Turn up the fun on dinner time with these cheesy and flavorful Ground Beef Enchiladas. With simple ingredients and a whole lot of flavor, they could be your newest weeknight staple.
Try out different enchilada sauces, or even make your own. This is a great starter recipe that you can make time after time, changing subtle details to make a ton of delicious variations.
Ground Beef Enchiladas
You can never go wrong with enchiladas. Anything wrapped up in a tortilla with melted cheese and a kick of sauce is an A+ meal in my household. This is one of those dishes that's simple enough to make on chaotic weeknights and delicious enough to serve a crowd at any potluck or party.
Ingredients:
- Ground beef: America's favorite meat and it makes for great enchiladas
- Onion: a big flavor booster that you cook with the ground beef
- Bell pepper: this is cooked with the ground beef to add flavor
- Taco seasoning: this is an easy way to add lots of flavor, I love my homemade mix and keep it on hand all the time
- Red enchilada sauce: (store-bought or homemade) this is what makes it an enchilada! You can sub the red enchilada sauce for green enchilada sauce if you prefer, both are great.
- Flour tortillas: the shell that holds everything together, you can use corn here if you prefer
- Shredded cheddar cheese: this adds creaminess and lots of flavor, you'll put some in the enchilada and on top of the whole dish, you can use something like pepper jack cheese if you prefer
How to make enchiladas:
- Start by cooking up your ground beef with the onion and bell pepper. When it's cooked through add the taco seasoning.
- Put a little enchilada sauce in the bottom of your pan.
- Add the ground beef mixture and some cheese to a tortilla and roll it up, place in pan. Repeat with the rest of the ingredients.
- Top the rolled up enchiladas with more sauce and the rest of the cheese.
- Bake until everything is hot and bubbly and serve right away.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Definitely! This is just one more way to personalize your enchiladas. Enchiladas are traditionally made with corn tortillas actually, but my family just so happens to really love flour tortillas. Flour also tends to hold up to heavy fillings better than corn tortillas. You can also check and see if your store has 50-50 flour-corn tortillas! These are so yummy; they have more of a thick flour tortilla consistency with a little bit of grainy corn taste.
Some people prefer frying their tortillas in a skillet with a little olive or vegetable oil before putting together their enchiladas. It can help hold the tortilla together if you're prone to broken tortillas as you build your enchiladas. It can also add an extra dimension of flavor, but if you're making these on a busy evening, it's a small step that I'd go ahead and skip.
Can I freeze enchiladas?
This is a great recipe to make ahead and freeze. I have made this as a
freezer meal for new moms or a friend that just had surgery and it
received rave reviews. To freeze this recipe, make it as directed but don’t
bake. Cover well, label and freeze for up to 3 months. When you are
ready to cook, thaw overnight in the fridge and cook until heated
through, about 30-35 minutes.
Serving suggestions to go with enchiladas:
- Easy Spanish Rice in the Rice Cooker
- Instant Pot Cilantro Lime Rice
- How to Cook Pinto Beans in the Instant Pot
- Corn Salsa
If you’ve tried my enchilada recipe or any other recipe on Bless this Mess, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some pictures of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories.
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Ground Beef Enchilada Recipe
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: Makes 8 enchiladas 1x
Description
Turn up the fun on dinner time with these cheesy and flavorful Ground Beef Enchiladas. With simple ingredients and a whole lot of flavor, they could be your newest weeknight staple.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 medium white or yellow onion, chopped
- 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 can red enchilada sauce (20 ounces or about 2 cups) or a batch of homemade red enchilada sauce
- Salt to taste
- 8 flour tortillas (8 inch)
- 3 cups grated shredded cheddar cheese (I like sharp cheddar)
Instructions
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the ground beef, onion, and bell pepper and cook until the beef is well cooked and no longer pink, about 8 minutes. If you have a lot of extra grease in the bottom of the skillet from the ground beef, drain some of the excess grease.
- Add the taco seasoning, and stir to combine. Cook 1 minute.
- Add ½ cup of the red enchilada sauce to the ground beef mixture and stir to combine.
- Add salt to the beef mixture to taste.
- Spread ½ cup of the red enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch dish.
- Assemble the enchiladas by placing ⅓ cup of the ground beef mixture in down the center of one tortilla. Add a little bit of cheese to the top (plan on using 1 ½ cups of the grated cheese to fill the enchiladas). Roll up the enchilada, and place it in the pan.
- Repeat with beef mixture, cheese, and remaining tortillas.
- Spread the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the rolled tortillas in the baking dish.
- Place the remaining cheese on top of the enchilada sauce.
- Bake uncovered in a 425 degree F. oven for 20-25 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and everything is hot.
Notes
- You can reduce the ground beef by half and replace it with 1 cup of cooked rice or a can of beans if you like.
- You can use green enchilada sauce in place of the red if you like.
- TO FREEZE this recipe, make it as directed but do not bake. Cover well, label, and freeze for up to 3 months. To cook, thaw overnight in the fridge and cook until heated through, about 30-35 minutes.
- Prep Time: 25 min
- Cook Time: 25 min
- Category: dinner
- Method: bake
- Cuisine: American, Tex-Mex, Mexican
Keywords: enchiladas, enchilada recipe, ground beef recipe, dinner
You might also like these enchilada recipes:
- Cilantro Rice and Bean Bake (vegetarian enchilada casserole)
- Easy Chicken Enchiladas
- One Pan Chicken Enchilada Casserole
- Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchilada Bake
- Creamy Pumpkin Chicken Enchiladas
Long live all the easy dinners that the whole family loves. I can't wait for this one to fall into your regular dinner rotation.
Kaysha
I made this with your homemade tortilla recipe and your homemade enchilada sauce. I also substituted a pound of beef for a cup of brown rice. It tasted delicious!
★★★★★
Melissa
Kaysha! You killed with with all three from scratch recipes into one dish! That's some serious homemaking! So so awesome!
Cassie Neal
Made this last night with one pound ground beef, one steamer bag of rice cauliflower and it was delicious! Also, no one had a clue there was cauliflower in it. Win-win! 😉
★★★★★
Melissa
Ohhh thank you for the tips, I love the idea of cauli rice!