Pulled Pork Tamale Casserole
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Layers of corn masa, chipotle honey pulled pork, roasted poblano peppers & spicy cheddar cheese make up this delicious gluten free tamale casserole recipe.
Let me start this post by stating two facts:
- Tamales are really delicious.
- Tamales take a long time to make.
Given these two facts, I decided to combine my love of tamales with my love of simplifying recipes and make this totally scrumptious Pulled Pork Tamale Casserole!
All the deliciousness of a tamale without having to wrap up each individual tamale!
I layered the traditional corn masa filling that I use in my Chicken and Sweet Corn Tamales with one of my all time favorite recipes on the blog, Chipotle Honey Pulled Pork!
For this recipe you’ll want to put the pulled pork in the slow cooker in the morning and let it slow cook all day, then with less than 30 minutes of prep time in the evening, you can toss this casserole together and have a mouth-watering dinner on the table in under an hour!
Pulled Pork Tamale Casserole Ingredients
- 3 large poblano peppers
- 2 cups harina de maiz (or cornmeal)
- ½ cup lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter (softened)
- 1 egg
- 4 ears of corn (kernels removed)
- 4 cups chipotle honey pulled pork*
- 2 cups spicy cheddar cheese (shredded)
- 2 cups avocado cream sauce (optional – for topping)
*I cut the original recipe for chipotle honey pulled pork in half and it made almost exactly 4 cups.
Pulled Pork Tamale Casserole Instructions
Heat the broiler on the oven to high. When hot, place the poblano peppers directly under the broiler. Cook for app. 10 minutes per side, or until the skin of the pepper is black & bubbling on both sides.
Remove from the oven and place in a plastic bag. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 400° F.
Add the harina de maiz, water, sugar, salt, baking powder, egg and butter to a food processor and puree. Add the corn kernels to the food processor.
Blend until creamy.
Add ½ of this mixture to the bottom of a 9″ x 12″ casserole dish.
Top with the pulled pork and 1 ½ cups of cheese.
Remove the poblano peppers from the plastic bag, peel the skin from the peppers, slice the peppers in half, de-stem and seed. Layer the roasted poblano peppers on top of the cheese.
Top the casserole with the remaining corn masa mixture and the remaining cheese.
Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
While the casserole is in the oven, prepare the avocado cream sauce to drizzle on top of the casserole. While you can skip this step, I highly recommend taking the 5 minutes to make this delicious sauce!
Slice it up and dig in!
I absolutely love, love, love the balance of sweet and spicy from the corn masa filling and chipotle honey pulled pork to the roasted peppers and spicy cheese!
While I totally love the pulled pork in this recipe, the great thing about this casserole is that you can make it with a variety of different fillings!
I have so many ideas for different ways I want to make this casserole again, from filling it with shredded Sriracha Lime Chicken to roasted veggies!
Pulled Pork Tamale Casserole
Ingredients
- 3 poblano peppers
- 2 cups harina de maiz, or cornmeal
- ½ cup lukewarm water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1 egg
- 4 ears of corn, kernels removed
- 4 cups chipotle honey pulled pork
- 2 cups spicy cheddar cheese, shredded
- ½ cup avocado cream sauce, optional – for topping
Instructions
- Heat the broiler on the oven to high.
- When hot, place the poblano peppers directly under the broiler.
- Cook for app. 10 minutes per side, or until the skin of the pepper is black & bubbling on both sides.
- Remove from the oven and place in a plastic bag, set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 400° F.
- Add the harina de maiz, water, sugar, salt, baking powder, egg and butter to a food processor and puree.
- Add the corn kernels to the food processor, blend until creamy.
- Add ½ of this mixture to the bottom of a 9 inch x 13 inch casserole dish.
- Top with the pulled pork and 1 ½ cups of cheese.
- Remove the poblano peppers from the plastic bag, peel the skin from the peppers, slice the peppers in half, remove the stem and the seeds.
- Layer the roasted poblano peppers on top of the cheese.
- Top the casserole with the remaining corn masa mixture and the remaining cheese.
- Place in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.
- While the casserole is in the oven, prepare the avocado cream sauce for topping.
Notes
Nutrition Facts
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9 Comments on “Pulled Pork Tamale Casserole”
Do you think you could make this ahead and bake a few days later (weekend meal prep) or will the corn mixture dry out?
Hi Nancy, I think if you covered it tightly with plastic wrap, you could make it ahead of time and bake it a couple of days later. Enjoy!
I made this tonight and it was delicious! Even my picky husband liked it. Actually he likes it enough to take it to work tomorrow for lunch. Thank you so much for sharing!
Yay, that’s so great to hear Julie! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
Hello,
I have some questions.
What size pan did you use for this casserole?
Is the corn raw when placed in blender?
is the masa(corn)moist or dry like a cornbread?
Hi Yvonne,
The pan is 9″ x 12″. The corn is raw when place in the blender. The corn masa mixture will be moist when it goes in the oven and after it bakes it will be dry like a cornbread.
Enjoy 🙂
This looks so amazing, Whitney!! I can’t wait to try it. XO
Thanks so much Cody! I hope you love it!!