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!
My entire family enjoyed this dish. I usually use canned green enchilada sauce because I never liked canned red enchilada sauce. But your sauce is amazingly easy and delicious!! I definitely make it again. Thank you, Nagi.
Thank you Junchan! I’m SO GLAD you enjoyed it!!! N x
I tried this recipe the other day and was pleasantly surprised on how delicious and flavorful the homemade enchilada sauce was. I’ve hated to make enchiladas in the past because the store bought enchilada sauce left a lot to be desired. Needless to say, I will never be buying enchilada sauce in a can ever again. The spices are very well balanced.
The filling was very good and I was surprised because I used extra lean ground beef which doesn’t usually have a lot of flavor because of the lack of “fat”. I also used whole wheat flour tortillas for the best enchiladas I’ve ever eaten outside of an authentic Mexican Restaurant. I shared this recipe on Facebook.
So glad Brigette! Thank you for trying my recipe and sharing it on Facebook, and for coming back to let me know you enjoyed it! N x
I’m sorry, what size dish does this go into? I really want to do this.
Hi John! I use baking dishes around 20 x 30 cm / 8 x 12″ for enchilada 🙂
I just love your recipes and look forward to them every day! I am making this one for dinner tonight and I have one question.
for the spices, you listed 6 of them to mix together.
Garlic and onion powder, cumin powder, paprika and dried oregano and cayenne pepper.
In the picture with the bowl of spices, I am seeing 7 spices.
What am I missing?
Thanks for any help!!
Love your accuracy Teri! 🙂 Salt!!!! N x
Thank you so much! I am on my way to the kitchen to make this for dinner guests.
I am also making “Dorothy’s” carrot cake.
Yummy!!!
I hope you have a great evening!!!
Oh my gosh, Dorothy is going to LOVE IT when she reads this!! 🙂
Ok so YUM.
I made this last week and it was packed with some great flavours, but I think I made two mistakes…. my sauce was a bit runny so I maybe didn’t cook it down long enough (but Nagi! It smelled so good I couldn’t wait!) and my second mistake was not baking them long enough (refer to previous parentheses!). They were a bit soft and harder to get onto a plate. We live, we learn. Will def be making these again and will allow myself more time.
PS. LOVE the addition of re-fried beans. I love anything with beans.
PPS. Dozer! ADORABLE. Every new recipe you post I first scroll down to the bottom to see Dozer, then I read the recipe. <3
Thanks for trying my recipe Martina! I make the same mistake too, I am so impatient!!! I am so glad you enjoyed it and I love that you think Dozer is adorable too!!! 😉 N x
Catching up on your recipes and this one is a keeper! I’m definitely going to have to make this – J Daddy LOVES Mexican food and this looks to be a perfect meal for a Friday night to cap off any working week.
I’ll have to drop some food around the next time I’m in your area Gloria!! Maybe weekend after next? 🙂
You should totally just come for a visit, with or without food!
I’m going to make this one on Sunday night – had planned it for tonight but I want pasta – the cold weather is making me crave carbs! So your Seafood Marinara Spaghetti is on the menu tonight. Can’t wait!
I was actually going to drop by today with a whole heap of things I baked that didn’t QUITE work out well enough for the blog but still so yum….but it’s raining so hard I was too scared to do the drive!
It was a bit scary to go out today, so I’m glad you didn’t drive all the way over to me!
We had to brave the elements as we needed to do our weekly shop, and ended up at Rhodes Shopping Centre for 5 hours – much of that time was spent in IKEA. Another reason why I’m glad you didn’t come over today!
Didn’t end up making this one tonight, but I have it on the cards for next Sunday night. Mmmm… yum…
OMG I sent my mother to Ikea for me yesterday!!! Seriously!!!!
I made this last night. I had everything but I forgot to get the passata sauce so I used some bottled pasta sauce instead and didn’t say anything – with all the spices no one noticed but they asked for seconds so definately going into my recipe collection.
If it is raining my Golden likes to roll in the mud. I was laughing just thinking of having to wash the raincoat as well.
Thanks for the recipe. I had some filling left over. I warmed it up with a bit of cheese on top and some yogurt and it was great.
Thanks for trying my recipe Suzy! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for taking the time to let me know! OMG the thought of your gold rolling in mud…..you poor thing!!! I totally get it, Dozer used to do that too!!! N x
Your enchilada spice/sauce tasted great. Better than bottled sauce. Thanks for sharing another great recipe!
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Thanks for trying my recipe Geoff! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, and thank you for taking the time to let me know! N x
Nagi I love your posts and you always give me a chuckle ? Looking forward to trying this soon – I haven’t had an enchilada in years!
