Arizona Tamale Pie

A Mexican food favorite is the tamale, which is masa filled with spicy meat filling, steamed inside corn husks. Making tamales is a laborious task, but a tamale pie captures the essence of the tamale with much less work. For a party, it offers a dish you can make up the night before, kept in the refrigerator, baking just before your guests arrive. (It can be pre-baked the night before and reheated covered before party also.)

This receipe is mildly spicy, so if your crowd prefers fire-breathing spicy in Mexican food, you'll want to kick it up a notch or two. The recipe will fill up a 9x13 baking pan. (A Pampered Chef baking pan is great for this recipe.) The tortilla chips which are layered into the filling absorb the filling liquid for a more solid pie.

Arizona Tamale Pie

You'll need:
Tortilla Chips
Shredded Cheddar or Monterrey Cheese
Tamale Pie Masa
Tamale Pie filling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

First, make tamale pie masa mixture using:

6 cups hot water
1/2 T chili powder
2 teas salt
2 cups corn meal

Combine all ingredients and cook on medium heat until mixture starts to bubble, turn down heat and cook until it starts to thicken. Set aside to cool slightly.

Next, make tamale pie filling, using:

1 # ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 tsp. garlic salt
pepper to preference
1 T chili powder
1 can green chilis
1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes
1 can creamed corn
1 can sliced black olives

Fry ground beef until pink disappears, add chopped onion and green pepper and cook with meat until soft. Add garlic salt, pepper, chili powder and stir into meat mixture. Add green chilis, tomatoes and, corn and black olives and stir together. Simmer 10-15 minutes.

Use 1/2 of the masa mixture to line the sides and bottom of baking pan, using a spatula or wooden spoon.
Add a thin layer of broken tortilla chips over masa, add 1/2 of the tamale pie filling, another layer of tortilla chips, the rest of filling and finish with the other half of the masa. Top the pie with shredded cheese.

Bake for 45-60 minutes. Covered for 30 minutes, uncovered for the rest of the baking time.

Garnish with chopped tomatoes, shredded lettuce, sour cream and salsa. Serve with Southwestern Tortilla Soup.