There is only one word to describe these Beef Enchiladas and it’s “WOW!” These amazing Beef Enchiladas Verde are made with ground beef, tomatillos, jalapeno peppers, and cheese and baked in creamy tomatillo sauce.
If you love enchiladas as much as we do, you should try our Beef Enchiladas, Chicken Enchiladas, and Enchiladas Verdes.
Amazing Beef Enchiladas
Let me just say that again…these enchiladas are amazing!!
I know that I say it about a lot of my recipes, but out of all the different enchiladas I’ve made, these are my favorite! I’m sure that the next ones I come up with, I’ll love even more though. That’s the creative process for ya, next best recipe is just around the corner.
I’m not lying though, these enchiladas are worth staying home for dinner and a movie…over Harry Potter world apparently. This is not an off-the-wall comparison, I promise. One of my close friends was coming over for our usual dinner and a movie girls night and she ended up blowing me off at the last minute because she got invited to Harry Potter world.
I joked with her that I was making these enchiladas and she will be sorry because they are better that the Harry Potter world. The following week, I made them for her again and she did agree with me, while licking her plate clean!
I do want to mention that you don’t have to use an immersion blender, like I mention in the recipe. I love mine and it is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets, so I use it all the time. But, if you don’t have one, don’t fret! Just quickly pulse veggies in the blender and add heavy cream and sour cream there. Return sauce mixture to the pot and heat through for a few minutes. Easy as that!
Storing and Reheating
You can easily store leftover enchiladas in the same casserole dish you baked it or transfer into an air-tight food storage container. Make sure to cover the casserole dish either with plastic wrap or with a lid that fits the dish to make it air-tight. Store in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
To reheat enchiladas, you can either reheat it individually in a microwave or you can reheat it in the same casserole dish in the oven. To reheat it in the oven, take plastic wrap or a lid off the dish and cover the top of the casserole dish with foil. Place a cold casserole dish with enchiladas into the oven so that the cold dish gradually heat up as the oven heats up.
Reheat enchiladas at 350° just until hot in the middle, for about 15-20 minutes.
Make It Ahead Instructions:
Enchiladas are actually a pretty good dish to make ahead of time. You can follow the recipe all the way to the baking step but instead of baking, cover the dish with plastic wrap (or a fitted lid) and refrigerate until ready to bake. When ready to bake, take the dish out of the fridge and discard plastic wrap.
Let the dish sit on the counter for about 30 minutes and while the oven is pre-heating. Bake at 350° for 20-25 minutes.
Beef Enchiladas Verde
Ingredients
Meat Filling:
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 lb ground beef 85/15 or 90/10
- 1/2 medium yellow onion diced
- 2 large tomatillos diced
- 1 large jalapeno seeded and diced
- 2-4 garlic cloves minced
- 1/4-1/2 tsp red pepper flakes to taste
- 1/2-1 tsp chipotle chili powder to taste
- 1 tsp cumin
- Salt to taste
Creamy Tomatillo Sauce:
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 large tomatillos diced
- 1 jalapeno seeded and diced
- 1/2 medium yellow onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves chopped
- 2/3 cup heavy whipping cream
- 2 Tbsp sour cream
- 1 Tbsp minced cilantro
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp chipotle chili powder
- Salt
For Enchiladas:
- 8 flour tortillas
- 1 1/2 – 2 cups Mexican shredded cheese mix
- 1/2 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
Instructions
Meat Filling:
- Heat up oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat.
- Add diced onion and saute until transparent.
- Add ground beef, breaking it up as much as you can. Cover and cook until almost done, stirring and breaking up clumps often.
- Add diced tomatillos, diced jalapeno and minced garlic. Stir well.
- Add spices, stir well and cook until vegetables are soft and meat is fully done. (Strain off the juice.)
Creamy Tomatillo Sauce:
- Heat up oil in a small sauce pot.
- Add diced tomatillos, onion, jalapeno, and garlic. Cook covered, over medium heat, until vegetables are softened. Add cilantro and spies, stir well.
- Using your immersion blender, puree all the vegetables. (Be careful of the hot splatter.)
- Stir in heavy cream and sour cream. Blend more if needed.
- Preheat oven to 350° and lightly grease a 9×13 baking dish. Spread a little bit of sauce on the bottom of the baking dish.
Assemble Enchiladas:
- Scoop some beef mixture in a tortilla and add some Mexican mix cheese on top. Roll tortilla and place it in the baking dish, seam down. Repeat with remaining tortillas, cheese and beef.
- Pour remaining sauce all over enchiladas and sprinkle Monterrey Jack cheese on top.
- Bake for about 20 minutes.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Lacey Jo says
I have easily made these 20 times. I dont’t change anything. I’ve got the recipe memorized, just came here to leave the review. Love Love Love. Thank you for this recipe.
lyuba says
Awe, thank you so much, Lacey! This is so wonderful to hear!
