Easy and Quick Green Tamale Casserole

We are still trying to get used to the back to school routine. After homework and sports when the time finally comes for dinner I usually find myself too exhausted to spend too much time in the kitchen cooking but I still want my family to eat healthy home made meals. Casseroles are the perfect dinner alternative and when I make them I prefer using Country Crock instead of butter because it has 0 trans fat per serving, has no cholesterol or partially hydrogenated oils and has 70% less fat and 30% fewer calories than butter per serving.

I want to share with you this easy tamale casserole, which is a dish that has a lot of meaning in our home.  I move to the US from Guatemala just 5 years ago and one of the things I miss the most is the food. Tamales are a traditional Guatemalan dish but they are so hard to make and time consuming so I rarely eat them. One day as I was wondering what to do for dinner and missing home I though it would be great to make a tamale casserole, I researched a bit and found some recipes and tweaked them to make my own version.

The best part of this recipe is that you can change the filling, in this case I used a chicken and green tomatillo filling, and make so many kinds of tamale casseroles: from tamales colorados (red tamaloes) to tamales negros (sweet black tamales).

To make this recipe even easier I used a rotisserie chicken from my grocery store and store bought green tomatillo sauce.  So preparing this took me about 15 minutes and then I just put it in the oven and we had a hearty, one dish, traditional meal on the table without me having to spend hours in the kitchen!

5 from 5 votes

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Green Tamale Casserole with Country Crock

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Author Paula Bendfeldt-Diaz

Ingredients

• For the filling
• 2 16 onz bottle of Salsa Verde tomatillo sauce can be found in your regular grocery store or in Mexican grocery stores
• 1 rotisserie chicken
• ½ cup Queso Cotija Cotija Mexican Paremesan Cheese
• For the Masa
• 1 cup country crock
• 3 cups masa harina flour corn tortilla flour
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• no-stick cooking spray

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F .
2. Remove all meat from chicken and shred it using two forks.
3. Pour one 16onz bottle of tomatillo sauce in a medium sauce pan, add chicken and cook in medium heat moving constantly until sauce thickens, about ten minutes.
4. Mix masa harina flour, chicken broth and country crock using your hands until you have masa with a sticky consistency.
5. Coat a medium casserole dish with cooking spray.
6. Put half of the masa on the bottom of the casserole and spread evenly with a spatula.
7. Pour chicken mixture and spread evenly.
8. Sprinkle cheese on top of the chicken.
9. Add the rest of the masa distributing it evenly with a spatula.
10. Cover the casserole dish with aluminum foil to prevent the masa from drying out.
11. Warm up the rest of the tomatillo sauce.
12. Place casserole on the lowest rack of the oven and cook for 30 minutes. Check to see if top of the casserole feels dry to the touch. If still soft uncover and leave a few minutes longer but make sure the masa does not over dry.
13. Remove from oven and let stand covered for 5 minutes before serving.
14. Serve topped with warm tomatillo sauce and sour cream.

Have you ever eaten tamales? What is your favorite kind?

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Paula Bendfeldt-Diaz

Paula moved from her native Guatemala to SW Florida with her husband and two children and together they are discovering what it means to live life between two languages.

Paula studied architecture and now makes a living as a freelance writer,traveler and amateur photographer.She started her writing & publishing career as the editor of Bebé y Mamá, the first parenting magazine in Guatemala.She is the founder of www.GrowingUpBilingual.com and www.365thingsswfl.com and writes articles in Spanish and English for both magazines and the web on travel,food and bicultural and bilingual parenting .

When she is not on a plane or road trip she likes to create recipes inspired in the flavors of her native Guatemala.

Latest posts by Paula Bendfeldt-Diaz (see all)

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• Traditional Guatemalan Candy - February 25, 2024

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