From the Freezer: Chicken Tamale Casserole

One of my third trimester goals was to fill our freezer full of delicious homemade meals that we could easily reheat once Aimee arrived. I had initially planned to make a few dishes each weekend in August until our little girl was born, but that did not end up working out exactly as planned thanks to the fact that Aimee decided to cozy up to my sciatic nerve and I was left with pretty terrible back pain when standing or walking the last few weeks of my pregnancy. I was able to suck it up long enough to make a few items the weekend before she was born and supplemented with some of our favorite frozen items from the neighborhood Trader Joe’s*.

I tried a couple of new recipes including one for a chicken tamale casserole that we really enjoyed. The recipe comes from one of my favorite “lifestyle” bloggers— Kate from Elefantitas Alegres. The original recipe includes making homemade enchilada sauce and roasting up fresh chiles—no doubt these extra steps would make the dish even more amazing, however I decided to go with her time-saving suggestions (since I was also trying to bang out a few other freezable meals the same day) and went with canned instead. It was a cinch to make and froze/reheated beautifully. I made it in two batches—we ate one on our first night home from the hospital and the second a few weeks later with chips and guacamole (from Trader Joe’s of course).

I would highly recommend this dish—whether you are making it ahead for yourself, for a friend, or simply planning to eat it the same day. Yum.

*In case you are interested, here are some of our favorite Trader Joe's frozen foods: meat lasagna, eggplant Parmesan, chicken tikka masala and naan, tamales (cheese and green chile and the chicken ones), and Mandarin chicken).

Chicken Tamale Casserole

Adapted (barely) from Kate at Elefantitas Alegres

Ingredients:

1.5 c. of corn muffin mix

2 eggs, beaten

kernels scrapped from 2 small ears of corn

½ c. milk

2 4oz. cans of chopped green chiles, drained

2 ½ c. cheese, grated (Kate suggests pepper jack-- I used a "mexican cheese" blend from the grocery store)

¼ T. chili powder

½ T. cumin

1 10oz can of your favorite red enchilada sauce

Meat from one natural rotisserie chicken, skin removed and shredded

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Fold eggs, corn kernels and milk into corn muffin mix. Add green chiles, 1/2 cup of grated cheese, chili powder and cumin and combine. Pour into a greased one 9×13 or two 8×8 inch baking dishes. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the middle of the mix is firm.

3. Pierce tamale base all over with a fork. Pour the majority of the enchilada sauce over the tamale base, then top with shredded chicken and remaining cheese. Drizzle the remaining sauce over the whole thing.

4. Casserole can either be baked immediately for 20 minutes at 400 degrees or wrapped and frozen. If you decide to freeze it, simply bake at 400 for 40 minutes or until hot.