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!
As a Texan, I would never make enchiladas with untoasted tortillas. Toast your tortillas on a comal, or hot skillet (preferably cast iron) before filling them and baking. They will not get mushy that way. Also, if you only need less than the full batch for a meal, only bake enough enchiladas as you’ll eat. Store the fillinf, sauce and cheese separately and then bake them fresh each time you eat them. So much better than reheated, mushy enchiladas!
Thanks for a great recipe! Served up my husband a big serving and he went back for seconds of “that good stuff”. Just as good today when I reheated some leftovers for lunch.
Can you use gluten free wraps instead of regular flour tortillas for enchiladas?
Hi David, I’m not gluten intolerant but we made this with gluten free wraps once when we bought them by mistake. Tbh it wasn’t the same as the tortillas but we still found it delicious.
Just made this recipe in Palm Beach Queensland. I brought the spice mix with me from 🇨🇦
My Aussie friend loved it!
So delicious! Full of flavour. Thank you for sharing:)
Nagi, what size tortillas do you use? About 9-10″ maybe. We get 3 different sizes 6-7″, 9-10″ and something I’m guessing about 12″. They are all called tortillas.
Hi Naji from California!
I used your recipe for enchilada sauce on another post and used it for your beef enchiladas but I wasn’t sure how much of the homemade enchilada sauce I should use for your beef enchilada recipe?
In the filling it is 1/4c. I would think maybe 1/2 c in the bottom of the casserole dish and the rest is poured over top.
Make extra sauce – it’s even more delicious!!
Made this last night and it was so yummy!
Wonderful recipe! Made this tonight and was so moist and delicious. Thank you for all you do in sharing great recipes!
I used to live in LA so am familiar with tasty Mexican food. Now we are in Perth and found this, DELICIOUS!
Can these be frozen before they are baked? Should I bake, freeze, and then reheat?
We made a batch and froze half of them without sauce. Froze half a batch of sauce too and took it all out the night before we used it. It was excellent! Just had to grate some cheese!
Fantastic recipe, thanks so much! I just made this tonight for my girlfriend and I and it was a complete hit. This will be on my regular rotation list. The only thing I did different is add chili powder and chipotle powder to the (enchilada sauce) yet I kept the original recipe spices for the ground beef. That was more of a personal thing as I tend to enjoy the taste of ancho Chile in my enchilada sauce. The original spice selection is extremely good though. It’s such a flexible recipe that you can mix it up anytime you want to play with the flavors. It was probably the easiest and tastiest enchilada recipe I’ve made so far. Thanks again!