Beef and Bean Enchiladas ~ KATS Kreative Life

I saw post about chicken enchiladas last week, it looked good but I didn’t have any chicken. I did have some taco meat frozen though, so I looked for a beef enchilada recipe. I changed it of course to fit our preferences and it was divine. I usually don’t really like enchiladas, but these were good, really good. I used the homemade red enchilada sauce that one of the recipes used. It was easy to make and I had everything in the house to make it. I followed the directions pretty closely except I only used 3 tbls of the chili powder because my husband is a wimp with spicy things and accidentally doubled the amount of cumin. Mine was pretty dark, but I think it was because my chili powder was kind of old since that is where most of the color comes from.

While the sauce was cooking, I started fixing the filling. I diced up an onion and cooked it in a little olive oil until softened, then added the taco meat. Since I already had taco meat ready in the freezer, I just had to thaw it and warm it up. If you are cooking from fresh hamburger meat, use 2 lbs and 1-2 packages of taco seasoning depending on how hot you like it.

Once the meat was warmed up, I added in a can of refried beans and stirred until it was mixed thoroughly with the meat and onions. That is all there was to the filling.

Then it was time to put the enchiladas together. I used a large pan about the size of a cookie sheet, but it has sides about 1″ tall and could barely get all of the enchiladas in it. If you don’t have a large pan like this, then you could use 2 cake pans. I poured about 1/3 of the sauce in the bottom of the pan then used a tablespoon to spread a spoonful of sauce on each tortilla. I used the taco size flour tortillas.

I put the filling in the center of the enchilada, topping it with a little cheese. I had a package of shredded Mexican cheese so that is what I used. Then I rolled them up and placed them seem side down on the pan. I didn’t measure how much filling I used for each enchilada but they were probably about 1″ tall once rolled.

I didn’t notice it until now, but my package of 10 tortillas had an extra one in the package, so that is why I had trouble getting them to fit on the pan.

I poured the last of the enchilada sauce over the top, making sure that each one got some spread on it, then covered them with the remaining cheese.

I cooked them on 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

1-2 enchiladas would fill up most people, my guys only ate 3 each and they are really big eaters. I served them with refried beans, rice, salsa and chips. My son loves spicy things, so he put salsa on top of his, but I ate mine just as they were. Next time I will probably use more cheese, one package wasn’t quite enough. If you are cooking for a small family or just 2 of you, I would suggest making only half the recipe unless you like leftovers as this feeds quite a few.

Beef and Bean Enchiladas

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef

1-2 packages of taco seasoning

1 onion minced

10 taco size flour tortillas

1 can refried beans

2-3 cups of shredded cheddar or Mexican style cheese

red enchilada sauce recipe or 2 cans purchased

Cook your ground beef in a large skillet until cooked through, breaking up into small pieces with a spatula as it cooks. Drain the meat well and set aside, reserving 1-2 tablespoons of the grease in the skillet. Saute the onions in the grease until they are soft and translucent, return the meat to the pan and stir in the taco seasoning following the directions on the package. Once the meat is ready, add the refried beans and stir to combine.

Place 1/3 of the enchilada sauce in the bottom of a large baking pan or 2 cake pans. Spread a tablespoon of enchilada sauce on each tortilla, divide the meat up between the tortillas and sprinkle with cheese. Roll up each enchilada and place in pan seem side down. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes until the cheese is melted. Allow to set for 10 minutes and serve.

Let me know how it goes if you try it. Leave a comment below.

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