Tamale Casserole with Chicken and Onions

As you can see by my blog entries, I'm not a *huge* fan of southwestern/Mexican cuisine. Mainly because more times than not, the food is quite spicy and I absolutely hate spicy food. I don't understand how people can enjoy food while burning their mouths out but I suppose that's neither here nor there. Either way, when I see a recipe that has Mexican qualities but looks like it can be altered to bring down the heat factor, I'm willing to try it in order to keep things fresh in the kitchen. In addition, through my many travels into the southwest for horse shows (I used to show horses back in the day) , I have found that I do indeed like Tamales quite a bit. So when I saw this recipe on the Food alla Puttanesca blog, I thought it would be worth a shot. Oh my, was this fantastic!!!! My husband and I just loved the flavors in this casserole and I especially liked how easy it was to make. I added an onion to the casserole because I thought it would bring a lot of flavor, which it did. While it certainly wasn't the prettiest of dishes (are casseroles ever?) it was absolutely delicious and I will most definitely be making it again and again.

Ingredients
Adapted from Food alla Puttanesca

• 1 cup (4 ounces) preshredded 4-cheese Mexican blend cheese, divided
• 1/3 cup fat-free milk
• 1/4 cup egg substitute (I used one egg.)
  
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin (I used about 3/4 tsp)
  
• 1/8 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn
  
• 1 (8.5-ounce) box corn muffin mix (I used Jiffy)
  
• 1 (4-ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained (Omitted)
  
• Cooking spray
• 1 (10-ounce) can red enchilada sauce (such as Old El Paso)
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast (I used 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts)
  
• 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream (Omitted because I forgot to buy at the store. Oops.)
• 1 medium onion, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 400°.Combine 1/4 cup cheese and next 7 ingredients (through chiles) in a large bowl, stirring just until moist. Pour mixture into a 13 x 9–inch baking dish coated liberally with cooking spray.Bake at 400° for 15 minutes or until set. Pierce entire surface liberally with a fork; pour enchilada sauce over top. Top with onions and chicken and bake for 10 minutes to let the onion sweat out and become tender. Then remove casserole from oven, sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese and bake at 400° for 10-15 more minutes or until cheese melts. Remove from oven; let stand 5 minutes. Cut into 8 pieces.