hello this is chef john from food wishes
comm with turkey tamale pie that's right
i'm going to show you how to make a
tamale pie out of leftover turkey
because let's face it no matter how
moist and delicious your roast turkey
turned out the leftovers can be a little
bit dry and uninteresting which is the
exact opposite of what you're gonna
experience with this
in fact this came out so well even if
you don't have any leftover turkey you
should roast one just to use for this
and maybe make a few sandwiches but
mostly for this so with that let's go
ahead and get started by sauteing a
diced onion and a little bit of olive
oil over medium-high heat along with of
course the traditional giant pinch of
salt and what we'll do is cook these
stirring for a few minutes until they
just start to turn translucent and all
that means is that those pieces of onion
are gonna go from firm and white to
slightly softer in this okay we're just
basically taking that raw edge off and
then once our onions are looking a
little something like that we'll go
ahead and toss in a whole bunch of diced
peppers and this time I went with a red
bell pepper plus a couple beautiful dark
green poblano peppers but of course use
whatever you want I mean you guys are
after all the schleppers of your peppers
so whatever you carry back from the
store will work but regardless of which
you use we'll go ahead and season that
up with some freshly ground black pepper
some ground cumin and a nice big pinch
of dry oregano and what we'll do is stir
that all together and cook it for about
two minutes until our peppers just start
to soften up at which point we're gonna
add what might be the most important
ingredients one can of whole chipotle
peppers packed in adobo sauce and if
you're not familiar these are basically
whole red jalapeno peppers that have
been smoked over hot coals or at least
that's what the brochure says and then
packed in an amazingly flavorful chili
sauce and what we'll do is go ahead and
break those up and stir them in with our
spatula and fair warning those things
are pretty spicy which by the way
explains why you're not going to see me
add any cayenne to this all right that
stuff's gonna provide plenty of heat and
what we'll do as soon as that's all been
broken up and stirred in is turn off our
heat and reserve that pan of goodies
while we move on to prep our turkey
which most likely will be some leftover
dry Thanksgiving turkey what we'll do is
sure we removed the bones and skin
before cutting this up into like
quarter-inch cubes and what you're
seeing here are the remnants to a very
unsuccessful honeyrose turkey recipe
which came out very bland and unexcited
but hey at least it was dry the good
news however is that it's perfect for a
recipe like this so I went ahead and
cubed up about three or four cups and
once that set we'll go ahead and add
that to our pan of onions and peppers
along with a whole bunch of sharp
cheddar cheese or any melty cheese but
cheddar is the official recommendation
and then we will follow that with a jar
or can of red enchilada sauce from the
store do not make that yourself I mean
you could but don't plus I don't think
I've ever posted a recipe for enchilada
sauce which we probably should but
anyway we'll finish up with some salt as
well as some chicken broth that is you
might be able to see I used to rinse out
my jar of enchilada sauce and we'll dump
that in and stir everything together
before transferring that into whatever
casserole dish we're going to use and
please note how runny and loose this
mixture is okay we want to make sure we
start with a lot of liquid so once this
bakes it stays a little bit saucy
already dried tamale pie is not fly as
they say and then what we'll do once
that's been transferred in is move on to
the last major component a very very
thin cornbread batter and that's going
to start with some cornmeal and I'm
using kind of a medium grind but fine
cornmeal will also work and then we're
also gonna toss in some self-rising
flour which is nothing more than flour
with the baking powder and salt milled
into it and then we're also going to
need a little bit of white sugar as well
as of course a little bit of salt and
then what we want to do is take a whisk
and give this all a mix so that all
those ingredients are nicely combined
before we add our wet ingredients and by
wet ingredients I mean a couple large
eggs as well as some nice cold fresh
whole milk and that's it we'll just take
our whisk and mix this all together to
form like I said a very thin batter and
yes in case you're wondering we do
usually use buttermilk when we make
cornbread which gives it a nice little
Tang eNOS but here with this particular
filling I think something a little bit
on the sweeter side will work better but
having said that either one will work
and then once we have that mixed up
we'll go ahead and label that carefully
over our turkey filling and by applying
it this way we're gonna hopefully get a
nice even layer since if we just dump
this in it might be thicker in some
spots than others so really is better to
take an extra minute and sort of ladle
that over carefully and the reason we
want that so thin is that I'm not trying
to make a turkey chili with cornbread
baked on top okay we want to get a
little bit closer to the texture of an
actual tamale which is much denser and
moister so I do realize it looks a
little watery but you'll see once this
bakes is gonna be perfect
oh and please note we have our casserole
dish set over a sheet pan because this
is almost always going to bubble over so
make sure you put something under your
dish and then what we'll do to finish
this off is go ahead and scatter over
the rest of our cheese which by the way
is why we didn't add any butter to the
batter oh yeah this is a no butter
batter because the butter fat in that
cheese is gonna provide all we need and
that's it once our cheese has been
applied to the top we can go ahead
transfer this into the center of a 375
degree oven for about 45 minutes to an
hour or until it's beautifully browned
and probably bubbling over and our
cornbread is topping has cooked through
which if you want you could test with a
toothpick and it should come out clean
okay if it comes out dirty and it has a
bunch of wet batter on it put it back in
for a few more minutes but mine was
perfect and at this point I usually tell
you to let things rest for a few minutes
but with this you really don't have to
so I'm gonna go ahead and cut a piece
and serve that up and right here you can
get a great look at our still
beautifully saucy filling which is why
we really do want that stuff nice and
juicy before this goes in the oven and
then by all means feel free need this as
is but I like to finish mine off with a
nice dollop of sour cream which not only
looks pretty but also provides a
contrast and taste and temperature plus
I also like to show off my dolloping
skills and that's it I finished up with
a little bit of chopped cilantro and my
leftover turkey tamale pie was ready to
enjoy so I grabbed a spoon and dug in
and I could not have been happier with
how this came out okay you know that
thing they shined in people's eyes in
that movie men in black to erase their
memories this tamale pie is that
for dry turkey okay you're gonna forget
you even roasted a turkey and above and
beyond that highly seasoned super
flavorful very moist filling we also of
course have that slightly sweet topping
that is basically halfway between a
classic cornbread and that softer much
moister traditional tamale dough so I'm
not officially saying I hope your
turkeys a little overcooked and people
don't need that much so that you have
plenty of leftovers to make this but
unofficially I am saying that so I
really did love everything about this so
whether you end up making this with
actual leftover turkey or you end up
cooking some turkey just to make this or
of course just substitute with some
chicken which would totally work I
really do hope you give this delicious
tamale pie a try soon so head over to
food wishes dot-com for all the
ingredient amounts of more offal as
usual and as always enjoy
you