Oh boy YES, I think you need an enchilada fix – stat! 😉 N x
Bring on the enchiladas! I always order enchiladas when go out for Mexican – I just can’t resist their cheesy, beefy goodness! These look phenomenal, Nagi! And I love your sauce – I totally agree, homemade is the way to go! Btw, what’s Dozer, the water-dog doing with a raincoat? 😉
Cause I don’t want WET DOG inside the house!!!! 😉 N x
I think Mexicans have such amazing food….cheesy, spicy, meaty, such bold and fingerlickin flavours.
Interestingly, authentic Mexican is actually much much lighter in flavour than Tex Mex!
This looks so yummy, I need to try it soon, but with corn tortilla’s?. Actually, I do love them so it won’t be such a bad sacrifice. I picked up a cookbook in Mexico and made enchilda sauce from a recipe in that book. It was good, but very time consuming…re-hydrating peppers, cooking them a long time, blending, and adding. This sounds so much easier, especially in our hot weather. Not inclined to sweat in a hot hot kitchen ifmI can help it.
Oooh I hope you do!!! I know what you mean about making a real Mexican Enchilada sauce, sounds like the recipes I have from a cookbook I got in Mexico too!!! PS I couldn’t resist taking a peek at your resort. AMAZING!!! 😉
Very interesting version of enchiladas. I’ve never had Tex-Mex enchiladas, on the Mexican ones, so these sound quite intriguing. A note about passata: if it is really pureed tomatoes, in the US we can get tomato puree in cans on the pasta aisle. So I’m sort of confused about whether I should go for tomato sauce or tomato puree?
Thank you for the question Susan! Tomato puree will also work great – actually, it will be even better than tomato sauce because it is plain whereas tomato sauce in American often includes mild seasonings. So tomato puree is the best substitute to passata, tomato sauce is 2nd best. Thanks for the reminder, I will update the recipe! N x
These enchiladas look fantastic! Enchiladas are one of my favorite dishes to make, I’ll have to try this filling. I think one of the best parts of reading your recipes is all these new ingredients! Now I’ll look for tomato passata.
I’m happy you survived the storms!
Thank you Michelle! <3 And YES, I'm happy I survived the storms too! (Truth be told, I sought refuge at my mother's house because my house is up on a cliff, very exposed and very rickety old house!!) N x
Hi Nagi.
I came across your blog maybe 5 months ago and every recipe I’ve tried, it’s been awesome. Cannot wait to try this one. I’ve been spreading the word of ‘recipetimests ‘. Your recipes are so true. Keep them coming ?
Awww Tess, this message made my night! Thank you so much for trying my recipes and I am so glad you are enjoying my recipes! N x
A Dozer raincoat, love it. I nenver really prepare TexMex food but everytims I see it I salivate, I am droling now big time.
It is VERY practical, that rain coat!!! I don’t know why people MOCK IT! 😉
Hope that you are safe over there in Sydney – we watched in horror at the footage on the TV news of the storms and devastation to homes, especially those on coast. Take care and stay safe Nagi and Dozer (who looks mighty handsome decked out in that rain jacket.)
Thank you Felicity! I must admit, my house is up on a cliff and is an old beach shack so I was rather concerned about how it would fare, so I actually left my house for the weekend and stayed at my mother’s! Her house is much more protected. 🙂 Returned home to some minor damage, I can’t complain, it is still standing!
Must have been very scary. Sorry to hear your home suffered some damage. Seeing some of those homes on cliff tops just destroyed was a strong reminder of nature’s power and fury. Have to wonder with Global warming issues if we are going to see a lot more of this?
I fear you are right Felicity. 🙁 The world has certainly changed from even 30 years ago when I was a kid!!
Can’t wait to try these. Last night laying in bed I realized I’d not had an email from you in quite a while. Somehow I was unsubscribed, so I’m back and looking forward to the recipes. Can’t wait to try this one. They look yummy.
Hi Norma! I hope you do try these, they really are fantastic! Glad you’re back on my email list! 🙂
My tastebuds are at attention and I’m having a very difficult time NOT drooling. I do prefer making my own sauces – they taste so much better. Wish you could send an enchilada or two on over 🙂
Honestly Marisa, it baffles me why people don’t make their own Enchilada sauce!! So crazy easy! 🙂 N x PS What’s your address? I’ll shoot a couple over!
Oh my goodness that really wakes up my taste buds and will be making this very soon. Your pictures are awesome and Dozer is so adorable.
Oooh, I hope you do Beth! I look forward so much to hearing what people think when they make my recipes – it’s validation! PS You should just pop round and give Dozer a cuddle!!! 😉