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!
Another happy family. I upped the spice level because I added some more sneaky veg – carrot and celery.
So yum!
Beef enchiladas and baked ziti are awesome thank you so much
Wow wow wow, loved it, thought a lot of steps but when I got started I just went with the flow, wasn’t as daunting as I thought, loved it, so tasty
Love your recipes, videos and you. I’ve ventured out of my usual humdrum repertoire of recipes to find we enjoy ethnic dishes we normally only ate in restaurants. I trust your content. I now have so many condiments and seasonings I never used before a year ago. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
I made beef enchiladas for the first time and they were delish!! The homemade sauce was super easy and delish! My kids told me to put it on our dinner rotation! Yum!
Great recipe. I can’t stop eating! I did add a can of Ro-tel tomatoes to the beef, but otherwise kept it as is.
It was a hit at our place! The kids and hubby loved it. I used thigh fillet and added some avo and sour cream to the side as well.
Very good
It was absolutely delicious, we added a small 4oz can of diced green chillies to the filling and a packet of sazon goya, will definitely be making this again! Thanks for sharing this recipe
Made these for hubby,son and of course me, and we were blown away by them fantastic Saturday night treat . Thank you
So, so delish! I thought that 1 tin each of beans and refried beens would be too much, so only used half a can. Didn’t make the sauce so that they could be cooked in the airfryer for about 6 minutes. Definitely a keeper. Thanks Nagi!
I was excited for this recipe after reading the comments and seeing 5 star reviews. I appreciate the spice mix and the homemade sauce, however the filling left a lot to be desired. I am a lover of beans but the texture was off putting. This recipe was somewhat time consuming for a mediocre outcome. I would not recommend this recipe and will continue my search for the best beef enchiladas!
I tried this recipe, but my enchiladas sauce was too lumpy. I created the paste and then added all the remaining ingredients. Was I meant to add them bit by bit and constantly stir, like béchamel sauce?
I tried this recipe, but my enchiladas sauce was very lumpy. I’ve added the remaining ingredients once I got a paste, but did I do something wrong?
Excellent! The enchilada sauce was delicious.
Just a heads up really!
The cup & tbsp quantities in the instructions are not adjusted if you change the number of servings, neither are the can quantities in the ingredients.
I made these delicious enchiladas for dinner this evening and they were a big hit !! Super easy to make and I had just about all of the ingredients for this dish on hand. Definitely a keeper recipe 😋
My picky kids love this recipe! This is my go-to for enchiladas.
What can be used in place of flour?
Made these for the first time tonight and was skeptical about the home made sauce, but to my Suprise it turned out FABULOUS!! Thank you for this one 🤤