How To Season Beef For Enchiladas

Learn how to season beef for enchiladas with this easy to follow recipe. Seasoned ground beef makes a filling, delicious and hearty addition to your favorite Mexican recipes. Enchiladas are a delicious Mexican staple that boast a variety of flavors. To make the best enchiladas, you need to season your beef properly. Here’s how to season ground beef for enchiladas.

Best Beef Enchiladas

These enchiladas are absolutely amazing! Truly a recipe your family will love.

Recipe Summary

Prep: 25 mins

Cook: 20 mins

Total: 45 mins

Servings: 8

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

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Original recipe yields 8 servingsIngredient Checklist

• 2 pounds ground beef
• ¼ medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 ½ cups enchilada sauce
• 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 8 flour tortillas
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 (4 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained
• ¼ cup shredded Cheddar cheese

Directions

Instructions Checklist

• Step 1Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Step 2Cook and stir ground beef with onion in a skillet over medium heat until meat is crumbly and no longer pink, about 10 minutes. Drain grease. Stir 1 cup Cheddar cheese, sour cream, parsley, taco seasoning, oregano, and black pepper into the ground beef until cheese has melted. Mix in enchilada sauce, chili powder, garlic, and salt; bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, and simmer until meat sauce is slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
• Step 3Lay a tortilla onto a work surface and spoon about 1/4 cup of meat sauce down the center of the tortilla. Top meat sauce with 1 tablespoon black beans and a sprinkling of black olives. Roll the tortilla up, enclosing the filling, and lay seam-side down into a 9×13-inch baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Spoon any remaining meat sauce over the enchiladas and scatter any remaining black beans and black olives over the top. Sprinkle tortillas with 1/4 cup Cheddar cheese.
• Step 4Bake in the preheated oven until cheese topping is melted and enchiladas and sauce are bubbling, 20 to 22 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

THE BEST BEEF ENCHILADAS

These beef enchiladas really are the best ever! They’re made with an incredibly flavorful and easy enchilada sauce, ground beef seasoned with the perfect blend of Mexican spices, and melted cheddar and monterey jack! Toppings are not optional!

I never ever name recipes “the best” because it seems so extreme, but these really are THE BEST enchiladas I’ve ever had, and they are actually in the top five best meals I’ve ever had in my life. Bold statement I know. I can’t begin to tell you how incredible they are. You just have to make them and see!

One of the main things that makes these so incredible, is the homemade enchilada sauce. It’s SO easy too. You combine everything in a saucepan and let it simmer for fifteen minutes and that’s it. I’m definitely one for buying storebought marinara and barbeque sauce in a pinch, but enchilada sauce is one of those things that is SO much better homemade.

There is really no comparison.

I also use a mixture of cheddar and monterey jack because that is my favorite cheese combo to use for melty Mexican dishes. Otherwise, it’s queso fresco and cotija all the way! But you could totally add some crumbles of either of those on top! Because three cheeses are always better than two!

Gahhh I can’t even stand how good these are.

The toppings make them extra delicious too, obviously. What’s Mexican food without toppings? My favorite combination to use here is sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, cilantro, scallions, lime wedges, and sour cream! I mix a little lime juice and salt with it to make it drizzle-able.

When making the enchiladas, I mix some of the enchilada sauce and cheese into the ground beef while it’s still hot, so it gets all melty and delicious, and then stuff it in the tortillas. It makes them so much more flavorful! I also season the ground beef with Mexican spices instead of relying on the enchilada sauce, so it’s like an extra layer of flavor!

Haha I put a lot of thought and care into these beauties.

I would be the happiest person if these were the only thing I ate ever again. They’re THAT good!

The Best Beef Enchiladas with Homemade Enchilada Sauce

These beef enchiladas really are the best ever! They’re made with an incredibly flavorful and easy enchilada sauce, ground beef seasoned with the perfect blend of Mexican spices, and melted cheddar and monterey jack! Toppings are not optional!

 Course Beef, Main Course

 Cuisine Mexican

 Prep Time 20 minutes

 Cook Time 40 minutes

 Total Time 1 hour

 Servings 4

 Calories 476 kcal

Ingredients

For the enchilada sauce

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons sauce from a can of chipotles in adobo
• 2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

For the enchiladas

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 ounces cheddar cheese, freshly grated
• 6 ounces monterey jack, freshly grated
• 8 of your favorite tortillas
• sliced avocado for serving
• halved cherry tomatoes for serving
• lime wedges for serving
• sour cream for serving
• chopped cilantro for serving
• sliced scallions for serving

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375℉.
2. Make the enchilada sauce. Bring a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the garlic and sauté for about 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the chicken broth, chipotle sauce, tomato sauce, chili powder, cumin, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper and stir to combine. Raise heat to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat slightly and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
3. Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the ground beef, chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and salt and cook for 7-8 minutes, until ground beef is browned and fully cooked. Add 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce to the beef, as well as 1/3 of the cheeses. Stir to combine until melted.
4. Spoon 1 cup of enchilada sauce on the bottom of a 9×13 casserole dish. Spoon about 1/4 cup of the beef mixture onto one side of the tortilla, then roll tightly. Place seam side down in the dish and repeat with all 8 tortillas.
5. Pour 1 1/2 cups of enchilada sauce over the enchiladas, spreading evenly. Top with remaining cheese and bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is bubbly and golden. 
6. Serve with sliced avocado, cherry tomatoes, lime wedges, sour cream, and chopped cilantro and scallions. 

Beef Enchiladas

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!

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!

The filling of these beef enchiladas have extra oomph with the addition a refried beans, a good hit of spices and splash of Enchilada sauce!

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!