The Best Beef Enchiladas

There simply aren’t enough words to express how amazingly delicious these enchiladas are, they really are the best beef enchiladas! The moment the rumor gets around I am making these everyone is ready to come over!!

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I must confess, I may not make these often, but when I do I make a lot and they freeze quite nicely. These enchiladas are so delicious and cheesy what’s not to love! The best beef enchiladas!

I made these a few weeks ago for our family’s secret santa drawing. Everyone was more than happy to come over and have some of these spicy and delicious enchiladas.

I serve them up with refried beans, Mexican rice, and of course, chips and salsa.

These have a little bit of a kick to them from the New Mexican Chile Powder, so sour cream pairs nicely with them!

I know they seem complicated to make, but they really do come together pretty easily. Don’t be intimidated by the steps involved, none of them are very complex.

The Ingredients

The New Mexican Chili powder really makes the enchilada sauce next level. You can use regular chili powder, but you will not get the same smokey, rich, deep flavor that you would with the New Mexican Chili Powder.

For the cheese I like to use colby jack, but cheddar, or pepper jack works well here too.

Assembling the Best Beef Enchiladas

For the steps to put these together, I start by making the taco meat. For these I use ground beef with my homemade taco seasoning, this is a simple recipe that is great to have on hand.

I set the meat aside to cool while I make the sauce because you will be handling it with your fingers and you want it to be cooler.

Next you make the sauce, you start by getting your oil hot in the pan and then adding the flour to cook for at least a minute or two.

Then you add the chili powder and cook that for a minute to really deepen the flavors of the spice.

Add in the tomato puree and chicken broth and whisk well together.

Finish it off with the Italian seasoning, cumin, garlic, and salt. You don’t want to skip the salt here, it really brings out all the flavors of the sauce.

Now you want to fry up your corn shells. I recommend using corn, these just aren’t the same with flour. I fry each shell in hot oil for about 30 seconds on each side, then I put them on some paper towels to soak up some of the excess oil.

Now you can add your cheese to the beef to make the filling mixture, use about 1/2 of your shredded cheese for this.

You are now ready to assemble.

I get an assembly line going by preparing my casserole dish with a little of the sauce coating the bottom. This allows the shells to be coated on the bottom and not over cook.

I love this casserole dish, it is the perfect size for these enchiladas!

Then I have my meat mixture and shells all right in front of me.

I take about 1/4 cup of the mixture and put into a shell and roll as tightly as I can without tearing the shells. No need to close the end, just leave those open, this will allow sauce to enter the enchiladas as they cook as well.

Now place them one by one closely together in the pan that has the sauce on the bottom till the pan is snuggly filled.

If you ave any beef mixture leftover sprinkle it on top of the enchiladas.

Now you need to pour your sauce all over the enchiladas and make sure you coat all of the shells really well with sauce.

You may not need to use all the sauce, in fact I like to reserve a little sauce on the side so we have extra to use on our beans, or in our rice, or just more to add when you serve them!

Cover them very generously with cheese and cover with foil.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 cover with the foil and then take the foil off and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Enjoy these with all the sides like queso, salsa, refried beans, guacamole, Mexican rice, chips and salsa for a complete meal! These are the best beef enchiladas!

Check out some of my other Easy Dinner Ideas!