Tamale Pie

Tamale Pie
Umm...yea....think I have been watching a bit too much Rick Bayless on public television lately.  He was making tamales the other night which is something I have attempted once.  Yep, it was so labor intensive I didn't think I would ever try again.  I will admit that I am reconsidering this and may make them in the future; however, I sure am not going to make them during the week!  I have used a few different recipes for tamale pie over the years but couldn't find the one I had used, so a bit of web surfing got me to this spot.  And this one.... tamale casserole uses the crockpot.  So putting these together, along with a couple other recipes and the ingredients I have, here's what I made:

1 lb ground turkey breast, cooked in a skillet until no longer pink
Add (homemade taco seasoning)
1 T minced onion powder
2 t  Penzeys 33rd and Galena seasoning
1t garlic powder
1 t cornstarch
1 t cumin
1/2 t cayenne
1/2 c water
Add one red bell pepper, chopped and 1/4 bag frozen corn.
The entire batch was put into a ziploc bag and frozen.  Ready for easy to assemble dinner in a slow cooker.It defrosted in the refrigerator overnight and put in the crockpot in the morning along with a can of kidney beans.
Topping:
1 egg
3/4 c cornmeal
1 c milk
Mix together and put on top of meat mixture.
Cook on low for 10 hours or so.  Serve with salsa.
This wasn't a meal everyone raved about and feels like it would be awesome once a week; however, it was a perfectly good dinner that can be repeated occasionally.

It's messy to pull out of the crockpot...but tastes good.  It hasn't curtailed my craving for a "real" tamale though, so maybe I'll have to try assembling some when I have a free afternoon.

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