Chili Con Carne and Corn Bread go together like tomato and basil. So I’ve combined them to make a pie: Chili Con Carne Corn Bread Pie! This is a fabulous way to use up leftover Chili Con Carne and the corn bread batter for the pie topping takes minutes to mix up (without the use of any appliance!).
This recipe is part of a Chili Con Carne Series where I use leftover chili and transform it into other dishes.
Earlier this week I shared my Shredded Beef Chili Con Carne recipe. It makes ALOT! About 12 to 15 cups! Which is just perfect because Chili Con Carne freezes so well and is incredibly versatile. Potato skins, as a pasta sauce, in lasagna bakes, wrapped in pastry, as a soup base, on fries and chili dogs and of course Mexican favourites like tacos, burritos, enchiladas, nachos. The list of things you can make with Chili Con Carne is so extensive that I decided to do a separate post post on it. I’ll update this post with a link to it once I share it!
One of the sides I love to make for Chili Con Carne are Corn Bread Muffins. Every time I make Corn Bread Muffins, it amazes me how incredibly delicious they are and yet the batter takes mere minutes to make. No creaming, no mixer. Just place a handful of ingredients in a bowl, mix, and you’re done.
So it was my fondness for having Corn Bread Muffins to slop up Chili Con Carne that was the catalyst for this pie. First bite and I was in heaven. Just looking at this photo makes me want to do a face plant in this pie (except that I know how steaming hot the pie is in this photo!)
“The corn bread topping for this pie only takes a few minutes to make. Just combine a handful of ingredients in a bowl, mix, then pour into the pie dish.”
I kept this very simple and just used leftover Shredded Beef Chili Con Carne as the filling and topped it with a corn bread mixture. However, you can certainly fill it out by adding vegetables. Corn in particular would go very well (frozen or fresh) for a double corn hit, as would peas. If you wanted to add some more nutrition into it, you could even stir through shredded spinach.
I made my pies in little individual serving size pie dishes. But you can definitely make this in a larger dish, you just need to adjust the baking time to make sure the corn bread cooks through.
Hope you give this a try! Love to hear what you think. 🙂
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Chili Con Carne Corn Bread Pie
Ingredients
- 4 cups Shredded Beef Chili Con Carne
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley , finely chopped (optional)
Corn Bread Topping
- 1/2 cup melted butter
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk
- 1/2 cup polenta / cornmeal (Note 3)
- 1 1/2 cups self raising flour (or 3 tsp baking powder plus 1 1/4 cups + 3 tbsp of plain flour)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup of canned creamed corn
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Place 1 cup of Shredded Beef Chili Con Carne into 4 individual pie dishes, or 1 large pie dish.
- Combine Corn Bread Topping dry ingredients in a bowl and given them a quick stir to combine.
- Add Corn Bread Topping wet ingredients and mix to combine until lump free.
- Pour corn bread mixture over filling so it is about 1.5 cm / 1/2" thick.
- Place pie in the oven and bake for 20 to 30 minutes until golden brown on top. If making one large one, it will take closer to 35 minutes. To test for doneness, insert a skewer in the middle of the corn bread and make sure it comes out clean. If there is batter on the skewer, return to oven.
- Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving, garnished with fresh parsley.
Recipe Notes:
4 cm/ 1.4" deep. 2. You will probably have some batter left over - about 1/4 to 1/3 of it. It is difficult to make the exact amount required, especially because pie dishes differ in shape and size. If you have any batter left over, spoon it into greased ramekins or muffin tin trays and bake it at the same time as the pie. A standard muffin size corn bread will take about 15 to 20 minutes to bake. 3. Polenta is not really an ingredient, it is a porridge type dish made from cornmeal. It's the Italian equivalent of mashed potatoes! But in Australia, cornmeal - fine yellow grains - is sold as "polenta", which is confusing. In most of the rest of the world, it is sold as cornmeal. 4. The nutrition takes into account that approximately 1/4 of the corn bread batter is leftover and not used for the pie.
Nutrition Information:
I’ve made a similar dish many times but only use 2 tablespoons of sugar. It may be less than traditional, but with the sweetness from the creamed corn, it’s more than enough.
Is there a way to substitute the canned cream corn? It’s not something I’ve ever seen sold where I live, but I’d really like to try this recipe!
Hi Nagi (or anyone who has made this) – The ratio of flour to cornmeal makes me wonder if this is “corny” enough. My grumpy old mom asked for tamale pie, suggesting I use a package mix, but I’d rather do homemade. I came straight here! Just want to make sure it meets her expectations.
Thanks
Gday Nagi, another one from Western Australia. Love your recipes so thanks. Dont think the corn bread needs any sugar. A great recipe though and thats what its all about ay, Little tweaks..
