Unbelievably delicious Beef Enchiladas are made with a few simple ingredients. You can easily make it right in time for dinner or prepare it ahead of time. These enchiladas are made with ground beef and vegetable mixture rolled in flour tortillas and baked with homemade enchilada sauce and cheese.
It’s easy to use store-bought sauce but it’s so much taster to use homemade enchilada sauce and it can easily be made ahead of time and kept refrigerated. If you love beef enchiladas, try my Beef Enchiladas Verde and you won’t be disappointed.
BEEF ENCHILADAS
Enchiladas is such an amazing and comforting dish that makes an appearance at our dinner menu SO often. There is nothing not to love in enchiladas like soft flour tortillas stuffed with flavorful meat and slathered with homemade sauce and extra cheese. This dish is all about comfort and taste.
Traditionally, enchiladas are made with corn tortillas that are rolled with different meats and vegetables and slathered in chili pepper sauce. Through the years, I’ve take a lot of liberties to variate the filling of enchiladas as well as the sauce. Some of the best variations include Shrimp Enchiladas and Steak Enchiladas, which I made with different cream sauces.
No matter how many variations I try, I often go back to the classic enchiladas with tomato based red chili pepper sauce. This sauce is great for chicken enchiladas and for beef enchiladas alike.
Looking at my enchilada recipes, you may notice that I prefer to use flour tortillas. I get that question often, asking why I don’t use corn tortillas. The reason why I prefer to use flour tortillas over corn is durability, taste, and texture.
Personally, I prefer the taste and texture of flour tortillas. Flour tortillas are also much more durable while rolling them with the filling. Corn tortillas constantly break while I try to roll them and flour tortillas do not.
Although, if you prefer corn tortillas, feel free to use those. Mission brand makes super sized corn tortillas too, so you can try those for enchiladas.
HOW TO MAKE BEEF ENCHILADAS
Looking at the recipes, don’t get scared at the length of it. It is actually very easy to make and several parts can be made ahead of time. You can easily make the sauce and the beef filling ahead of time and store them separately in the refrigerator. Store it in air-tight container for 1-2 days before making enchiladas.
Start with making the Enchilada Sauce or you can use your favorite brand of store-bough sauce.
Next step is to make the filling. Slice and saute the vegetables with some seasoning and once it’s all soft, take them out of the pan and set aside. Saute ground beef in the same pan as the vegetables, breaking up all the clumps until beef is done. Mix cooked vegetables into the beef.
Finally, it’s time to put the enchiladas together and bake it with a generous amount of sauce and cheese.
Preheat the oven to 375° and spread about a cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of the 9×13 greased casserole dish. Spread some beef filling in the tortilla, in one line, and roll it up. Place rolled tortilla in the casserole dish, seam down. Repeat filling the rest of tortillas and rolling them.
Once all tortillas are in the casserole dish, evenly spread the sauce over each tortilla and generously top it all off with shredded cheese. Bake enchiladas for 15-17 minutes.
STORING AND REHEATING INSTRUCTIONS
You can easily store leftover enchiladas in the same casserole dish it was baked in. Make sure to cover the dish either with plastic wrap or with a lid that fits the dish to make it air-tight. Store in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
To reheat enchiladas, you can either reheat it individually in a microwave or you can reheat it in the same casserole dish in the oven. To reheat it in the oven, take plastic wrap or a lid off the dish and cover the top of the casserole dish with foil. Place a cold casserole dish with enchiladas into the oven so that the cold dish gradually heat up as the oven heats up.
Reheat enchiladas at 350° just until hot in the middle, for about 20-25 minutes.
CAN ENCHILADAS BE FROZEN?
Yes, it can! I prefer to freeze enchiladas without sauce to that is my recommendation. The reason why I like to freeze enchiladas without sauce is that less exposure to sauce makes enchiladas less soggy.
If you plan on freezing all or half of the enchiladas, you can prepare the ones you plan to freeze in an aluminum pan. Follow the recipe as directed up to the part where you add the sauce and cheese to make them. Don’t add any sauce to the bottom of the aluminum pan either.
Stack rolled enchiladas side by side in the aluminum foil, seam down. Place a sheet of plastic wrap right over the enchiladas, tucking it under on the sides. Wrap the whole pan with a sheet of aluminum foil as airtight as possibly. Label with the date and content and freeze for 2-3 months.
