Beef Enchiladas

I love this recipe. If I could eat these every night, I would. Of course, I probably say that about a lot of things, but trust me, these are delicious. I think the thing I love most about these is that you make the enchilada sauce. It's not something you just get out of a can and pour over the top of the enchiladas. Not saying anything is wrong with that, but I like being able to control the flavoring. Must be a control issue......Anywho, onto the recipe!

Ingredients

• 1 lb lean (at least 80%) ground beef
• 1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (4 oz)
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 can (4.5 oz) chopped green chiles, drained
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
• 8 corn tortillas (5 or 6 inches)
• Shredded cheese, sour cream, and chopped onions, if desired (for topping)

Directions

• Heat oven to 350°F 
• In 10-inch skillet, cook beef over medium heat 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until brown; drain. Stir in onion, sour cream, 1 cup cheese, the parsley and pepper. Cover and remove from heat.
• In 2-quart saucepan, heat bell pepper, water, chili powder, oregano, cumin, chiles, garlic and tomato sauce to boiling, stirring occasionally; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered 5 minutes. Pour into ungreased 9-inch pie plate.
• Dip each tortilla into sauce in pie plate to coat both sides. Spoon about 1/4 cup beef mixture onto each tortilla; roll tortilla around filling. Place seam side down in ungreased 11x7-inch glass baking dish. Pour remaining suace over enchiladas.
• Bake uncovered about 20 minutes or until bubbly. Garnish with shredded cheese, sour cream, and chopped onion.

My Take

Okay, so if you read my Cafe Strawn blog, then you'll know Dylan and I are extremely picky eaters. So, how do I even stand to look at this recipe with all the onions and peppers and chiles? Simple, I don't use them! And honestly, it turns out perfectly for us. I'm sure that if you liked those kinds of things then it would still work great for you, but honestly, we wouldn't eat it, so no point in making something we wouldn't eat!

I've made these things about 3 times and this last time I doubled the sauce part, as when I got to the part where you pour the remaining sauce over the enchiladas, I barely had anything left and they turned out a bit too dry for my tastes. But now this time, it seemed I had too much sauce, as the enchiladas didn't crisp up as much as I would have liked them to. I think I'll have to tinker with it a bit more to find the balance that I like texture-wise.

One final thing that I tweaked about this recipe was that I put cheese on top of the enchiladas about 5 minutes before they were done cooking. Gotta have my cheese!

So there ya have it, a beef enchilada recipe where you get to make your own enchilada sauce. If you find yourself making this in the future, comment and lemme know how it turned out. Let me know of any changes that you made and what worked and what didn't work.

Happy Cooking! :)