Beef Enchiladas with an extra tasty, saucy filling, smothered with a homemade Enchilada Sauce. My time saving trick is to use one base Enchilada spice mix for both the sauce and filling!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Beef Enchiladas
I love that there are so many variations of Beef Enchiladas in this big-wide-world.
Simple ones, filled with a plain cooked beef filling then topped with enchilada sauce and (lots of) cheese. Fancy ones with the addition of chillies, beans, corn and even olives, sometimes even bacon. Hidden vegetable versions (don’t ever try that on me, I can pick them a mile away).
Shredded beef enchiladas, short rib ones.
And today I’m sharing mine. 🙂 It’s made with:
A simple homemade Enchilada sauce which is quick to make and so, SO much better than store bought;
A flavour loaded beef and bean filling which is made with ground beef (mince), a load of Tex-Mex spices, refried beans AND black beans. Bean overload? Definitely not! The refried beans add bulk while keeping the filling nice and juicy so we can have nice, big, plump enchiladas!
What you need for Beef Enchiladas
Here’s what goes in my beef enchiladas.
Just a note on a few of the ingredients:
Refried beans – the “secret ingredient” that really fills out the beef mixture so you can big, plump, generously stuffed enchiladas that are nice and juicy. I use this in my Chicken Enchiladas too – works a treat!
Black beans – to fill it out a bit and add a different texture to the filling. Diced vegetables are great to add too – especially red peppers / capsicum.
Homemade Enchilada Sauce – made with either tomato passata or canned tomato sauce (US, I like Hunts), plus a good hit of Tex-Mex spices.
Beef – This is a recipe for beef enchiladas so it’s made with ground beef. But it can be substituted with pork, chicken or turkey!
Here’s my little time saving trick: one spice mix to flavour both the beef filling AND the Enchilada Sauce.
How to make Beef Enchiladas
There’s a good back of Tex-Mex spices in this! Some of it is used for the homemade Enchilada Sauce, and the rest is used to flavour the Beef and Bean Filling.
Try these on the side
Grilled Corn or try this Mexican Corn
Ahhh. These Beef Enchiladas. I really hate using the words “these are the BEST!” for any of my recipes because we all have different palettes, and what I may think is the “best” might not be to someone elses’ taste.
But truly, to me, to this day, even after having consumed more than my fair share of Enchiladas at Tex-Mex restaurants across America, I still think these are better. Way, WAY better than the mainstream chain restaurants!
Hope you had a great weekend! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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Beef Enchiladas
Ingredients
Spice Mix
- 1 tsp each onion & garlic powder (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp each cumin powder, paprika and dried oregano
- 1/2 – 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional, spiciness)
Enchilada Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp flour , plain/all purpose
- 2 cups (500ml) chicken stock / broth , low sodium
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) tomato passata OR US 1 can (8 oz) canned tomato sauce (eg Hunts) (Note 2)
- 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper
Beef
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 onion , finely chopped (~1 cup)
- 1 lb / 500g ground beef (mince)
- 400g / 14oz refried beans (1 can, I use Old El Paso)
- 400g / 14oz black beans, drained (1 can, Note 3)
Enchiladas
- 8 tortillas (or burrito wraps)
- 1.5 cups (150g) grated melting cheese, or more (I like Monterey Jack, tasty or cheddar cheese)
- Cilantro/coriander leaves , roughly chopped (optional garnish)
Instructions
- Mix together Spice Mix ingredients. Set aside.
Enchilada Sauce
- Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and mix to combine into a paste. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Add 1/2 cup chicken broth, whisk straight away then it will turn into a thick smooth paste quite quickly.
- Add remaining chicken broth, passata, salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of SPICE MIX. Whisk
- Increase heat slightly to medium high. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, whisking regularly, until the sauce thickens to the consistency of thick syrup (see video). Remove from stove.
Filling
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Heat oil in a skillet over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook for 2 minutes.
- Add beef and cook for 2 minutes, breaking it up as you go. Add remaining Spice Mix. Cook for a further 2 minutes or until completely brown.
