Beef Enchilada Recipe

Let me preface this by saying, in no ways am I intending to make this into a "food blog".  I follow several different ones and cook from them shamelessly and would never attempt to assume I am anyway near that talented in the kitchen. However, in the spirit of my New Year's Resolutions I am attempting to get more creative and try new recipes.  I'm actually off work for the next few days, so I am cooking brand new recipes each night.  Mostly things I've eaten before, but never made myself or am trying in a new way.  Full disclosure: Tuesday and Wednesday night I'm totally ripping off  Food Network recipes but I'm pretty pleased to say that tonight was all me.  I love cooking Mexican food and have done tons of different vegetarian versions but haven't experimented that much with meat.  I have to say though that tonight's beef enchiladas were a HUGE success.  I'm sharing the recipe below.  Again, remember this is not a food blog so my pictures aren't anything spectacular and occasionally I estimate quantities because I hate to measure.  The important thing with this is to make it your own.  Make it more spicy, less spicy, cheesier, whatever.  I'm a big believer in adapting every recipe I try to make it uniquely mine and I encourage you to do the same.  That being said, I hope you enjoy!

Beef Enchiladas (Makes 10-12 enchiladas)

1 lb lean ground beef
1 small onion
2 cloves garlic
28-oz. can enchilada sauce (mild)
2 cups Mexican blend cheese
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
12 small corn tortillas
Garnish of your choice (I used jalapenos but if you like olives they would work well too!)

Everything you'll need...cheap and easy, right?



Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  While your oven is preheating, get a frying pan warming on the stove under medium heat.  Dice your onion and garlic and thrown them in the pan.  Give them a minute or two head start and then add your ground beef.  I use a potato masher to break mine up really well but a wooden spoon would work just as well.  Season everything with the cayenne, cumin, salt, and pepper. 
Once your meat is browned and your garlic and onions are soft, drain the fat from the pan and taste to make sure you're happy with the seasoning level.

Use a large glass baking dish (13x9 works great!) and put two ladles of enchilada sauce in the bottom to cover.  Don't worry about greasing the dish--the sauce should allow for everything to scoop out cleanly in the end.  Line up your beef filling, cheese, and tortillas in an assembly line so you can put everything right into the baking dish.  Based on the size of your tortillas, you'll want a couple of tablespoons of filling in each one and a sprinkling of cheese.  This is very important: DO NOT overfill your tortillas or you will never get them rolled close.  Corn tortillas are a little finicky and some of them will undoubtedly crack after you put them in the dish.  If you're as obsessive compulsive as I am, this will drive you crazy.  If it's really going to bother you, you can use flour tortillas but the flavor is nowhere near as good.  I'm willing to breathe through my issues with presentation to have a better tasting final product.

Once you have all of you enchiladas stuffed into the baking dish (and it will be a tight fit--that's okay it helps them stay closed!), put another 2-3 ladles of enchilada sauce over the top until everything is covered.  Sprinkle with whatever cheese you have remaining and garnish with whatever you would like.  Olives are more traditional but they gross me out, so I used jalapenos which I love.  It's up to you.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake in your preheated over for 20 minutes.  Then remove the foil and cook for another 5 minutes to let your cheese get all nice and gooey.

Delicious, right? This picture doesn't even begin to do justice!

I hope you enjoy these as much as I did.  They were a great kickoff to my week of cooking and I'm pretty pleased with coming up with it!  I think I've proved to myself that I need to be more brave about taking what I know and building recipes from there.  I'm really pleased with this Resolution most of all I think...definitely one of the best ones I've come up with yet!