Easy Beef Enchiladas – saucy, cheesy, easy enchiladas! These beef enchiladas are a delicious and filling meal full of Mexican flavour. They will become a new family favourite!
About a month ago I posted a recipe for homemade enchilada sauce where I promised a soon to be posted recipe for beef enchiladas. Well, here I am finally delivering on that promise!
My love for enchiladas is great. They are the epitome of Mexican comfort food, full of carbs, meat, and cheesy deliciousness. They are so versatile and customizable – there are so many options of what you can stuff into those tortillas. That being said, one of my favourite go-to’s when it comes to enchiladas is beef.
I’m not going to lie, making enchiladas is a little bit of a process. It’s not at all difficult, it just takes a few steps. You see, you gotta make the sauce (trust me, it’s so much better than anything store bought and I’ve got a killer easy recipe for it here), chop the veggies, cook the meat, roll up the enchiladas, assemble everything and bake it. But the result is very worth it! Plus, this recipe makes 8 enchiladas, which is enough for 2-3 meals each for the two of us.
What goes into these enchiladas?
Ground Beef – I prefer making this version with ground beef as I can cook both the beef and the diced veggies in the same pan, forming a mixture to be easily stuffed into the tortillas. This saves a bit of effort and time, meaning a delicious dinner is on the table even sooner. Plus ground can be a very affordable meat to purchase! I get 3-packs of frozen 1 lb lean ground beef from Real Canadian Superstore and it only costs me $10. Each pack is more than enough to make dinner with, with enough for leftovers.
Bell Peppers – You can use any colour bell pepper you love best! The key is to only saute them for a few minutes so that they don’t get overcooked and soggy, as the enchiladas will spending some time in the oven where things will cook up a little more.
Onion – I love a mix of peppers an onion, they go so well together. We saute these up with the peppers for only a few minutes so we don’t overcook them.
Corn – to make things easy, I use canned corn. I really love the taste of it mixed with everything else. If you aren’t that much of a corn fan though, you can leave it out or sub in some extra diced peppers.
Cheese – We have two kinds of cheese involved here – cheddar and monterrey jack (get the kind with some jalapenos if you want a little kick). I like to put the cheddar in the enchiladas, to help hold everything else together. The monterrey I sprinkle liberally on top!
How to make easy beef enchiladas
These enchiladas don’t require any complicated steps, there are just a few of them!
First, you will want to make the enchilada sauce. This requires a few pantry staples, a blender and is done pretty quickly! While you are simmering the sauce you can prep the other ingredients for the enchiladas.
For the enchiladas themselves, you start off by sauteing the diced peppers and onions, for about 3-4 minutes until slightly softened. The peppers will still be a bit firm, which is fine as they will cook a bit more later when we bake the enchiladas. After the 3-4 minutes have passed, remove them from the pan and set them aside.
Next up is the beef! We will brown this in the same skillet you cooked the onions and peppers in, adding seasoning and the corn once brown. Then you will stir in the diced onion and peppers and remove it from the heat.
Before we assemble the enchiladas, we want to put some of that enchilada sauce down in the pan. Now we get to fill the tortillas! In each tortilla you will add cheese and the beef mixture, rolling tightly and then placing seam side down in the pan.
Once you’ve assembled all 8, cover them in more sauce and then more cheese. Now all that is left is to bake them at 350°F for 20 minutes and voila! Dinner is served!
I hope you enjoy these enchiladas as much as I do!
If you make these easy beef enchiladas please let me know! You can leave a comment below, rate it, post on the Zest & Simmer Facebook page or share photos on Instagram with the hashtag #zestandsimmer. I am always thrilled to hear from you!
Easy Beef Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp canola oil
- 1 small yellow onion , diced
- 2 bell peppers , diced (any colour)
- 1 lb lean ground beef
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup corn
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 cups shredded monterrey jack cheese
- 8 large tortillas
- 2 cups enchilada sauce
, divided - chopped cilantro (for topping if desired)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- If making homemade red enchilada sauce, start with that, following the recipe here.
- Heat oil a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add diced bell peppers and onion, sauteing for 3-4 minutes until slightly softened. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Add ground beef to the same skillet, and brown until fully cooked with no pink remaining. Drain excess fat, then stir in the garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper until seasoning is fully mixed in with the beef. Stir in corn kernals.
- Add the sauteed onion and peppers in with the beef, stirring, and remove from heat.
- In a 9x13" baking dish, evenly spread one cup of the enchilada sauce.
- In each tortilla add some of the cheddar cheese and the beef mixture, rolling up tightly (think of making a burrito). Place enchilada seam side down in the prepared baking dish. Repeat with all 8 tortillas, trying to distribute the filling evenly amongst all.
- Pour remaining 1 1/2 cups of the enchilada sauce over top the enchiladas. Sprinkle the monterrey jack cheese evenly over top.
- Bake enchiladas for 20 minutes, or until cheese is melted and sauce bubbling. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro before serving, if desired.
