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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Looks so good and I love these photos too!
Made this last week for dinner, but we ended up eating the leftovers for breakfast. I topped eat serving (heated) with 2 fried eggs, more shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, and chopped fresh cilantro, with avocado on the side. It was amazing! Thanks for the recipe. I will definitely make it again.
great idea!
Are you God? My prayer answered! I think I’ve asked for this before and you delivered. I know how labor intensive (been there done that) genuine tamales are and how high the carbs. I’ve got a brilliant thought, or perhaps a foolish one, to make this recipe in true tamale form using the traditional corn husks. Making the dough soft, pliable and wet enough (but not too wet so it stays together when unrolled) to coat the corn husk, filling and rolling it. I will try this if you can give me some guidance on the amounts in the ingredients to achieve the proper dough consistency. To make it ‘corn’ tasting how about some corn extract? Could they then be cooked in an electric pressure cooker (don’t have an Instant Pot, though keep trying to win one :). It’s a Mexican tradition to have tamales Christmas eve. Thank you 🙂
Another winner from All Day I Dream About Food. One of the things I love the most about your site is that I NEVER have to worry if a recipe is going to turn out right, or if it’s going to be good. Every one of your recipes has been a winner… (plus i enjoy your writing ste and sense of humor!) I was worried about the coconut taste being too prevalent so I actually subbed 1/2 of it with Carb Quick. I was serving for company and wanted to make sure it had a tamale taste and consistency. And I skipped the sweetener bc I just prefer the topping more savory . But the consistency of the whole thing –pie and topping — was right on and everyone loved it. Will be making this again soon. Thanks carolyn!!
Did you try this?? I found this site looking for a grain free tamale filling to make rolled tamales in my instant pot! I would love your feedback!
My oven is not working. I’m wondering if this could be made in a crock pot. I guess I could be the guinea pig and try it, although if anyone else has done it I’d love to know how it turned out.
I think it might be too moist for the topping but it’s worth a shot!
Made this tonight and it is oh so yummy!! I added chopped orange bell pepper to the meat mixture cause I love it. I also served the tamale pie with sour cream, guacamole and salsa!! Just delicious – thx Carolyn.
I made the cornbread portion of this recipe (Sausage Jalapeno Skillet Cornbread) a few weeks ago and added 1 cup of creamed corn. This added roughly 35 carbs to the entire dish (or 8 g carb per serving of 10). Anyhow, it turned out wonderfully and placated my corn craving. As a T1D individual, I did notice a little spike in my blood sugar post-meal. Amazing how a little can have such an effect. Wishful thinking usually gets the best of me!
Carolyn, I do have a question regarding sweetener choices. I have and do use Swerve and Truvia, but I learned that I have to be careful with how much of it I consume over time. Three days’ consumption of any recipe using the erythritol sweetener will produce undesirable effects, gastrointestinally speaking. I am wondering if you have experimented with options such as SweetLeaf, Stevia in the Raw, or other non-erythritol sweeteners in your cooking and what you might recommend?
Thank you again for all you do for so many!
I don’t get any GI effects from Swerve but I understand that everybody (and every gut) is different. I have many recipes that use a little stevia to cut the erythritol, I just don’t love it as much. And my son appears to have developed a sensitivity to stevia, he gets an itchy mouth (it’s a member of the ragweed family). But I am always happy to help people try to adapt my recipes for the sweetener of choice. Some you really do need the erythritol for, though.
I agree that stevia is just not “as good.” I have always liked the erythritol; it just doesn’t like me! Cutting it with stevia..I will give that a try. Thank you for the reply!
In savory dishes I always leave the sweetener out. In sweet dishes I usually mix erythritol, stevia and xylitol to get as little of the after taste as possible from any single one of them.
Elizabeth — I am also not happy with Stevia (even the organic has an awful aftertaste). Recently I’ve been reading from many low-carb/keto followers about a sweetener called Monk Fruit. Just ordered it from Amazon (got the blend with erythritol, but you can get pure Monk Fruit if preferred). I’ve been using it for about a week and LOVE it! So much better than Stevia… I’m not sure why anyone uses it now that I know there are better options. I guess some don’t have the sensitivity to the bitter taste. Anyway, just wanted to share that and hope it helps.
I made this last night for dinner. It was yummy!! Thanks so much for yet another winner.
How long can you keep almond milk? That is something that I have not used yet.
I made this for lunch yesterday. It was super yummy, though I think next time I might not use the sweetener. It was so good that we ate it again for dinner. We were super tempted to have a second piece at lunch, but decided to restrain ourselves. We are Texans living in Zimbabwe and we just LOVE this recipe. Thanks!
Wow, you’re a long way from home! Glad it gave you a taste of home.
Has anyone tried this omitting the sweetener? My family prefers unsweetened cornbread, but wasn’t sure if he coconut flour comes through too strong if you on sweeten it.
I think it should be fine.
I never use sweeteners in any lunch/dinner/breakfast recipes. Only in deserts. Never had a problem with taste 🙂
This looks delicious! I’m trying it with ground turkey and my homemade taco seasoning. ????
Did you really mean to say 1 1/5 lbs ground meat? Or should that actually be 1.5 lbs (1 1/2 lbs)? The nutritional values match up better when I change to 1.5 lbs 🙂
1 and 1/2 pounds. Did I write something strange there? Let me fix it.
I went to the U of A in Tucson (rivals!!) and live in Albuquerque, NM now. =) I LOVE a good tamale and yes, they are very labor of love intensive. Thanks for your low carb alternative. My daughter has T1d and we so appreciate your low carb recipes. They are delicious and made with pretty normal ingredients. (Almond flour, coconut flour, and swerve are every day pantry items now =)
I do have one thought for this recipe to maybe add some “authenitic” type flavor to it…what do you think of subbing just a tiny bit of masa harina to it? If so, I would love to guinea pig this and try it with your suggestions. We are making chili tomorrow and some yummy corn bread would go perfect with this!
I think in place of the almond flour, you could do the masa harina.
I am a big fan of masa harina, but am wondering what substituting that for the almond flour will do to the carb count?
1/3 cups almond flour is about 2 g carbs. 1/3 cup of masa harina is about 27 g net carbs. So approximately 25 g more carbs in the entire dish if you use corn flour.
Per serving you’re looking at a 2.5 extra grams of net carbs with the corn flour.
Hi Carolyn,
I’m only cooking for 2. Can I halve the recipe and use my 6 inch iron skillet?? It is a little bigger than half of a 10 inch skillet, but do you think that would work? Should I lengthen baking time any? Thanks. This looks really good,
I think it should be okay. The square inches of a 10 inch circle = about 64 square inches. The square inches of a 6 inch circle equal almost 30 square inches. So really, it’s a little less than half but it’s close. If you find you have too much filling and too much topping, just grab a ramekin and put the rest in there.
Looks wonderful Carilyn- I am trying this week. Just went on a baking spree with 3 of your goodies: sour creme cranberry muffins, pecan biscotti and pumpkin scones. All so delish! Thank you!
The hyperlink for the coconut flour was not properly done in your recipe. But I will try the recipe regardless because you have made some really good things on this site that my family loves.
Thanks for the heads up, I will fix that!
I made this for dinner tonight and it was absolutely amazing! Your recipes never fail and I know I can always expect nothing but great results! Thank you for all the hard work you put into your recipes!
Thanks, Michelle!
I don’t have an oven proof skillet, but I’m assuming I can transfer the meat to a baking dished pie plate?…
Yes, that would work just as well!