Beef and Cheese Enchiladas with Mexican Rice

 

 

 

I could eat Mexican food for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.  I love it that much!

 Here is my first attempt to make homemade enchiladas.

 

I was buying ingredients to make chili this week and noticed these sauces on the store shelf.  I decided to make red enchiladas for my son and green enchiladas for my husband.  The red enchiladas were very good, both in texture and flavor.  The flavors in the green enchiladas were really good but I added too much sauce and I neglected to coat the baking dish with no-stick spray.  The extra moisture resulted in the corn tortillas turning in mush but also the tortillas totally stuck to the bottom of the dish in a very hard, crusty layer. Which reminds me, I need to do dishes.

So today, I'll share the Red Enchilada recipe.

I coated both sides of the tortillas with red sauce and then filled the tortillas with a beef and cheese.

I spooned a bit more red sauce over each enchilada and then topped it all with cheese.  The enchiladas have a nice coating of sauce but the are not drenched in sauce.

Cheesy goodness!



What a yummy plate!  We added a bit of shredded lettuce, diced tomato, and sour cream (or in my case... yogurt)

Red Beef and Cheese Enchiladas

16 ounces Kroger Fire Roasted Red Enchilada Sauce (I had 1/2 to 3/4 cup leftover)
12 ounces colby jack cheese, finely grated (about 3 cups), divided
3/4 pounds ground beef
1/4 cup yellow onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon each ground cumin, ground coriander, garlic powder, and dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon each chipotle chile pepper and ground black pepper
1 dozen white corn tortillas (I used Mission Brand White Corn tortillas)

Generously spray a 9x13x2 baking dish with no-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a large skillet, cook and crumble the ground beef along with onion. When no pink remains, drain the beef if necessary and add in the spices.  Stir to distribute the spices and set aside.

Set aside about 1 cup of the cheese to put on top of the enchiladas.

To assemble the enchiladas, poor about 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce onto a shallow plate (I used a small salad plate).  One at at time, lightly coat the tortillas with a little sauce on both side and move the tortilla to a work surface (a cutting board or another small shallow plate). If you use up the enchilada sauce on the plate during assembly, just add more sauce to the plate as needed to lightly coat each tortilla.  Spoon about 2 tablespoons of beef down the center of the tortilla and then top the beef with some grated cheese.  Roll up the tortilla around the ingredients and place, seam side down, into prepared baking dish.  Repeat until all ingredients are used.  You will end up with 11 or 12 enchiladas.  Spoon about more enchilada sauce over the top of each enchilada..  Top the enchiladas with the reserved grated cheese.

Bake 20 to 25 minutes uncovered. If desired, turn oven to broil; broil until cheese starts to turn brown.

I also made some "Mexican Rice"as a side dish.  So good!  We also had refried beans (from can... not glamourous, but good!)

Mexican Rice
From "The 99 Cent Chef"; here is the LINK
 

Ingredients (about 4 servings)

• 1 cup of rice - I used basmati
• 4 ounces tomato sauce 
• 2 cups of water.
• 1 tablespoon of garlic - fresh, pressed in garlic press
• 1/4 onion - finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon oil
• Salt and pepper to taste.
• a pinch of dried oregano

DirectionsHeat oil, then add rice. Stir to coat grains and saute until they start to turn brown - about 10 minutes. Add chopped onion and garlic. Stir and saute a couple of minutes. Pour in 1/2 cup of tomato sauce and two cups of water.  Season with a bit of salt, black pepper, and a pinch of dried oregano.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover. Cook rice according to directions (about 20 minutes). Turn off heat and let set another five minutes. Serve with a favorite entree.


In case you are curious, here's what the Green Enchiladas looked like. 

 

The meat filling in these was the same. I used pepper jack cheese instead of colby jack and I added a few jalapeno slices to the top of the dish. My mistake was using the entire 16 ounce jar of sauce for the green enchiladas. It was too gloppy and the tortillas got mushy. Great flavors just not good texture. Also not spraying the baking dish was a colossal mistake.  The red enchiladas actually came out of the pan without the no-stick spray, but I added that step just to be on the safe side.

I made the red enchiladas for my son and the green for my husband. My husband tried both and it turned out he preferred the flavors in the red enchiladas.  Go figure!