Hot Tamale

But there are a few things even I, the Food Hound, will never, ever make at home. I do not make my own cinnamon rolls. I leave that to VG's Bakery, and if they ever decide to stop making them I might move out of Knoxville. Yes, they're that good (see "Ode to a Cinnamon Roll"). I do not make my own calamari. I made it one time, and my kitchen wreaked of fried fish for days. Pity, because Nigella Lawson has a killer recipe for calamari, and it's one of my absolute favorite dishes, but there are plenty of places in Knoxville that do calamari very well (Sangria's is my personal favorite, and I will blog about that one in the future... everything there is unbelievable!). Overall, the hands-down #1 recipe I will probably never make at home is... tamales.

I don't know why I have such an aversion to making tamales. It can't be the time commitment because brining and roasting a turkey takes a lot of time and I have no problem with that on Thanksgiving (ie, the Superbowl for all home cooks). It can't be the specialty ingredients (corn husks), because living in Hawaii made me the Sherlock Holmes of locating ethnic ingredients, and there are plenty of places in Knoxville that could supply me with fine corn husks. It can't be the lard quotient because, well, let's face it, I have no problem with using copious amounts of butter when needed (or not needed :). But whatever the reason, the thought of making tamales makes the blood drain from my face... much like the thought of eating Cheese Whiz. However, I absolutely adore them, so what's a Food Hound to do? Luckily, the fabulous people at Cooking Light heard my plight and developed a recipe for Chicken Tamale Casserole.

This casserole tastes just like a tamale but with about 1/100 of the effort. It uses a lot of pantry items, which is fine, and leftover rotisserie chicken (or poulet roti, as it is known chez Hound... remember, I strive to live along the Seine). It's kind of hard to see the cornbread base in this picture, but trust me, it's there and it's awesome! The only changes I make are:

1. Instead of the cornbread mix, I whip up the dry ingredient portion to my favorite Quaker cornbread recipe.

2. Instead of the creamed corn, I used about 1 1/2 c of the corn Mama Hound and I froze from last weekend's preserving extravaganza. But I've made it with canned creamed corn and it's great.

3. I use more cheese on top. Sorry, can't help it-- I'm a cheese hound :)

As an accompaniment, I served my favorite go-to Mexican side dish: Bobby Flay's Tomato and Avocado Salad. The cilantro-lime dressing is fabulous, and the texture of avocado in salads totally rocks my world. Don't worry, I don't go all crazy and serve them in coconut shells and grind my own cumin seeds (as suggested in the recipe); this salad tastes fine with ground cumin and looks fine in Crate and Barrel bowls. The ultimate test was that my brother, known hereafter as Bro Hound, ate it when he visited this weekend, green specks of cilantro and all. He's vegetably-challenged, so this says a lot. He also ate the tamale casserole, but it's hard not to go wrong with Mexican dishes involving chicken. Next time I might use roasted duck, just to mess with him :)