Chicken Tamale Casserole

In keeping with my cooking light theme this week, I made another recipe I found on cookinglight.com. (Never mind that I made chocolate cookies just for me tonight, and am eating them as I type this!) The site had a whole section on easy recipes using chicken breasts. I had to stop printing recipes after a while, there were so many I wanted to cook. This recipe caught my eye because of the corn muffin crust. It had green chilies and cream corn mixed in. I absolutely love those little corn cakes that you get at Mexican restaurants.

I decided to cut the recipe in half since it was just me and Brian eating it, but we definitely would have enjoyed the full pan for leftovers. The recipe cut in half nicely and fit into a 9x9 pan. I followed the recipe pretty closely except when it came to the chicken and the sauce. The recipe doesn't specify how to cook your chicken, so I roasted boneless, skinless chicken breasts in the oven. I seasoned them with cayenne pepper, garlic powder, cumin, salt and pepper. They turned out so moist! For a short cut you could always use a precooked rotisserie chicken. (The Costco ones are such a deal!) Also, the recipe calls for two cups of shredded chicken for the full recipe, and I probably used that much in my half a recipe. I roasted three chicken breasts. For the sauce, I covered the corn muffin crust, as directed, but added more after I placed the chicken on top. To me, it seemed like it would be a little dry, so I poured additional sauce over the chicken until the sauce sat on top of the crust. It was just the right amount of sauce! I just used canned Old El Paso enchilada sauce. I think green sauce would be great variation too.

I will definitely be making this again. I still have the other half of my ingredients, so I'll be making it again soon. It is delicious topped with sour cream! Click the link for the entire recipe and nutritional information.

Chicken Tamale Casserole Recipe