- Add refried beans, black beans, about 1/4 cup of Enchilada Sauce + salt & pepper. Mix (Note 4) and cook for 2 minutes then remove from stove (see video).
Enchiladas
- Smear a bit of Sauce on the bottom of a baking dish (stops sliding).
- Place filling on the lower third of a tortilla. Roll up then place in the baking dish, seam side down. Repeat with remaining Filling & Tortillas.
- Pour Sauce over the Enchiladas, top with cheese, bake for 10 minutes covered (Note 5) then 10 minutes uncovered. Serve hot!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published June 2016. Updated August 2019 with new photos, new video, new process photos and refreshed writing – no change to recipe, I wouldn’t dare!
Mexican Mania
Life of Dozer
Rain, hail or shine, Dozer blasts through the dog door out into the backyard to chase rabbits and bark at birds.
Luckily, he has a raincoat to help keep him dry(ish) on wet days!
This is my new go-to Enchilada recipe! Easy to cook and very tasty. I wasn’t sure if my picky family would eat refried beans , so I only used half of a 20oz can. They didn’t even notice! I’d highly recommend this recipe and wouldn’t change a thing.
WHAT TYPE OF TORTILLA DO YOU USE, NEVER SAW IT MENTIONED IN RECIPE ??CORN OR FLOOR??
I personally use flour in all my enchilada dishes but I’m sure corn can easily be substituted!!
This is a great dish and I use my left over beef roast meat, I just mince it. All of the seasoning covers the beef roast flavor and the homemade red sauce makes it delicious. My family loves it.
Really good dish. I think the spice mix is perfect and gives a wonderfully authentic flavour. Another great recipetineats recipe.
Hi Nagi from Quebec !
Thank you so much for this superb recipe…it is soooo good…everybody loved it.
Love that your recipes can be adjusted for serve numbers, saves me time. Your recipes are great too. Give Dozer a treat and a pat from me – he looks deprived!
The flour just clumps and the flour soaked up the oil so I ended up using more oil. I did it have it on high. Could this be the reason?
Thank you! This tasted so authentic to me, I used whole oregano and it was delish!
Really yummy. They are big and filling. We only ate one and with a salad one was a plenty.love your recipes.
All I can say, is “WOW”. This had a fabulous flavor that both my hubby and I loved. We only made half and still have lots of leftovers. I used 1/2 a teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Perfecto, Nagi!
this was so good! i accidentally added too much refried beans but the meat filling and the homemade enchilada sauce is SO GOOD!! totally going to make this again with less refried beans 🤣
Many say that wheat enchiladas tend to get too mushy and melt into the sauce. Line the stuffed tortilla into a well oiled baking pan, and bake without the sauce. When it is toasted nice and brown, pour the sauce on. The texture of the tortilla will make you smile.
I cook this all the time for family and friends. It’s an easy meal that the kids love and they taste great!
Amazing! Really helped me out to make enchiladas. I didn’t follow the recipe the exactly but this is one of the few recipes that is really flexible. Thanks so much!
I made this tonight for dinner, everyone loved them. As usual great easy recipe to follow and delicious. I won’t be buying enchiladas again. Thankyou , Nagi Thankyou
Omg this is the bomb. My partner and I love love love them. Thank you for this recipe. We cook them maybe weekly or fortnightly. Love the flavour.
This recipe exceeded my expectations in every way. I don’t care for red enchilada sauce but this…this ! This was amazing ! I followed the recipe exactly and will make these again and again and again. I used corn tortillas because flour tortillas have no business being called enchiladas. HA! They are amazing reheated the next morning for breakfast with eggs. I know this because I am having exactly that as I type this. Great recipe !
I have to say that I was a little dubious but oh my, it’s left me wanting more. The only additional thing I did was add a tiny naga chilli for depth of flavour and heat as well as ground coriander instead of oregano to the spice mix.
This will definitely be a firm favourite.
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
I can’t wait to make this. I have loved all your recipes. I can figure it out, but the recipe doesn’t adjust the tomato sauce, just the passata, when you change the number of servings.
First time making enchiladas, really really nice – but you’re right about branded enchilada bottle sauce, so not great, will be less lazy next time & make yours 🙂