I think of my childhood when I eat this tamale casserole. The Hamburger Helper variation of this recipe was a favorite of my mother’s. I couldn’t find it when I moved to another state, so I made this. My husband enjoys it when I spice things up, so occasionally I’ll use a Mexican-style cornmeal mix or add a 14-ounce can of tomatoes and green chilies.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 55 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 2 (15 ounce) cans pinto beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 (15 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
- 1 (15 ounce) can cream-style corn
- 1 (6 ounce) box cornbread mix
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
- Heat a cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir ground beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes; drain and discard grease. Season beef with salt and black pepper.
- Stir onion into ground beef; cook and stir over medium heat for 1 minute, then immediately remove the skillet from heat. Stir in pinto beans and crushed tomatoes.
- Beat together cream-style corn, cornbread mix, and egg in a large bowl until smooth; spread over ground beef mixture in the skillet. Sprinkle with Cheddar cheese.
- Bake in the preheated oven until cheese is melted and cornbread is set in the middle, about 25 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 515 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 57 g |
| Cholesterol | 99 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 9 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 9 g |
| Sodium | 1403 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 21 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I lived in Albuquerque and Tucson for a couple of years. I had a friend who went with the long, drawn out method. I think this is perfect for how I cook. I can’t wait to cook this. almost thirty years without any tamales. Thank you for this recipe!! I’m definitely gonna make this weekend.
It’s a favorite because it is so versatile and can add other ingredients.
It was very easy to follow. Yummy
I used a 9×13 glass pan. About 1.5 lbs ground beef and added some Hatch Green Chile to both the meat mixture and the cornbread topping. Also used the 11 plus box of cornbread with two eggs as that’s the only size box I had in my pantry. Delicious.
I love this recipe. This is the second time I’ve made it in two weeks. This is going to be a go to meal for me and my family
If like me you cannot lift a heavy cast iron skillet, you can use a good 10×13 casserole/cake pan. I have made this several times over the years and for variety have added diced fresh green bell pepper for color to the cornbread mixture.
Love this recipe
I just spiced it up a little but very good will make it again!!!!
This was fabulous and will be put into our rotation. A few things I did differently. I used a jar of salsa instead of crushed tomatoes and used taco seasoning when I fried my meat. I added cheese into cornbread/corn mixture then added more on top. After it baked I topped with my own relish of chopped onion, avocado, tomato and a little olive oil salt and pepper.
Delicious.
Awesome!! My fam gobbled it up. I accidently left out the chz but it still tasted great. I did add taco seasoning to it to give a little kick.
Super Easy, I made one simple change I added some chopped jalapeños to the corn bread mix and it was YUMMY
This is an easy recipe, but, if I were to make it again, I would spice it up with taco seasoning or cumin and chili powder because it is a little bland. I like the suggestions to use Rotel in place of tomatoes. The cornbread topping is incredibly sweet, so I would try something different, maybe polenta. This would take longer, but it would be more savory. There may be other cornbread mixes that have less sugar, but I didn’t see many choices in my store.
I did like the recipe BUT being a lover of Texan foods due to family in Texas, I think next time I will be adding Chili Powder & Cumin for more of a Tex-Mex flavor. Other than that, I loved the cheesy corn bread topping!
Everyone loved this recipe! I didn’t have creamed corn, so I used a regular can of corn and heavy cream instead and it came out perfect. I also added finely diced jalapeños to the meat for a little kick and used black beans.
This recipe offered a good base recipe but needed alterations. I added corn, taco seasoning, fresh tomato instead of canned, jalapeño peppers, and garlic to the meat mixture. I also only used one can of beans and turkey instead of beef. I put half of the cheese on top of meat and the other half on the cornbread mixture. Baked at 400 for 30 min. Served with sour cream and fresh cilantro. Really tasty!
Very easy!
Made this for my family tonight and everyone was looking forward to it. I was really disappointed. Not much flavor…should have added cumin, chili powder or something! I did add taco seasoning to the meat but it didn’t help. Probably won’t make again.
I used a ground beef/chicken/turkey mixture, black beans instead of pinto, one can of diced tomatoes,seasoned it up pretty good w/chili/Italian seasoning,as well as a few other herbs and what not! Transferred it to a non-stick metal pan,since it looked better to me,see? Even though the cheese did burn a little on top,it’s like a crust,so I’m quite sure that it’s good,since it smells delicious! Will probably cook it again,maybe sprinkle the cheese underneath the corn mixture next time,oh well BON APPETIT!
Was easy..but we think a can of rotel would be better than crushed tomatoes. I made it in my big cast iron fry pan but 1 can pintos 1 can tomatoes and it just barely fit. If you used 2 cans it would take maybe a Dutch oven or something. I’ll make it again with a few changes..maybe taco seasoning in meat and rotel
I made this for the family tonight, and they loved it. It was quick and easy to make. If you just follow the recipe, it’s a bit blan. I did have to transfer everything from my cast iron to a 9 x 13 baking dish and increase the cooking time to 30 minutes. Next time, I’ll add some extra spices and use Mexican blend cheese.