Tamale Pie Recipe
Cornbread-topped tamale pie — classic Tamale Pie, Instant Pot Tamale Pie, Tex-Mex Tamale Pie, and Beef & Poblano Tamale Pie for busy weeknight suppers.
★
Tamale Pie
Tamale Pie is a Mexican-inspired one-pot dish full of ground beef, cornbread, and cheese.
Ingredients
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 onion, chopped
- 1 bell pepper, diced (green or red)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- ¼ cup water
- ¾ cup enchilada sauce
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 corn muffin mix (8.5 oz box)
- ½ cup sour cream
- ½ cup corn kernels (canned, fresh, or frozen)
- ⅓ cup milk
- 1 egg
- as needed chopped fresh cilantro for garnish
Instructions
- 1Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- 2Cook beef, onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a large skillet until no pink remains. Drain excess fat.
- 3Add taco seasoning and water; simmer until water evaporates. Stir in enchilada sauce.
- 4Transfer beef mixture to a 2-quart baking dish. Top with 1 ½ cups of cheese.
- 5In a medium bowl, combine corn muffin mix, sour cream, corn, milk, and egg. Spread over the beef mixture.
- 6Top with remaining cheese and bake for 35-40 minutes.
- 7Garnish with cilantro and serve.
P.S. We update the recipes on this page every few days. If you want to cook this recipe over and over again, we'd love it if you downloaded Pepper 🤝.
More to try
dinner
dinner
dinner
dinner
dinner
Find more recipes like this
Join 1M+ cooks discovering, organizing, and sharing their recipes on Pepper
Open in Pepper →Ground Beef And Cornbread In One Pan
Tamale pie is the kind of dinner that solves the whole meal at once — seasoned beef underneath, soft cornbread on top, and one dish to wash when everyone's done eating.
Cooks on Pepper reach for this collection on nights when there's a pound of ground beef in the fridge, a box of corn muffin mix in the pantry, and about an hour before folks start asking what's for supper.
Every recipe here leans on that same easy pairing: the classic Tamale Pie with bell pepper and onion, a fast Instant Pot Tamale Pie made with masa harina, a chorizo-and-enchilada-sauce Tamale pie, Christie's Tamale Pie with gluten free cornbread mix, Tex-Mex Tamale Pie, and Beef & Poblano Tamale Pie with a cornbread-cheddar crust.
Quick Tips
- 1
Brown and drain the beef
Cook the ground beef 6 to 8 minutes until no pink remains, then drain the fat so the cornbread topping doesn't turn greasy.
- 2
Thicken the filling first
Let the enchilada sauce and meat simmer 5 minutes before topping; a soupy filling will soak straight into the cornbread.
- 3
Spoon the batter in dollops
Drop the cornbread batter in 6 to 8 spoonfuls and spread gently, leaving a half inch of edge so steam can escape.
- 4
Rest before serving
Let the pie sit 10 minutes out of the oven so the layers set and slices hold together on the plate.
Never lose a recipe again
Save everything. Stay organized. Share with friends.
