These Easy Beef Enchiladas are a wonderful, family-friendly dinner. Watch the video showing you how to make Easy Beef Enchiladas, then scroll down to the bottom of this post and print out the recipe so you can make them at home.
How to Make Easy Beef Enchiladas:
Heat oil in a large skillet, and add a pound of ground beef.
Break the meat apart and let it brown.
Tilt the pan to let the oil pool along the edge of the pan. Use a spoon to scoop out the oil and get rid of it. You don’t need any of that extra fat in there. Remove the meat to a bowl.
Add chopped onion and finely chopped zucchini to the hot skillet, and cook until the vegetables are slightly softened. Trust me on the zucchini. No one in your family will even notice it, and it’s really good in this Easy Beef Enchiladas recipe! If you hate it, I suppose you could leave it out… but I hope you’ll choose to trust me 🙂
Add the vegetables to the bowl with the beef and stir them together.
Add 1/2 cup enchilada sauce to a 13×9-inch pan. I make homemade enchilada sauce… SO good… and SO much better than the metallic-can tasting stuff. It’s simple to make.
Tilt the pan to swirl the sauce around and make sure it coats the entire bottom of the pan.
Assembly time! You’ll need corn tortillas, the meat/veggie mixture, cheddar-jack cheese and enchilada sauce. Note that in the photos, I am using a corn-flour blend tortilla. You can use any tortillas you want!
Spoon the beef mixture down the middle of a tortilla.
Sprinkle some cheese on top.
And drizzle about one tablespoon of the enchilada sauce on top of the filling.
Roll up the stuffed tortilla tightly and place seam-side-down in the sauce-coated pan. Continue with all of the tortillas until you have created 12 enchiladas.
Drizzle the remaining sauce on top of the rolled-up enchiladas.
Spread the sauce around so you get a nice coating all along the top of these Easy Beef Enchiladas. At this point, you’re going to cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
Take the enchiladas out of the oven, remove the foil cover and sprinkle cheese on top. Put them back into the oven to melt all that cheese.
Just like that.
Ready for eating!
Serve these Easy Beef Enchiladas with whatever you’d like. I served them on a simple bed of shredded iceberg lettuce with some freshly sliced avocado. My husband added a generous spoonful of sour cream. And my kiddo– one who would never, ever willingly eat zucchini if it were placed in front of him– ate this meal as-is and with great enthusiasm. Apparently he didn’t spy the zucchini in the midst of all of that wonderful sauce and cheese.
If you’re looking for recipes to serve with these Easy Beef Enchiladas, try my Mango Guacamole or this Enchilada Rice. Mexican Chopped Salad and Seasoned Black Beans are also delicious choices!
Easy Beef Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola or vegetable oil
- 16 ounces lean ground beef
- 1½ cups finely diced onion
- 1½ cups finely diced zucchini (about 2 medium)
- 12 taco-size corn tortillas (heated or fried to soften)
- 2½ cups enchilada sauce (canned or homemade)
- 3 cups shredded cheddar-jack cheese
- serve as desired with lettuce, sour cream, avocado, etc.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13-inch pan with nonstick spray.
- Heat oil in a large, nonstick skillet. Add the ground beef; break apart with a spoon or spatula to crumble the meat. Saute the meat on medium heat until browned (about 5 minutes). Tilt the pan and spoon the fat out of the pan; discard. Remove the cooked meat to a bowl.
- Return the pan to medium heat, and add the onion and zucchini. Saute until just softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the pan and add to the meat mixture; set aside.
- Add 1/2 cup of sauce to the prepared pan. Spread it around so it coats the entire bottom of the pan.
- Assemble the enchiladas: Place a tortilla on a work surface. Spoon 1/4 to 1/3 cup of the meat mixture down the middle. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cheese on top of the meat. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of sauce on top. Wrap the tortilla around the filling tightly and place it seam-side-down in the pan. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling until you have finished filling 12 tortillas. Place the tortillas side-by-side in the pan- it's okay if they are all snuggled in there tightly.
- Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the stuffed enchiladas. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 30 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and take off the foil. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top; return to the oven and let the cheese melt (about 5 minutes). Serve immediately with desired condiments.
Notes
- *I like to use tortillas for this recipe that are a corn/flour blend. They're easy to roll (they don't break), and you don't need to fry them!
- *If you are preparing this recipe as GLUTEN-FREE, just make sure that you are using brands of enchilada sauce and corn tortillas that are designated as GF
- *Be sure to check out my recipe for homemade enchilada sauce.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
These were absolutely delicious. I did use your homemade enchilada sauce recipe too. I will be recommending these two recipes to my friends 🙂
This recipe is amazingly delicious and really easy to make! I used it with the homemade enchilada sauce recipe that is in the recipe. I have a friend who went to ranger school and all he thought of until he graduated were my Enchiladas!!! He graduated a few days ago and REQUESTED the enchiladas i made for him before. I would have to say YOU DID A GREAT JOB!!!! Thank you so much for this recipe!
LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!! 🙂
awesome- glad you enjoyed it!
well they are in the oven now. They smell great usually I add mushrooms to the mix. Zucchini is a great idea!
My husband hates zucchini, but I peeled it to get rid of the tell-tale skin, and once it was cooked, it looked a lot like green chiles. 🙂 He never even asked what they were. The homemade sauce was awesome, too! We’ll definitely be making these again.
I’ve tried several enchilada recipes and enjoyed most everyone. Something about yours is a little different. I love that I’m sneaking a veggie in AND it tastes good this way! I also love the homemade sauce recipe. I had never tried to make the sauce before. Thanks for sharing a great recipe-my 3 and 2 year olds both asked for more! (and they didn’t pick out the zucchini!!!) 🙂
Looks great! I also make my own Enchilada Sauce.
I disagree with the method of cooking ground beef though. Too many recipes around the web overcook the ground beef. Fat is where the flavor is with just about any meat, especially beef. I would not recommend using lean ground beef, I prefer 80/20 ground chuck. For a recipe like this, only brown the ground beef to medium or medium rare and drain that fat. When baking the Enchiladas in the oven , the ground beef will finish cooking and release some flavor fat into the Enchiladas. If you brown the ground beef to well done in the pan, by the time the Enchiladas are done baking the ground beef will be very dry and flavorless. I also like using some fresh onion(lightly sweated) and fresh minced garlic, small amount on both, when browning the ground beef. Adds some extra savory flavor.
Ok…I forgot to send a comment earlier, but I made these about 2 weeks ago…and they’re awesome! This is the best homemade enchilada sauce I’ve ever had, and so easy. My husband and son (and I) can hardly wait until I make these again, yummy!
i made these with the home made sauce and i used corn tortias and fryed them just a little before hand and that sauce is the bomb and thank you for the best enchiladas ever
These were amazing!! I love the addition of zucchini. Great way to bulk it up and add some extra fiber! The enchilada sauce is PERFECT.I ran out of chili pepper (its probably my most used spice!) and so I used a combination of regular chili powder and ancho chili powder in the sauce. Will be making these on a regular basis! Thank you so much for this!!
I made the enchilada sauce that you linked in this recipe and it is so easy to make and taste great in combination with the rest of the enchilada ingredients. I did add a bit of cayenne pepper to it (I add it to everything ~ it taste great and there are so many health benefits from it). Thanks so much for sharing this recipe. I didn’t follow your exact enchilada recipe but it gave me the basis for how to make mine!