Raise your hand if you LOVE Mexican food! Raise your hand if you like EASY recipes! Raise BOTH hands if you’re hungry and would LOVE to have these awesome, authentic-tasting, Easy Cheesy Mexican Beef Enchiladas for supper tonight! Snag the recipe right here, because you just found tonight’s supper!
Oh, how I love thee, Mexican food, let me count the ways!!
I swear, I could eat Mexican food once a week, and it still wouldn’t be enough!
And these beef enchiladas are one of my favorites! Super simple ingredients, quick-to-the-table, and actually very authentic-tasting! What’s not to love, right?!
Minus the beef, one extra ingredient, (and the optional toppings, of course), these are your essential basic ingredients.
Pandemicly perfect! Not much to them, but taste sooooooo good!! Better than cheap, “food truck grub”, and almost as good as your favorite taqueria!
You just brown some lean ground beef with a few basic seasonings, add your red enchilada sauce, green chilies if you like, and some shredded cheese, and you’re nearly there!
Before you space it, be sure to spray your pan! Unless chiseling out stuck-on tortillas is your thing.
Frankly, I’d rather watch “A Christmas Story” for the 2,149,287th time.
And a little secret….wipe off that overspray! You know all those tiny, impossible-to-wash-off, brown dots that bake onto your pan? That’s not actually from your bubbling casserole!
That’s baked-on no-stick spray. So wipe off the top edge of your pan and that won’t happen anymore.
You’re welcome.
Next, and this is important, warm a few tortillas, white corn ones for that authentic Mexican taste, in the microwave between damp, (almost wet), paper towels.
This will make them very pliable and much less likely to crack and fall apart when filling and rolling them.
I like to spread them thinly with a little bit of refried beans first for two reasons.
One, for the extra protein. And two, this also helps to keep them from cracking. Which, as we all have learned the hard way, corn tortillas tend to do.
Then add a little bit of meat right down the center. If you added as much as I did pictured above, then you, too, added a wee bit too much.
I actually removed just a little to make them easier to roll up. You really only need a 1/4 – 1/3 of a cup. (Above was almost a 1/2 of a cup.)
Use a measuring cup to make the job go faster and portion-controlled, so that they’re all nice and evenly filled. (Especially if making for a crowd.)
Then roll them up, and place them into your pan, seam side down, onto the bottom, which has been spread with a few spoonfuls of sauce. (Just enough to thinly cover.)
Then, immediately spoon some sauce over the top to lightly coat so that, while assembling the rest, they don’t dry out on you.
Once they’re all filled, rolled, and coated, pour the rest of the can of sauce over the top of them all.
Pop them into the oven, (uncovered for regular, covered for extra soft), and bake until bubbly.
Remove them from the oven, and top them with handfuls of shredded cheese to completely cover.
My hubby’s plate! Which he lovingly calls, “The Mess!” Complete with Spanish rice smothered with cheese in the back, and topped with lots of goodies!
They’re a little difficult to get out of the pan, (as we prefer them “extra soft”), but just use two spatulas, or an extra large spoon and a spatula, and you’ll be fine. If they fall apart a little, well, they still taste just as good, so don’t let the little stuff get you down! Just enjoy!
Life’s just too short to sweat the small stuff!
I do so hope that you give these Easy Cheesy Mexican Beef Enchiladas a try! They’re one of my easiest, favorites, and truly do have an authentic Mexican flavor!
Take care, stay safe, and PLEASE. Wear. That. Mask! It will be a long time before we’re all out of the woods!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!
From our home to yours!
Easy Cheesy Mexican Beef Enchiladas
Makes 1 full 13 x 9 pan, about 10 – 12 enchiladas (5 – 6 servings)
Ingredients:
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. regular black pepper
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. salt, to taste (start with 1/4 tsp., then add more later if needed)
1 Tbl. finely chopped onion
1 (3 – 4 oz.) can chopped green chilies
4 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese, I use Sargento’s, divided
taco-sized soft white corn tortillas
1 (14 oz.) can regular or spicy refried beans
1 (28 oz.) can (mild or hot) red enchilada sauce, I use Old El Paso’s
Optional Toppings:
shredded lettuce
chopped tomatoes or my homemade Pico de Gallo
chopped green onion
sour cream
guacamole
sliced black olives
pickled jalapeño slices
hot sauce
finely chopped cilantro or fresh parsley
Directions:
In a large frying pan, sauté ground beef, garlic powder, pepper, salt, and chopped onion until done, breaking up meat into fine crumbles as you go along. Drain any grease if needed. (I used extra-lean, and had no grease to drain off at all.) Stir in well the green chilies, 1 1/2 cups enchilada sauce, and 1 cup shredded cheese. Set aside, covered.
Spray one 13 x 9 pan, and spread just a little bit of the enchilada sauce onto the bottom. Just enough to very lightly coat bottom of pan. Preheat oven to 350º F.
Get two sheets of paper towel wet, lightly wring out excess water. Place one sheet into microwave, place 4 tortillas on top, barely overlapping staying on paper towel. Cover with second wet paper towel, and heat until warmed according to package directions. Remove to work space. Spread one thinly with refried beans, spoon about a 14 – 1/3 cup meat sauce down center, carefully roll up and place seam-side down into prepared pan. Repeat with all until pan is very full, making about 10- 12 enchiladas. Pour rest of sauce evenly over top.
Pop into oven and bake for 25 – 30 minutes. *While enchiladas are baking, prep any toppings you like.
Remove from oven, top evenly with rest of cheese, (3 cups), and pop back into oven until fully melted and bubbly. About another 5 – 10 minutes. Remove from oven.
With a large spatula, or two, place 2 enchiladas onto a plate, top with desired toppings, and serve hot. Goes wonderfully with extra refried beans, tortilla corn chips, and Spanish Rice.
*If super soft enchiladas are desired, bake loosely covered, then top with cheese, and bake, uncovered, until cheese has melted and sauce is bubbly.