To thaw enchiladas before baking, pull it out of the freezer and into the refrigerator to let it slow-thaw overnight.
To bake frozen enchiladas, you can bake frozen enchiladas straight from the freezer or thawed. Frozen enchiladas will take longer to bake. Before baking, make sure to take off the aluminum foil and plastic wrap first. Spread enchilada sauce over the enchiladas evenly and top it all off with shredded cheese. Bake frozen enchiladas at 350° for 30-40 minutes and thawed enchiladas for 20-25 minutes.
For more freezing tips make sure to read this post.
SOME MORE RECIPES TO TRY
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Beef Enchiladas
Ingredients
Enchilada Sauce:
- 2 tbsp canola oil
- 1 yellow onion chopped
- 3 garlic cloves minced or pressed
- 2 tbsp all purpose flour
- 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup beef stock
- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
- 1 tbsp adobo sauce from the peppers
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tsp white granulated sugar
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp salt more or less to taste
Beef Filling:
- 1 yellow onion
- 2 red bell peppers
- 4 large garlic cloves
- 2 tomatoes on a vine
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1.5 lbs ground beef
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- salt
Enchiladas:
- 6 medium soft taco flour tortillas
- 8 oz shredded Mexican cheese mix
Instructions
Enchilada Sauce:
- Note: you can prepare Homemade Enchilada Sauce a day ahead and keep it in an air-tight jar, in the refrigerator. (You can also use store-bought enchilada sauce instead of homemade.)
- Preheat a medium sauce pot over medium heat, add oil, and saute onion until softened. Add garlic and saute until fragrant.
- Sprinkle flour over the onion and stir until onions are evenly coated.
- Slowly pour in stock while stirring. Add can of tomatoes and all remaining ingredients. Stir well and bring the mixture to simmer. Let it simmer for a few minutes.
- Transfer the content of the pot into a food processor and blend well until smooth. The sauce is ready for making enchiladas!
Filling
- Slice onion and peppers. Preheat a large cooking pan over medium heat and add some oil to the pan.
- Add onions and peppers and cook until it starts to soften.
- Dice tomatoes, press garlic and add both to the pan. Add salt and 1 tsp of chili powder. Stir well and let veggies cook until all soft. Take veggies out of the pan and set aside.
- In the same pan, saute ground beef. (You may need to add a little more oil to the pan.) Make sure to break up all the clumps while beef is cooking. Season the beef with chili powder, cumin, oregano, paprika, garlic powder, salt as it cooks.
- Once beef is all done, mix cooked vegetables into the beef. Take off heat.
Beef Enchiladas
- Preheat the oven to 375° and spread about a cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of the 9×13 greased casserole dish.
- Spread some beef filling and shredded cheese in the tortilla, in one line, and roll it up.
- Place rolled tortilla into the casserole dish, seam down. Repeat filling the rest of tortillas and rolling them.
- Spread the remaining sauce over each rolled tortilla and generously top it all off with shredded cheese. Bake enchiladas for 17-20 minutes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Dave h says
Do you drain oil off beef after you brown it
LyubaB says
Hi, Dave! No, I if you use beef that is 90/10 or even 85/15 you wont have a need to drain it, There is of flavor in what little oil that will be left and it will incorporate well with the vegetables and sauce.
Sara says
We really enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for sharing!
LyubaB says
Sara, I am so glad you liked it!
Carolyn says
Delicious! Husband had 3 helpings. Used store bought sauce but will try making it from myself next time. Thanks for the recipe 😀
LyubaB says
Hi, Carolyn! So glad you liked it! 🙂
Bonnie says
These are incredible,
BARBARA DENNEY says
do these hold up for lunch the next day or do they get soggy?
LyubaB says
Hi Barbara,
They do get a little soggy but they are still good for 2-3 days after.
Andrea McClung says
This recipe is delicious. However, it was just too darn hot for me and I only put one chipotle pepper in it. I was so sick all evening. I need to find a recipe that is not as spicy. Thank you for posting though!
LyubaB says
Oh, no! I am sorry it was too spicy for you! You can leave out the chipotle next time, it won’t have as much flavor but will be more mild.
CJ says
Can I use corn tortillas instead of flour? This sounds amazing much like my grandmas recipe but I think she used corn sometimes too and I liked them lol
LyubaB says
You are welcome to use corn but it will break apart easier but it will still work okay.