These Cheesy Beef Enchiladas Verde are a delicious take on traditional enchiladas. Seasoned beef tossed with a creamy salsa verde enchilada sauce is stuffed into tortillas, topped with more sauce and cheese before being baked until gooey and golden. Deliciously flavorful and simple to throw together. Serves 4 in about 1 hour.
This weekend was a good one.
Friday Haileigh went to the Khalid concert with one of her best friends and Malloree had her 8th grade exit dance, so I did her hair and took way to many photos. Pat and I went to dinner and did some shopping, just the two of us – which was so much fun! Saturday we went out with our longtime friends, played some twilight golf (yes you read that correctly, I golfed) and afterwards we sat around for hours and ate and talked. It was perfect. So now that’s it’s Monday, I’m feeling rejuvenated for the week.
We also had someone out to give us an estimate on central air. Thank the lord. But of course the weather is back into the 70’s and I can cook again. Summer is typically about grilling recipes, however when the weather dips to cooler and more manageable temps, I will use my oven. Especially for these cheesy beef enchiladas verde.
Otherwise, I usually avoid the oven at all costs.
The first time I made these, my family fell in love with them. I’m sure it had something to do with all the cheese and the fact that they’re pretty darn delicious. But I already knew they like salsa verde-anything because of this tortilla casserole. So I took my recipe for lighter chicken enchiladas and swapped out the chicken for beef and chipotle for homemade salsa verde, and these easy and cheesy enchiladas were born.
The perfect dinner for any night of the week.
To make these cheesy beef enchiladas verde you will need:
- ground beef
- cumin
- chipotle powder
- yellow onion
- jalapeño
- garlic
- butter
- all-purpose flour
- low-sodium chicken broth
- salsa verde
- sour cream
- kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- tortillas
- Monterrey jack cheese
For serving:
- Sour cream
- jalapeño slices
- diced red onion
- cilantro
- queso fresco
Preheat your oven to 400℉ (or 200℃).
To start, in a large skillet cook 1 pound of ground beef until browned and no longer pink. Drain off the fat and season with 1 teaspoon of both ground cumin and chipotle powder, stirring until combined. Transfer the ground beef mixture to a medium bowl and set off to the side.
In the same skillet, add a teaspoon of olive oil and 1 cup of diced yellow onion, 1 diced jalapeño (seeds and ribs removed for less heat – optional) and 3 cloves of minced garlic.
Stir until the onion and jalapeño are soft and the onions translucent.
To the onion mixture, add in 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter, stirring until melted.
Then sprinkle in 2-1/2 tablespoons of flour, stir and cook for 2 minutes.
Continue stirring, while pouring in 1 cup of low-sodium chicken broth. Continue to stir until the sauce has thickened, about 2 minutes or so.
Add in 3/4 cup of salsa verde, 1/2 cup of sour cream and then 1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro leaves.
Stir until incorporated, taste test and season with salt to your liking.
Then add 1 cup of the creamy salsa verde enchilada sauce into the bowl with the ground beef and stir to combine.
Lightly spray a 9×13 baking dish with olive oil spray. Now spread 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce into the bottom of it.
Add a couple of spoonfuls of the saucy meat mixture onto 1 side of a soft taco size flour tortillas (I used low-carb, but any will work).
Easy.
Starting on the side with the beef, roll and place it seam-side down into the pan and repeat with the remaining tortillas and meat mixture.
Pour the remaining sauce that’s in the skillet over top of the rolled enchiladas.
Already looking and smelling amazing!
Sprinkle with 1-1/2 cups of freshly shredded Monterrey jack cheese.
Bake in your preheated 400° oven for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted.
The enchiladas are done when the cheese is lightly golden brown and the edges of the tortillas are crispy.
Serve with a drizzle of sour cream, diced red onion and/or sliced green onions, torn cilantro leaves and sliced jalapeños.
Diced avocados would be delicious too!
Enjoy! And if you give this Cheesy Beef Enchiladas Verde recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Cheesy Beef Enchiladas Verde
Ingredients
- 1 pound 95% lean ground beef
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chipotle powder
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 cup diced yellow onion
- 1 jalapeno, diced (ribs and seeds removed if less heat is desired)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2½ tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
- 3/4 cup tomatillo salsa, or salsa verde
- 1/2 cup plain nonfat Greek yogurt, or sour cream
- 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 pinch kosher salt, more or less to taste
- 8 flour tortillas, soft taco size
- 1 cups shredded monterey jack cheese, or more if preferred
Instructions
- Lightly spray a 9x13 baking pan with olive oil spray.
