Tamale Pie with Slow-Cooked Spicy Ground Beef Taco Filling

This was tamale pie made with slow-cooked spicy ground beef taco filling.

There was a good amount of slow-cooked spicy ground beef taco filling leftover in the freezer. I thought tamale pie would be a great way to make over the filling. Based on the recipe of tamale pie I adapted before, I sautéed onion and green bell pepper with chili powder and cumin, mixed in the filling, a can of navy beans, and a can of diced tomato, added some water, simmered for a while. The canned tomato was Ro-Tel's fire roasted diced tomatoes and green chilies. This was our first time to try the bland that J's friend recommended. The combination of tomatoes and green chilies would be very handy to enhance the flavor of Tex-Mex-kind-of dishes like tamale pie! I didn't add any salt in the filling because the canned tomato and beans as well as the taco filling leftover had already some salt.

I made corn bread layer a little thicker than before. Simply I wanted to have more corn bread part.

For the filling I didn't use cheese or fresh cilantro this time, but this pie tested very good and super satisfying. I realized tamale pie was versatile indeed!