Beef enchilada skillet
All the flavor of beef enchiladas with no rolling, just tortilla strips simmered in sauce with beans and corn under melted cheese.
- 35 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Anyone can make this
- Serves 4
- About $3.15 a serving
- 610 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 6 corn tortillas
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 can red enchilada sauce
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 cup Mexican blend cheese
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped (optional)
- ¼ cup sour cream (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp chili powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup water
Each serving has about 610 calories, 39 g protein, 51 g carbs and 29 g fat, and costs about $3.15 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No black beans? Pinto beans or kidney beans work.
- No frozen corn? Canned corn works.
- No Mexican blend cheese? Shredded cheddar or cheddar cheese or Monterey Jack cheese works.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
- No sour cream? Plain Greek yogurt works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Cut the tortillas into 1-inch strips, the onion, and the garlic.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Heat a large with a lid over medium-high, add the beef and onion, and press the beef flat. Leave it 3 minutes, until underneath.
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Brown. Browning means cooking until the outside turns brown, which is where a lot of savory flavor comes from. Give food room and time without stirring, or it steams and stays gray.
How you’ll know: The food looks brown rather than gray, and the kitchen smells toasty and savory.
Medium-high heatTimer: 3 min
Break it into and cook 5 minutes more, until no pink is left. Spoon off the fat.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Medium-high heatTimer: 5 min
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the garlic, cumin, chili powder and salt for 30 seconds.
Medium heat
Stir in the enchilada sauce, beans, corn and water, and bring to a gentle bubble.
Medium heat
Stir in the tortilla strips, turn the heat to low, and 5 minutes, until they and the sauce .
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Softened. For vegetables it means cooked until they bend and lose their crunch; for butter, left out until it dents easily. Soft onions taste sweet, and soft butter mixes in smoothly.
How you’ll know: Onions squash easily against the pan with your spoon, and butter dents under a finger without looking greasy.
Thicken. Thickening means cooking a sauce or soup until it’s less runny, by simmering it down or adding something like cornstarch. A thicker sauce clings to food instead of pooling on the plate.
How you’ll know: It coats the back of a spoon, and a line drawn through it with your finger holds its shape.
Low heatTimer: 5 min
Dolly’s tip: The strips soak up the sauce and turn soft and tender, just like baked enchiladas.Scatter the cheese over the top, cover, and cook 3 minutes, until .
Melt. Melting means gently heating something solid, like butter or cheese, until it turns liquid. Low or medium heat keeps it from browning or burning.
How you’ll know: It’s smooth and liquid, and butter may foam a little but hasn’t turned brown.
Low heatTimer: 3 min
Top with cilantro and sour cream and serve from the .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
More dinners like this
Sheet pan beef tostadas
35 min
Taco casserole
45 min
Sheet pan quesadillas with ground beef
35 min
Sheet pan beef nachos
30 min
One-pan dinners ›High-protein dinners ›What to make with black beans and corn ›What to make with black beans and Mexican blend cheese ›What to make with corn and Mexican blend cheese ›