Cheers. S
Hi Scotto, you could leave it out but traditionally it is quite sweet – I talk more about that here: https://www.recipetineats.com/cornbread-muffins/ 🙂 N x
Made this tonight. I used my regular nacho chilli recipe and put the cornbread on top. Turned out beautifully, eaten with sour cream and salsa. My original plan was to freeze the leftovers but that’s not going to be an issue. 😀
Hi, I’m planning to make this for dinner this week but I’m toying with the idea of bulk cooking and freezing. Have you ever frozen this recipe and how did it go?
Hi Joanna, it’s PERFECT to freeze!! Simply thaw and reheat in the microwave 🙂 N x
Awesome, thank you 😀
So yummy and the muffins made with the extra mixture are amazing, this will be my go to corn muffin recipe from now on
Awesome Heather, I’m so glad you enjoyed them! N x
So, so, so delicious! As usual, thanks to your beautiful recipes 🙂 Made the shredded beef chilli and served with rice, tortillas, and the cornbread muffins. I feel like this now 🤰but it’s well worth it 👌🏼
I’m so glad you loved it Teale!
Hi Nagi, want to say how I love you’re blog with the recipes. Most of all because you put together a video to see exactly what is needed to be done and you picture the ingredients for those of us that are new with “cooking”.
My question is, can I use the slow cook beef chili as a substitute for the chili con carne and continue the recipe for cornbread?
Yes definitely Melissa!
Just had this for dinner tonight and our guest wasn’t a fan of chilli con carne until he tried your recipe. He couldn’t stop saying how good it was and had three servings. The corn bread do such a great match and so tasty. I think I’ll always have chilli now with cornbread.
You’ve totally converted him Natalie, that’s the BEST! 🙌
This was absolutely delicious!!! It will become a winter staple.
Great!!
Made this last night, must say it was damned good!!! Nice change from boiled rice, the corn bread tasted awesome, only my second time trying it. I’m going to use your recipe to make a Keema curry pie over the weekend.
I’m so pleased to hear that Shaun!! Thanks for letting me know! N xx
Hi Nagi!
I’ve been recently doing a ‘whirlwind tour’ of your recipes – last weekend was Dorothy’s Carrot Cake, Shortbreads w/ Dulce de leche, Pork tenderloin in Marsala sauce w/ creamy mash taters AND apple crumble! May have gone overboard 🙂
Anyway! Love your website and this weekend is this recipe with the cornbread. I was planning on using plain flour with baking powder, but based off the ingredients list I wasn’t sure what portions of each
“3 tsp baking powder plus 1¼ cups + 3 tbsp of plain flour”
I can’t figure out why there is a mention of both 1 1/4 cups + 3 tbsp of plain flour – can you tell me what I’m missing?
I’m very new to the kitchen and I’m ashamedly using your recipes to the delight of those around me!
Talk soon!
Tim
Hi Tim on the other side of Australia!!! I hear we Sydney-siders have been stealing your summer? 🙂 That is a silly beginner’s typo on my part, before I memorised the tablespoon to cup conversions. 🙂 This is a better way of putting it: Use either 1 1/2 cups of self raising flour OR measure out 1 1/2 cups of plain flour, take out 3 tsp or 1 tbsp of plain flour, then replace it with baking powder. Sorry about that! I am having tech problems so I can’t edit this recipe right at this moment so I will jot it down to clean up the typing later!
This recipe calls for polenta in the topping… Can corn meal be used instead?
Thank you.
Hi Michelle! Thanks for the question, I’ve updated the recipe. It’s very confusing – “cornmeal” is sometimes sold as “polenta”. But it’s misleading because cornmeal is what is used to MAKE polenta! This recipe uses cornmeal, and I’ve updated the ingredients to specify that!
Oh hell this looks delicious! My mouth literally watered when I saw the photo. I have some leftover braised brisket from yesterday, I am SO making this for supper today. Nagi, I love your recipes and I love your blog.
Thanks so much for your fab message!!! I’m so glad you like my recipes! N x
Yum! The Chili Con Carne looks amazing! We are loving the cornbread crust, so I’m going to give your recipe a try soon!
Thanks Sandra!! I adore cornbread crust – I’ve used it on a few things! 🙂
This looks sooooo yummy! Hard to imagine having leftovers of that mouth-watering chili, but I suppose anything is possible. I love how easy your cornbread topping is, too! Please overnight a pan to me ASAP. 🙂
Hmm, do you think TNT Express would make it to sunny California overnight? Must look into it!
This is such a great combo I don’t know why I’ve never thought of it! I just asked my boyfriend if we could make this the next time we cook and he is excited about it too!
Oh awesome! Love the double validation 🙂 Love to hear what you think!
wow, I always made chili con carne at least once a month and never thought to combining the leftover with corn bread topping, great idea Nagi :-). I should try first your corn bread muffins, (by the way, there are broken links if I click Corn Bread Muffins link).
Thanks so much for telling me about the links Amallia! You are such a sweetie 🙂
Oooooo, i love chili con carne in any form, but topped with cornbread would have to be my fave. This looks amazing Nagi.
Thanks Jennifer!