- In a 10 to 12-inch non-stick skillet, cook the ground beef until browned. Drain and discard the fat before seasoning with cumin and chipotle powder. Transfer the seasoned beef to a medium sized bowl and set off to the side.
- To the same skillet, add in the olive oil, onion, jalapeño and garlic. Stir until the vegetables are tender. Add in the butter and stir until melted. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes before pouring in the chicken broth. Stir until thickened, taste and season with kosher salt to your preference. Add in the sour cream, tomatillo salsa and cilantro and stir to combine.
- Measure out 1 cup of sauce and stir it into the beef. Measure out 1/2 cup of the sauce and spread it onto the bottom of the prepared pan.
- Preheat your oven to 400℉ (or 200℃).
- Place a few spoonfuls of the meat mixture onto one side of a flour tortilla. Starting on that side, roll the tortilla and place it seem side down into the baking dish. Repeat with the remaining 7 tortillas.
- Pour the remaining sauce (in the skillet) over top of the rolled tortillas and top with Monterrey jack cheese.
- Slide the pan into your preheated oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until the cheese has melted, is golden brown and the edges of the tortillas are crispy.
- Serve with your favorite toppings and enjoy!
Notes
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THANK YOU in advance for your support!
I would never in a million years have tried to tackle making my own sauce for enchiladas! But this looks so delicious, I can’t wait to try it! Thanks, Laurie!
Oh it’s so easy! I hope you enjoy the recipe, Jane!
We enjoyed this recipe very much, but wanted to let you know that some of the directions were left out of the printable version at the bottom (the part about adding salsa, sour cream, and cilantro). Thanks for your work!
Ah! Thank you, I’ll go add those in (sorry about that)! I’m glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe!
So many beautiful pictures! Love that you made your own enchilada sauce. So hard to find a good enchilada sauce these days! Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you, Billy!
This is truly the absolute best thing I have ever made. It was unbelievable. Best enchiladas ever!!
I’m so happy you liked it, Dave! Thanks for taking the time to make the recipe and leave such a stellar review 🙂
Laurie, thank you for such a FANTASTIC recipe! This is probably my husband’s favorite dish – ever. We easily make it once a month. Haha. One thing that we do as a garnish is squeeze fresh lime juice over them before we dig in.
I don’t think you understand how much this changes the game. People think I am Guy Fieri’s daughter. Thank YOU!!! You’re amazing!
Only thing I did differently is put the enchiladas in without sauce and cheese on top for about 10 min, then added it. Just for texture purposes.
HA! Best comment everrr! I love your technique, Kacie! I’ll definitely try this the next time I make these enchiladas!
Can you make ahead and freeze?
Our family loves this recipe. We make it almost weekly. We follow the recipe up until the actual enchiladas, we just turn them into tacos or we just take the beef mixture and add lime rice and eat that as is. Its very good. We have also tried it by substituting beef for ground chicken. It came out fantastic!
That’s SO great to hear, Dave! I’m definitely going to try it with ground chicken next time.
These look amazing! Eating very soon!
BTW what kind of pan did you use for the enchiladas?
Have a great day
The salsa verde recipe was so much better than store bought. This whole thing came together so well and was delicious.
That’s so nice of you to say! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe, Erin!
Can this be frozen and reheated later on,
I am preparing frozen meals for when I go out for surgery this April 2021
Me and my husband loves this recipe, and he is picky, it does take time to make but worth it.
I’m giving it a go but as true enchiladas with cooked corn tortillas. And I roasted/charred the jalapeno in a hot dry skillet then placed it in a paper bag for several minutes before peeling it.
Btw, your recipe is actually smothered burritos, not true enchiladas.
I hate ordering enchiladas when I eat out & they bring me smothered burritos instead. I typically send them back because I don’t like them.
My 18 year east India daughter gave me surprise made these enchiladas!!! loved them with great efforts by her !!thnx simply scratch❤️❤️
This was easy and delicious! I made homemade salsa verde over the summer and it was a little bland so this let me use it and spice it up! Thank you! This is a keeper for our dinner rotation for busy weeknights!