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!
Really good and easy sauce, I would double it next time. It made 13 enchiladas for me but maybe I didn’t fill them as full as you did. Loved loved them.
Such a big hit! I’m always trying to sneak in extra protein and fiber into my husband’s diet. He devoured these enchiladas and we still have plenty of leftovers.
Oh my goodness, SO AMAZING! Definitely worth the little bit of extra time!! Quickly became a family FAVORITE!
I love this recipe! Had to watch the video cause I wasn’t sure if you drained the kidney beans (shows them drained) only thing different is I keep the refried beans separate
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Elaine! N x
Amazing! Paired them with guacamole and a side of Spanish rice. My husband hates beans, so I omitted the black beans but I did add the refried beans hoping they would meld with the beef. He never suspected and devoured them! He even asked “Why haven’t you made these before?” That’s a win!
Sneaky veg!!! Love it! N x
Made these for dinner tonight and they were awesome! I had to make a few changes to accommodate what I had on hand. I only used 1/2 pound of ground chuck and I only had 3 large flour tortillas. I left the rest of ingredients as written, so I ended up making three giant Enchiladas. The homemade enchilada sauce was perfect! My husband ate one and I ate 1/2 of one for dinner, and we have leftovers for lunch tomorrow! Thanks for the great recipe! I will definitely make this again! Now I’m going to check out your chicken enchilada recipe!😊
Absolutely delicious! Very moist and oh so tasty YUM
Can I make these enchiladas and store a day ahead?
This recipe is amazing! I didn’t have received beans or black beans, but I did have a large can of seasoned pink beans so I puréed half and used the other half whole. My family loved this meal. Thanks for making the recipe simple to follow and deliciously flavorful!
Can this be made ahead and kept in the refrigerator for another day?
Amazing beef enchiladas, thank you!!
Thinking of using leftover pot roast instead of ground beef!
Great idea! N x
Really tasty, I’ll be adding this recipe to my repertoire. I personally cooked for longer, about 40 mins in total. Kids enjoyed and very filling, so that’s a bonus!
Glad you enjoyed it! N x
Hi just wanted to say love your recipes! It’s my go to site for dinners! I was just wondering if I can use vegetable broth instead of chicken? I have some unused vegetable broth I want to get rid of, I just dont want to mess with the recipe too much because yours are usually 100% spot on perfect.
I absolutely love your recipes, I’m just wondering would beef stock be better in this recipe or is s there is a reason flavour wise for the chicken stock. Thanks xxxx😘😘😘
Hi Clo! Beef stock will work fine, I just use chicken stock because the flavour is more “clean” and in this dish, the spices dominate. So the beef stock is really unnecessary. Also, I only use store bought beef stock selectively because the flavour isn’t the best. Store bought chicken stock, on the other hand, is much better! N x
Thank you so much, that is great to know. You have amazing recipes and I’m so happy to have them, lots of love from Ireland xxxx😘😘😘
Scrumptious food looking mouthwatering and presentation is superb 😋😋😋
Delicious!! Last night I made these enchilada’s for dinner. The family demolished them. This morning I am still dreaming of how tasty they were and I want them for dinner again tonight!!!!
I used half smoked paprika and half sweet, and I used smoked chipotle powder instead of cayenne which gave them a lovely warmth.
Ahhhhhh Nagi, you’ve done it again!!
Thanks Nagi, these were fab. So yummy and I really enjoyed making the sauce. Big thumbs up from the rest of the family!
I made this recipe using ground ostrich because my boyfriend is AG+ (Alpha-Gal, allergic to anything mammal). This is an awesome recipe. I used sliced black olives, 1 can green chilies, and a quarter tsp of my homegrown/dehydrated peppers. Love the spices. So easy to make sauce & filling.
These were absolutely amazing!! My annoyingly picky husband loves them. Will definitely keep these in my dinner rotation. Thanks for a easy, tasty recipe!