This keto tamale pie is sure to satisfy those Mexican food cravings! Richly seasoned ground beef topped with a grain-free coconut and almond flour crust. And plenty of cheese too! It’s an easy and delicious low carb dinner recipe.
This easy keto tamale pie is a wonderful dinner recipe with all the great flavors of real tamales. You won’t miss the corn, I promise! And I’ve given it a little update so now it’s even meatier and lower in carbs.
My family adores Mexican inspired recipes, and tamale pie is no exception. A few others that they love and willingly gobble down include my famous Keto Taco Pie, and 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!
Tasting real tamales for the first time
The first time I tasted real tamales was at Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico. I have to admit, I’ve had some interesting experiences in my day.
After I finished my BA at the University of British Columbia, I was offered an internship at an archaeological center in southwestern Colorado, right in the heart of the Four Corners region. This was actually where I met my husband, who had just finished up his own internship and liked the place so much he took a job working at their front desk.
We made a day trip to Zuni Pueblo for a Feast Dance, and were honoured to be invited into the homes to take part in the feast. We were plied with food and drink, and it was there that I first spotted the corn-husk wrapped tamales.
Canadian-born Gringa that I was, I had absolutely no idea what they were. But one taste of a real tamal and it was love at first bite. From thence forward, I ordered them every chance I got.
Easy keto tamale casserole
Fast forward about a decade and diabetes put tamales on the naughty list for me. All that lovely steamed corn dough is not exactly diabetes-friendly. But I have since discovered that coconut flour can be made to taste quite a bit like cornbread. Add a little corn extract or cornbread flavor and it’s quite an acceptable facsimile. My keto cornbread recipe is extremely popular for that very reason.
By all accounts, it’s a lot of work to make real tamales, carefully filling the corn husks, wrapping them, and steaming to tender perfection. Very few of us are up to the challenge on a busy weeknight.
But we can get the same great flavours in a keto tamale pie. Simply cook some ground beef or pork with spices, top it with some faux cornbread, and bake it all in the same pan, and you have a delicious low carb dinner in under an hour.
I apologize to my Pueblo friends for the lack of authenticity. All that really matters is that it tastes good, right? It’s a new family favourite in our house!
How to make keto tamale pie
Brown the ground meat: You can use all ground beef, or a mix of ground beef and ground pork. You could even use ground turkey in this recipe. You want to cook it until it’s no longer pink but you don’t want to let it become too dry.
What seasonings to use? I used an organic taco seasoning blend I get at a nearby grocer. But you can always make your own or you can grab this healthy taco seasoning from Primal Palate. Whatever you use, be sure to check your labels for fillers and sugars.
I also amped up the heat and flavour with an additional tablespoon of chili powder and some chopped jalapeno. Those additions are optional, depending on your tastes.
A little tomato paste and water helps make the filling nice and saucy but not too wet. Then top that lovely spicy filling with some shredded cheese, if so desired.
Keto cornbread topping: You might recognize this mixture as similar to my keto cornbread recipe. And you would be right. Coconut flour with a little almond flour and a little sweetener makes an excellent grain-free “cornbread”.
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. Then simply bake until the topping is golden brown and firm.
Serve with your favorite toppings! We love it with sour cream and some chopped tomatoes and avocado.
Keto Tamale Pie is a healthy and easy family friendly meal!
More delicious keto Mexican recipes
- Cilantro Lime Cauliflower Rice
- Easy Keto Enchilada Skillet
- Keto Mexican Shredded Beef
- Keto Carnitas
- Keto Albondigas Soup
- Keto Paleo Burrito Bowls
Keto Tamale Pie
Ingredients
- 2 lb ground beef or pork
- Salt and pepper
- 3 tablespoon taco seasoning
- 1 tablespoon chili powder (optional)
- 1 medium jalapeno, seeded and minced (optional)
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ½ cup coconut flour
- ¼ cup almond flour
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 6 tablespoon butter melted
- ⅛ teaspoon cornbread flavor (optional)
- ¼ to ½ cup water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325F.
- 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 30 to 40 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
Kathy says
I don’t have any almond milk but can I use half-and-half in this?
Carolyn says
I think that should be fine.
Mary Anne Robinson says
I added a small can of chopped green ortega chiles to the meat mixture – yum!
Carolyn says
Great idea!
Samantha Liner says
Just made this recipe for dinner tonight and it was a great success! Very easy, you can add whatever veggies you’d like to the meat and based on other comments, I left the sweetener out of the crust. Didn’t miss it at all. Thanks for sharing another great recipe, I’m addicted to this blog and have made it my mission to try as many recipes as I can. I haven’t had a bad one yet!
Mary says
Made this tonight. Very tasty! To the meat I added onion, garlic, cumin and dried oregano, plus a dash of Tabasco and some ground black pepper. My non-low carb husband even commented on the crust tasting good despite the hint of coconut flavor. thanks!!! I don’t make a lot of baked goods so always appreciate savory recipes.
KalynsKitchen says
Looks so good and I love these photos too!
Janice says
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.
Carolyn says
great idea!
Maria says
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 🙂
Kelly Mac says
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!!
Casey Crane says
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!
Karen says
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.
Carolyn says
I think it might be too moist for the topping but it’s worth a shot!
Stephanie Deal says
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.
Elizabeth says
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!
Carolyn says
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.
Elizabeth says
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!
Tobbe says
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.
Brenda says
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.
Pam says
I made this last night for dinner. It was yummy!! Thanks so much for yet another winner.
Conni says
How long can you keep almond milk? That is something that I have not used yet.
Robin says
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!
Carolyn says
Wow, you’re a long way from home! Glad it gave you a taste of home.
Emb24601 says
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.
Carolyn says
I think it should be fine.
Tobbe says
I never use sweeteners in any lunch/dinner/breakfast recipes. Only in deserts. Never had a problem with taste 🙂
Amanda says
This looks delicious! I’m trying it with ground turkey and my homemade taco seasoning. ????
Tobbe says
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 🙂
Carolyn says
1 and 1/2 pounds. Did I write something strange there? Let me fix it.
kelly says
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!
Carolyn says
I think in place of the almond flour, you could do the masa harina.
McDonna says
I am a big fan of masa harina, but am wondering what substituting that for the almond flour will do to the carb count?
Tobbe says
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.
olga says
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,
Carolyn says
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.
Anne O says
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!
Shondra Turner says
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.
Carolyn says
Thanks for the heads up, I will fix that!
Michelle Osburn Eliot says
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!
Carolyn says
Thanks, Michelle!
Katharine Barrett says
I don’t have an oven proof skillet, but I’m assuming I can transfer the meat to a baking dished pie plate?…
Carolyn says
Yes, that would work just as well!