There are some keto dinner recipes that make everyone at the table happy, and this Keto Tamale Pie is one of them. It has all the bold, comforting flavor of real tamales, without the carb-heavy cornmeal. It’s hearty, satisfying, and the kind of meal that makes you forget you’re eating low carb.
My family adores Mexican inspired recipes, and happily gobble down large servings of Keto Taco Pie or Keto Mexican Cauliflower Rice. I do believe that a little bit of ground beef, some taco seasoning, and plenty of melty cheese may be the way to my kids’ hearts.
I created this recipe when I was craving an easy casserole with tons of flavor. I already have a wonderful keto cornbread recipe, and realized it would make the perfect topping for a dish like this. I scaled it down a bit so it didn’t overpower the filling, and was thrilled with the results.
If you need a family-pleasing recipe that reheats well and feels like pure comfort food, this Keto Tamale Pie is it!
Reader’s Thoughts
“I made this for dinner tonight. I followed the directions and it turned out perfect! Full of flavor and very filling. Will be adding to the rotation.” — Cheryl
Why You Will Love This Recipe
- Easy preparation: Brown the beef, add the seasonings, and make the cornbread topping. Pop it in the oven and relax!
- Hearty and satisfying: It’s incredibly flavorful and leaves you feeling satiated, without weighing you down.
- Bold Tex-Mex flavor: Some taco seasoning, chili powder, and a little fresh jalapeño turn this into a mouthwatering meal.
- Gluten-free and keto-friendly: No grains or gluten, and only 3 grams net carbs per serving.
Ingredient Notes
- Ground meat: You can use ground beef, pork or even turkey and chicken.
- Taco seasoning: You can use store-bought seasoning, but make sure it has no added fillers, sugars, or starches. Or make your own by combining chili powder, cumin, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper.
- Jalapeño peppers: If you want something less spicy, you can use poblano or anaheim peppers. If you like more spice, keep the seeds in.
- Shredded cheddar cheese: You can shred your own or use pre-shredded cheese. Cheddar, Monterey, or Pepper Jack are great choices for this recipe.
- Keto flours: I use a mix of coconut and almond flour to give it the texture of real cornbread.
- Cornbread flavoring: Yes, there really is such a thing! And many readers like to add it. But a little vanilla extract works as well.
- Kitchen staples: Butter, eggs, chili powder, tomato paste, baking powder, salt and pepper
How to Make Keto Tamale Pie
- Brown the meat: In an oven-proof skillet, brown the ground beef with a little salt and pepper, breaking up any clumps. Stir in the the taco seasoning, chili powder, and jalapeño.
- Add the sauce: In a small bowl, whisk the tomato paste with the water until well combined. Pour over the beef and stir in.
- Top with cheese: Remove from heat and sprinkle evenly with the shredded cheese.
- Prepare the topping: Whisk the coconut flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt together. Stir in the wet ingredients until the batter is thick but spreadable.
- Bake: Spread the topping evenly over the filling. Bake until the edges are golden brown and the top is firm to the touch.
- Serve: Let cool 10 minutes, then serve with your favorite toppings.
Tips for Success
What seasonings to use? I used an organic taco seasoning blend I get at a nearby grocer, but this one from Spiceology is fantastic as well. Whatever you use, be sure to check your labels for fillers and sugars.
Customize the spice level to your liking. Not a fan of spicy food? Skip the jalapeño and use mild chili powder. Prefer it spicier? Leave the seeds in the jalapeño for more heat and add a touch of chipotle powder.
Use an oven-proof skillet, so the dish can go from stovetop to oven. It doesn’t need to be cast iron, although that’s always a good choice!
Spread the topping over the filling, all the way to the edges. In essence, you want to seal the juicy fillings into the pan before baking.
Serve with your favorite toppings! We love it with sour cream and some chopped tomatoes and avocado.
More Popular Keto Tex Mex Recipes
Keto Tamale Pie
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lb (907.18 g) ground beef or pork
- Salt and pepper
- 3 tbsp taco seasoning
- 1 tbsp chili powder, (optional)
- 1 medium jalapeno, seeded and minced, (optional)
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1/2 cup (118.29 g) water
- 1 cup (113 g) shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup (56 g) coconut flour
- 1/4 cup (28 g) almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 large eggs
- 6 tbsp butter, melted
- 1/8 tsp cornbread flavor , (optional)
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup (59.15 g) water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- In a 10-inch oven-proof skillet set over medium heat, brown the ground beef with a little salt and pepper until mostly cooked through, breaking up any clumps with the back of a wooden spoon. Stir in the the taco seasoning, chili powder, and jalapeno.
- In a small bowl, whisk the tomato paste with the water until well combined. Pour over the beef and stir in, then remove from heat. Sprinkle with the shredded cheese.
- In a large bowl, whisk the coconut flour, almond flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the eggs, butter, and cornbread flavor until well combined.
- Add the water a little a time until the batter is thick but spreadable.
- Dollop the batter over the beef in the pan. Use a knife or an offset spatula to spread over the top and to the edges.
- Bake 25 to 35 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown and the top is firm to the touch. Remove and let cool 10 minutes before serving.
Video
Nutrition
Frequently Asked Questions
Cornmeal is very high in carbs and should be avoided on low carb and keto diets. But you can simulate the texture and flavor with a combination of coconut and almond flour. A little cornbread flavoring and you’ll fool your tastebuds!
Store any leftovers in a covered container in the fridge for up to 5 days. It reheats well in the microwave or in the oven.
This keto tamale pie recipe has 5.7g of carbs and 2.8g of fiber per serving. That comes to 2.9g net carbs per serving.
