion and Poblano peppers to the pan and cook until soft, stirring occasionally (approx. 6 - 8 minutes).  Add the garlic and flour and cook until the garlic is fragrant, stirring constantly (approx. 1 minute).  Add the broth, hominy and corn and bring to a boil.  Add back in the chicken and cover, cook until the chicken is shred tender (approx. 10 minutes).


Remove the chicken and shred, returning to the pan.  Add in the cheese and cilantro and stir to combine.


Step 3: Top with cornbread


You can use your favorite corn bread recipe here for the crust.  I felt the slightly sweet variation was nicely contrasted with the rest of the dish.  I wouldn't use a dessert corn bread recipe, but if it has around 3 T of sugar, that's reasonable.  You could also use Jiffy Corn Bread mix.


Spread the cornbread mixture evenly over the stew.  Place in preheated oven and bake until golden brown.  Approx 25 to 40 minutes.  If you took too much time assembling the cornbread, bring the stew to a simmer before topping with the cornbread and baking.


Allow to stand 10 minutes before serving.


Enjoy!