Corn bread and Turkey Chilli Bake

This is my adaptation of Whole Foods Easy Tamale Casserole recipe that my sister had tried out recently. She had made a vegetarian version, and I thought I would try it using ground turkey. I love chili and corn bread so to make them both in one dish sounded almost too good to be true!

While this turned out good, I think the cornbread layer might have been too thick. If I had a bigger baking dish I would have used that and it might have worked out better. Although I had some of the chili left after I transferred it to the baking dish and continued to let that simmer on a low flame, which then turned out more sauce like and tasted great with the corn bread and turkey chili bake.

Ingredients:

For the Turkey Chili.

1 lb ground turkey
1/2 onion chopped finely
1 can red kidney beans
1 can diced tomatoes
1/2 a jalapeno pepper
2 teaspoons chili powder
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic chopped finely
1 smallish green pepper chopped into small pieces

For the corn bread.

1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup sifted flour
1/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup softened butter
1 cup milk
1 egg beaten

Method:

For the corn bread topping.

I used stoned ground yellow cornmeal and used the recipe the package had for cornbread.

Combine corn meal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cut in softened butter. Whisk egg and milk together and add to dry ingredients. Mix together using a few swift strokes.

For the Turkey chili.

Heat oil in deep pan and onions and cook till translucent on a low fire. Add garlic and cook stirring for about a minute. Next add chili powder and cook for another minute. Add ground turkey, using a masher break down turkey as it cooks. When turkey is slightly browned or whitish in color, add red kidney beans and diced tomatoes and jalapeno. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Use the masher to meld all the ingredients. Bring to a boil and then to a simmer. Add green pepper and continue to simmer, covering with a lid. Let simmer for atleast 10 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Scooping more solid than liquid, transfer turkey chili to a baking dish to fill about 1/2 an inch of the dish and let cool for a few minutes. Add corn bread mixture carefully spreading to cover the top. Bake in oven at 35o degrees for about 25 to 30 minutes, till top of cornbread is slightly browned and chili is bubbling below. Serve warm. Enjoy!

Corn bread and turkey chili baking in the oven.















Was that seconds or thirds?