Ground beef enchiladas
Soft corn tortillas rolled around spiced beef and cheese, smothered in red enchilada sauce and baked until bubbling.
- 55 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $3.72 a serving
- 600 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.
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 1 can diced green chiles
- 2 cans red enchilada sauce, divided
- 8 corn tortillas
- 1½ cups Mexican blend cheese, divided
- 2 tbsp cilantro, chopped (optional)
- ¼ cup sour cream (optional)
From your pantry
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp chili powder
- ¾ tsp salt
Each serving has about 600 calories, 36 g protein, 38 g carbs and 34 g fat, and costs about $3.72 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 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.
the oven to 375°F. the onion and the garlic.
Preheat. Preheating means turning the oven on before you start, so it’s fully hot when the food goes in. Food that starts in a cold oven cooks unevenly and doesn’t brown the same.
How you’ll know: The oven beeps or its light clicks off, usually 10 to 15 minutes after you turn it on.
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 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 small 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, then the green chiles and ½ cup of the enchilada sauce. Take the pan off the heat.
Medium-high heat
Spread ½ cup of the enchilada sauce over the bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish.
Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave 45 seconds, until soft and bendy.
Dolly’s tip: Cold corn tortillas crack when you roll them. Warm ones bend.Spoon about ¼ cup beef and 2 tablespoons cheese down the middle of each tortilla, roll it up snugly, and set it seam side down in the dish.
Pour the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas and scatter the remaining cheese on top.
20 minutes, until the sauce bubbles and the cheese . Top with cilantro and sour cream if you like.
Bake. Baking means cooking in the oven with dry heat all around the food. It cooks evenly from every side, so you can mostly leave it alone.
How you’ll know: It’s golden on top and passes the recipe’s check, like a clean toothpick or the right temperature.
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.
Timer: 20 min
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.
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