Turkey & Black Bean Tamale Pie

You ever have these grandiose ideas for dinner, sit down to cook it up, and then it turns out nothing like you had envisioned?

That was me cooking this tamale pie recipe.

The first problem: I didn’t make enough of the “tamale” mixture to cover the top.

My second problem: I didn’t season my “tamale” mixture so it was quite bland.

I managed to still enjoy the final product. Having table salt and pepper really helped with the blandness, and the tamale mixture not covering the top didn’t really bother me too much in the end.

I’ve fixed up the recipe below so you won’t fall into the same problems that I did.

All in all, this dinner/casserole recipe was quite delicious. I loved using turkey, black beans and green chiles inside of the tamale pie. My normal tamale pie recipe calls for ground beef and corn, so this was a nice change of pace.

This recipe makes a lot, so prepare for a ton of leftovers. My husband and I ate it throughout the week and it held up pretty well in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Turkey & Black Bean Tamale Pie

• Servings: 6-8
• Time: 1 hr
• Difficulty: Easy
• Print

A savory tamale pie with green chiles, black beans and cooked turkey.

Ingredients

• 6 cups water, divided
• 1 1/2 cups yellow cornmeal
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 1 (4 oz) can green chiles, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 TBS. chili powder
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 2 cups cooked turkey or chicken
• 1 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded

Directions

1. Grease a 13×9″ baking dish. In a large saucepan, heat 3 cups of water to a boil. In a small bowl, stir together remaining 3 cups water, cornmeal, and salt. Pour that mixture into the boiling water and stir constantly. Cook until thickened into a mush, about 5 minutes or so. Remove from heat.
2. Working quickly, pour 3/4 of the mush into the bottom of the greased baking dish.
3. In a large bowl, stir together green chiles, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and turkey. Pour mixture ontop of mush in baking dish.
4. Top turkey mixture remaining cornmeal mush and shredded cheese.
5. Bake, uncovered, at 325 degrees for 40 minutes to 1 hour.