Chicken Tamale Pies

If you follow our posts at all you may have figured out Mexican may be our favorite cuisine to cook. We have almost every cookbook that both Bobby Flay & Rick Bayless have published. But today's cooking adventure wasn't from either of those famous foodies but rather from fellow bloggers Alex & Sonja of  The Couple Cooks and an adaptation of their post for Vegetable Tamale Pies.

When I saw their post for this recipe I knew we were making it the next day. Yes, it's Cinco de Mayo week but really we make Mexican inspired food all year. But this just looked and sounded amazing and doable for a Tuesday night.

First I had some packaged polenta, I'd never used the prepackaged variety before. I've always made it from the box and of course we have black beans in the pantry at all times.(They really are a foodie's pantry must.)

It was super simple to put together. First I added some polenta to bottom of each of 4 ramekins. Then I added some left over shredded chipotle chicken I had from the sopes the other night.

Then I made a black bean salsa by draining the beans and adding a cup of chipotle salsa from Whole Foods and some chopped cilantro. And layered the bean salsa on top of the chicken.

Next came a layer of shredded Mexican cheddar cheese topped with some chopped cilantro.

Then I put them in the 350 degree oven for 20 minutes. And in no time they were ready and truly were AMAZING!

Really, really good and fresh and so quick and easy for a weeknight. (Loved that.) G loved it so much he actually indulged in two ramekins on this night.

This will easily become a "go to fav" for us being so simple with the flavors we love.

The Couple Cooks didn't use chicken so it can easily work for a meat free meal too. But the shredded chicken was very good.

Thanks Alex & Sonja for sharing this wonderful recipe. We highly recommend going to their blog to download the recipe and making it for yourself tonight!