Nutritional Disclaimer
Please note that I am not a medical or nutritional professional. I am simply recounting and sharing my own experiences on this blog. Nothing I express here should be taken as medical advice and you should consult with your doctor before starting any diet or exercise program. I provide nutritional information for my recipes simply as a courtesy to my readers. It is calculated using MacGourmet software and I remove erythritol from the final carb count and net carb count, as it does not affect my own blood glucose levels. I do my best to be as accurate as possible but you should independently calculate nutritional information on your own before relying on them. I expressly disclaim any and all liability of any kind with respect to any act or omission wholly or in part in reliance on anything contained in this website.
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This was so good and hearty! My husband said he would not have known it was keto if he hadn’t helped me make it. We added some black olives and a little more cheese. Also I didn’t have fresh jalapeno so I used tamed from a jar. We will be making again! I love your recipes! Thank you!!
Easy and flavorful with a nice crust! My non-keto hubby gave it his seal of approval 👍
Wonderful!
I made this recipe last night and it is awesome! Yay! Thank you Carolyn! I had one pound of ground turkey thawed out so that’s what I used. I also had no tomato paste so I used stevia sweetened ketchup and that worked fine. I had no corn flavoring but the topping was great without it. I’ll look for some that doesn’t have propylene glycol. I sometimes find recipes with coconut flour kind of dry or heavy but this was perfect. My non keto husband really liked it too. Also, I checked out the link to the Spiceology seasoning and it has BROWN SUGAR in it. OH OH! So Carolyn, you might want to take off that link. I almost always check but since I trust you, I might not have. Maybe they changed the ingredients? Keep the great recipes coming!
Glad you enjoyed it!
We’re not strict Keto, but using Keto recipes to keep carbs down. I bought the corn extract for this recipe so I could make it with the ingredients as written. I don’t have an ovenproof skillet so I cooked the ground beef etc, then put it in a casserole dish and topped it with the “cornbread” before baking. It was delicious! Served it with sour cream and guacamole. Hubby wants me to make it again, and grandsons gave it two thumbs up! Thanks, Carolyn, for another fabulous recipe!
Had this for dinner tonight. It is soooo good! I plan on baking a double recipe and put it in the freezer for busy weeks.
OH MY GOODNESS!!! I was blown away by this. I have been wanting to try this for years but was always a bit afraid as I only had tamales once when I was in Mexico and did not like them, but the rave reviews made me take the chance. I made this for Cinco de Mayo last night. This was AMAZING!!! Fed it to my non keto family and they loved it. They thought I was lying when I said there was no corn flour in it. This is going to be a regular now. Thanks Carolyn for such an amazing recipe!!!
I’m making this for the second time today. My husband generally doesn’t like anything he considers a casserole, which would be this dish, but he loved it. We topped it with his homemade salsa, and it was perfect in every way. I didn’t use the cornbread flavoring as it has propylene glycol in it. If you’re eating for better health, take a look at that ingredient. The tamale pie tastes great without it. This recipe makes a generous amount. We had two meals and a lunch out of it and it reheats really well. In fact the taste was even better the Second day. Great recipe! Thank you 😊.
Glad to hear it was awesome without the cornbread flavoring. I’m going to try it tonight.
@Fran: Harvest Moon Sweet Corn flavor doesn’t have propylene glycol (anti-freeze!!!) in it. A won’t buy anything with that ingredient in it! It is unsafe for pets as well! I may try to get another different ‘extract’ as well. That (harvest Moon) has better ingredients, but it IS better than anything with PG in it.
Perfect! Searched your site for ground beef and pork, as I had a half kilo of each that need using. Somehow missed putting the cheese on the meat before the topping (eye roll), but put it on top for the last 10 minutes, with a sprinkle of paprika. Absolutely delicious!
We like this very much! There’s just two of us and love easy dinners. I think this dish fits the bill!
I’d like to make this as “bites” in a mini muffin tin. Any chance you tried flipping it upside down (cornbread on bottom) and it worked like that as well?
I’m going for the finger food concept. 😁🤷♀️
Feel free to experiment.
We had pastor
Meat so we used that. Had my husband finish the “masa” topping since I’m recovering from surgery and got tired. It was easy enough for him! Looking forward to it coming out of the oven.
Made this last night and it was absolutely amazing. Glad I invested in the corn flavoring for a prior recipe (your corn bread), and it comes out really well. So good!
Great to hear!
I made this for dinner tonight. I followed the directions and it turned out perfect! Full of flavor and very filling. Will be adding to the rotation.
I made this tonight. I kept adding tons of water to the cornbread and it was still super thick. I didn’t have nearly enough for the dish and had to duplicate it. If I kept working it in, I felt it would’ve been way too thin. I believe I have a same size cast iron, which is small enough for a standard large burner. Just really bummed that I had to double the crust. I also ran out of butter for the second batch of crust.
Hi Judith. You should have made the topping as written. It is absolutely enough for the recipe if you are using a 10 inch skillet. Sounds like you’re not sure if you were, though. But you can see from the rave reviews that this recipe works as written.
I attempted to half this recipe but soon saw the batter for the cornbread topping was too little. So I just make the batter as the recipe stated but had already made only half of the meat mixture ingredients The ratio between meat and cornbread was NOT right. The meat mixture should have been much thicker for the ratio between meat and topping to be right. JUST A HEADS UP. Plus I don’t believe the recipe as is, serves 10 people! Much less.
I am trying to make sense of this… so you halved the filling but made the regular amount of topping, and you’re complaining that there isn’t enough filling?
Does the cornbread top reheat well in the microwave for left overs?
It sure does! Just don’t heat it too quickly.