Chipotle Tamale Pie

I have had this recipe marked ever since I bought cornmeal at the grocery store. I honestly don't even remember why I bought it. I am still trying to clear out our deep freeze so I can start freezing meals. If this tells you anything, its that I have a LOT of food in the deep freeze. I won't have even made it through the summer garden harvest before this next garden season is upon us.

This casserole is a good way to eat up a lot of items in your house. I think you could adapt the ingredients to whatever you have on hand really. Change it up with some black beans & ground chicken. Anyway you slice it, it was easy, healthy & made a lot of food, for not a lot of $$$.

Chipotle Tamale Pie
myrecipes.com
Ingredients
1 3/4 cups chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
3/4 pound ground round
1/2 cup bottled salsa
1 to 2 tablespoons bottled chipotle sauce (such as La Preferidia) or hot sauce
1 (15 1/2-ounce) can pinto beans in zesty sauce (such as S&W), undrained
1 (14.5-ounce) can no-salt-added diced tomatoes, drained
3/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup 1% low-fat milk
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, bell pepper, and beef; cook 5 minutes or until meat is browned, stirring to crumble. Stir in the salsa, chipotle sauce, beans, and tomatoes; cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in 1/2 cup cilantro. Spoon beef mixture into a 3-quart casserole.

Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and next 4 ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl. Add 1/4 cup cilantro, milk, butter, and egg; stir until well-blended. Spoon the batter over beef mixture; spread evenly. Bake at 400° for 35 minutes or until golden.

A few changes to the recipe: I used ground turkey & our homemade salsa. I couldn't find pinto beans in zesty sauce so I just used regular ones. I also couldn't find chipotle sauce, but I did have adobe peppers in chipotle sauce, so I used about 2 Tbsp from that. I added some 2% mexican mix shredded cheese. It looked like it would be a little dry (i am assuming b/c I drained the beans) so I kept part of the tomato juice.