Desiree Campbell says
Looks yummy… Pinning!
lyuba says
Thank you, dear! 😀
Mike Hirsch says
I made a practice batch of these over the weekend, half with gluten-free tortillas and half with regular-flour tortillas. I de-seeded the jalapenos and I thought they were lacking in flavor. So I am going to use a bit more cumin, some of the seeds from the jalapenos and maybe some other spices as well.
However they were delicious. I am going to make 19 recipes of this for a group feed of college students at our church in a week. Since I can’t assemble them on the day we serve due to my “real job”, I am wondering if I should assemble and freeze or assemble as normal but don’t heat up. Any thoughts about the best way to do them ahead?
lyuba says
I’m glad to hear that they came out delicious! If you want more heat from the jalapenos, there is a little trick. Pick out jalapenos that have lots of lines on the skin. You can see when a jalapeno skin is all smooth on the outside or those that have lots of lines on them. The more lines on the skin, the spicier jalapeno tends to be. Of course, you can keep the seeds and membranes for additional heat.
Thank you, Mike! I hope everyone will be happy 🙂
Mike Hirsch says
Yesterday evening I served the 19 batches I had mentioned I was going to make. They turned out absolutely fabulous. They definitely packed the right amount of heat without being overpowering. I used fairly small tortillas so we made almost 200 enchiladas, including one pan with gluten-free tortillas. Everyone loved them. I will definitely do these again but probably not for a large crowd. I didn’t want to assemble them ahead so even though I had all the ingredients prepared, I didn’t assemble until yesterday afternoon. It took about 6 man-hours to assemble them all (3 people for 2 hours). The sauce was a little whiter than your pictures. One thing I struggled with is what is the size of a typical tomatillo. Wal-Mart is where I purchased them. And they varied quite a bit in size. I actually had to buy them in three trips to get enough. I think the sauce had the right flavor though. It was fabulous.
Sally says
Hello from Down Under,
This is the forth time I have made this recipe. Love it. But more importantly my husband Loves IT. He requested this for his Birthday dinner. Thank you
Lyuba says
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you so much, Sally!
Liz says
Love all these recipes. Thank you Lyuba and have a great week.
Lyuba says
Thank you so much, Liz, it means a lot! I hope you have a great week yourself. 🙂
Sally says
Hey Lyuba,
Good day from Australia. I have made your recipe for Beef Enchiladas three times. I love them but more importantly my husband LOVES them. I thank you and so does Shaun.
Sally
QLD, Australia
Lyuba says
Thank you, Sally! That’s always great to hear 🙂
Liz says
Love all your recipes Lyuba. Thank you and have a great weekend.
lyuba says
Awe, thank you, Liz!
Heather says
I just made these for my family and we were blown away with how good they were. I was afraid that they were going to be too hot with all the peppers but they were full of flavor without beings too spicy. I will be making these again soon – thanks for the recipe!
lyuba says
I’m so happy to hear that!! So glad everyone liked them 🙂
Thank you, Heather!
Julia@Vikalinka says
Lyuba, this looks so good. My kids have been asking for enchiladas for ever and I am so making this recipe!
Mary says
Thanks for the recipe but I would use corn tortillas instead of flour.
lyuba says
Thank you, Mary!
Personally, for my recipe, I don’t recommend using corn tortillas because they have such strong flavor. But of course, it’s a your preference and if you like those better, you can use corn.
Pen Hayes says
I would, too. My fave Tex-Mex restaurant always uses corn tortillas for their green beef enchiladas. Can’t wait to try this recipe.
Lyuba says
Thank you, Pen! I’d love to hear how it went!
Joanna says
I made these enchiladas last night and they are seriously delicious! My husband told me that these are the best enchiladas we have ever made! The tomatillo sauce is what really makes this dish stand out. The only thing I will do differently next time (because there will be a next time) is buy higher quality tortillas.
lyuba says
YAY! I love hearing that, Joanna 🙂
Sorry for a late response, I must have missed this comment.
Thank you!
Julie | This Gal Cooks says
Being the Mexican-foodaholic that I am, I want to jump into a bucket of these. They look great, Lyuba!
lyuba says
Hope you get a change to try it! Thank you, Julie!
Nikalette says
These were fantastic! I usually don’t care too much for enchiladas but they’re one of my hubby’s favs so I make them often. This is by FAR my favorite recipe. I did up the amount of Chipotle powder and cumin just because that’s our preference and decided to add some pinto beans in the meat mixture just so I didn’t have to make a side lol but they turned out SO GOOD! Also added some olives on top. Even my picky 5 and 2 year old loved them. Thank you so much, I will be making these again and again!