I’m always looking for an easy and hearty weeknight meal, so this Cheesy Chicken Tamale bake is perfect. If it can double as meal prep for lunches throughout the week, even better!
This casserole definitely checks all of the boxes, and the depth of flavor is crazy given how little effort you actually need to put in to it.
Just whip up a quick cornbread batter, bake, and then top with chicken that is tossed in a quick, homemade enchilada sauce. Don’t forget to top with lots of cheese. The perfect spicy and sweet combo with a Mexican twist!
Jeff loves alllll of the Mexican food. His family is Mexican, and tamales are a big deal for them. Christmas Eve didn’t even happen if tamale’s weren’t on the table. So I knew I had a winner the first time I made this Cheesy Chicken Tamale Bake because he raved about each bite, then has requested it almost weekly ever since.
Now, there is NOTHING authentic about this recipe at all, but it does hit all of the tamale flavor notes without the labor of making your own masa, grinding dried chilies for the sauce, cooking your own chicken, wrapping everything in corn husks. etc. I’ve done all of that before and love the process, but it takes hours to make good tamales. This casserole takes just about 45 minutes, and most of that is just time in the oven.
Using Whole Ingredients
There are a lot of tamale bake recipes out there, but most that I’ve seen use canned enchilada sauce and boxed cornbread mixes. There is nothing wrong with taking some shortcuts here and there, but it is seriously SO easy to make homemade versions of both of them.
This also allows you the opportunity to make the entire casserole gluten free. Did you know that most canned enchilada sauces include flour? I don’t think it’s really that necessary. Other than that, just use gluten-free AP flour in the cornbread mixture. I’ve tried it this way, and it’s just as good.
Cheesy Chicken Tamale Bake
Ingredients
Cornbread Base
- 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 cup plain, unsweetened almond milk
- 1 large egg
- 4 oz can diced green chilis
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/3 cup reduced fat, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided
Enchilada Sauce/Chicken Mixture
- 1 cup canned tomato sauce or puree (no sugar added)
- 2 tbsp chili powder (if you want it mild, use 1 tbsp chili powder and 1 tbsp paprika)
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 1/2 lbs cooked, shredded chicken breast
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Coast a 9×13 casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine all dry cornbread ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk together wet ingredients and 1/3 cup of cheese. Add wet to dry and mix until just smooth, then fold in green chilis.
- Pour cornbread mixture into prepared casserole dish. Bake until you can insert a toothpick and it comes out clean, about 15-20 minutes. Poke holes a few holes in the cornbread so the sauce can get in there a bit.
- While the cornbread is cooking, bring all enchilada sauce ingredients (except for the chicken) to a boil in a sauce pan, then simmer. Continue to simmer until sauce has slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
- When sauce is done, toss with cooked chicken. Spread sauce/chicken mixture evenly over the cooked cornbread. Top with remaining 1 cup cheese. Return to oven and cook until sauce is bubbling and cheese has melted, about 20-25 minutes.
I made this tonight and it was really good, definitely satisfied my craving for melted cheese. It was a touch salty, so I’ll reduce the salt when I make it again. I’m curious how you got 7 WW Freestyle points per serving though because when I entered the nutritional information into the WW points calculator on the app, it comes up as 10pts. Thanks.
Glad you liked it! Salt preference can be different for everyone. I would just make sure you’re using kosher salt and not table salt, since kosher is less concentrated. The only ingredients that counted for points in my tracker are as follows: 3/4 cup AP flour (9), 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal (11), 1 cup almond milk (1), 2 tbsp sugar (6), 1 1/3 cup reduced fat cheddar (17). 44÷6= 7.3. The chicken, canned tomato sauce, spices, baking powder, egg, and canned chilis are all 0 SP. Mayve some of your brands were higher points?
What did you do for the chicken? Did you just buy a rotisserie chicken already precook and shred that? Thanks!
I like to buy shredded rotisserie chicken breast from Costco. Such a time saver! Or I will buy a rotisserie chicken and just shred the breast for this. You could also look up a recipe for shredded chicken breast in the Slow Cooker. I’ve seen a lot of those. Hope that helps!
Since I shredded my own chicken it was a little more time-consuming but absolutely delicious. Definite do-over!!!
That is so good to hear! Thank you!
Delicious, I didn’t have chicken, so I used lean ground beef. So good!
Great idea! I’ll have to try it with beef next time.
There’s a tree nut allergy in my home so I can’t use almond milk. Can I substitute for soy? Just found your blog tonight and I’m saving almost everything!
I think soy would work! Or you could even use skim milk.
Did you use the 2 lb measurement precooked? I cooked my chicken, shredded it and then weighed out 2 lbs. and there was nowhere near enough sauce to make it moist and look as juicy as your photo. Just wondering what I might have done wrong?
Hello,
Can you use masa harina instead of the cornmeal and flour? I bought it to make tamales.
I think that would work!