This family friendly casserole recipe for Crock-Pot Tamale Bake brings all the delicious Mexican food flavors into a super easy one pot dish!
Crock-Pot Tamale Bake
My family LOVES Mexican food! And, while this recipe is not an authentic Mexican dish it is inspired by those delicious south of the border flavors we all love.
This yummy casserole type dish really hits the spot on a busy weeknight dinner. Ground beef is browned on the stove-top (you can totally do this ahead of time and just pull a bag of frozen pre-cooked hamburger out of the freezer) and then tons of great flavors are added with onion, garlic, tomatoes and spices and then everything is topped with a homemade cornbread type topping and cooked in the slow cooker.
Cheese and a sprinkle of green onions is the final touch and you have a hearty stick-to-your-ribs dinner that everyone will adore. This is one of my go-to recipes when I need something that I KNOW my kids will eat after a busy day of school and then evening after-school activities!
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| Prep Time | 30minutes |
| Cook Time | 375minutes |
- 1 pound lean ground beef or ground turkey
- 1/2 cup onion finely diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 3/4 cups yellow cornmeal
- 1 whole egg
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 15.25 ounces canned corn drained
- 14.5 ounces canned diced tomatoes undrained
- 1.25 ounces taco seasoning mix or homemade
- 2.25 ounces canned sliced black olives drained
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 1 - 2 whole green onions minced, for garnish, optional
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Ingredients
Servings:
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- In a large skillet brown and crumble your ground beef with the onion and garlic until the meat is no longer pink.
- Drain ground beef to remove excess fat.
- In a large bowl combine cornmeal, egg and milk and mix until smooth
- Add to the cornmeal mixture the corn, tomatoes, taco seasoning, olives and ground beef mixture and mix well.
- Dump mixture into the bottom of a 4 quart crock-pot.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or HIGH for 3 hours.
- Sprinkle with cheese and cover again and cook for an additional 15 minutes until cheese is melted.
- To serve, spoon into bowls or onto plate and garnish with chopped green onion.
I love tamales so I know I will be trying this recipe. I have a Wolfgang Puck Versa slowcooker. ( kind of sort of like the ninja slowcooker) so I can brown the meat right in it. Then add the other ingredients. Thanks for share your recipe.
I made this last night but ran late. I didn’t get any of it till lunch today. Wow, is it good! I couldn’t wait to get home from work to have seconds! Thank you!
I am used to cooking Mexican food from scratch and don’t use taco seasoning. I have a molcajete ( a Mexican blender) and grind my spices, such as cumin, garlic, peppercorns .I use a paste made of Ancho chillies. The taste is terrific and it smells great cooking.
Sorry if this comes across the wrong way Marcia, but what’s your point?
Tamales are one of my most favorite things in the world.This recipe caught me by surprise as the cornmeal mix was super liquidy. I thought I had done something wrong! But in the end it turned out super delicious. I think the next time I make it, I will put in more olives as there seemed to be only a few per serving. Thanks for this idea!
Can this be assembled the night before , refrigerated and cook in the morning?
I don’t see why not!
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I just wanted to ask if there were any good sides to go with this or is the recipe itself full enough without sides?
You could do a simple side of rice to add to it. But it is a meal in itself.
Made this today and used the 3 hours on high. Wasn’t soupy or anything perfect thickness. It was good but not what I expected. Real Tamales are way different. There wasn’t enough spice in it. A little on the sweet side because of the corn. It was good, but not what I was looking for. Thanks for the recipe though!
Will it ruin it if cooked longer than what the recipe says? Sounds good with some sour cream and even tostitos for the kids.
Hi Sarah, I would not cook it much longer than the recipe calls for as it may dry out. If you really must bump up the cooking time I would try adding some extra liquid. But I cannot guarantee the results on that suggestion.
can this be frozen in advance?
This one cannot be frozen in advance since the corn bread part would not freeze well.
Any way to make this in the oven?
Hi Cindy,
While I am sure you can convert this into an oven recipe this recipe was tested and developed as a Crock-Pot recipe and without really testing it myself in an oven I am unable to advise on cooking temperatures and time. However you are willing to experiment and see if you can make it work. Experimenting is part of the fun in cooking!
I made this tonight but it was very mushy. I followed the recipe to the T. What did I do wrong or is it supposed to be that way?
The texture is semi mushy…like a casserole.
I’m going to try this in the oven, I’ll post my results! I can’t wait to try this!!
Let us know how it goes Debbie!
Turned out great! I mixed all together like the recipe says, then put it in a sprayed 9×13 pan and baked about 30 minutes at 350. Might have to go s little longer, was cooking other things at the same time.
Awesome, glad that came out OK for you. We don’t normally test our recipes in the oven since this is a Crock-Pot site but many of them can be converted.