I make these beef enchiladas with my leftover meat from Tyler Florence’s Pot Roast Taco recipe. If you are not using that recipe, any shredded beef will do. They sell it in the refrigerated section or I am sure you could find an easy crockpot version. I just like using up my leftovers.

My husband raves about these. We all enjoy them. But at this point, both of my children are in braces. This is kind of a hard meal for them to eat. I cannot wait until I no longer have to worry about brackets. Popcorn, here we come!

This recipe makes 16 beef enchiladas. It really depends on how much meat you have left over from your tacos. Sometimes I only can make a dozen. It is the same sauce as my cheese enchilada recipe.

You will need:

2 11 x 7 pans to cook enchiladas in. Distribute 8 into each pan.
Sauce pan
One skillet
Blender

Ingredients:

Shredded Beef made from Tyler Florence’s Pot Roast Tacos
4 dried ancho chile peppers
1 tsp. ground Mexican oregano
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 Tbsp. chili powder
2 cloves diced garlic (or one heaping teaspoon from a jar)
1 tsp. chicken base
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 small can of tomato paste
4 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
2 cups shredded cheese
16 corn tortillas
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Optional toppings:

Sour cream
Chopped cilantro

Optional sides:

Mexican rice
Refried beans

For this recipe, I adapted an Adobe recipe of Zarela’s (I recommend watching her video. It taught me a lot) and added a couple of items to make an enchilada sauce.

First, Rinse your dried ancho chiles. Cook the dried ancho chile peppers for about ten seconds each side in a skillet.

Remove. Break off top and shake out the seeds.

Soak chiles in a bowl for twenty five minutes.

Remove chiles. Add to blender with oregano, garlic, chicken stock, chili powder, cumin, chicken base, & salt. Blend until smooth.

In a large saucepan, melt butter. Add flour. Stir to combine, until it is, as Zarela says, “the color of a cockroach.” Which might be my very favorite cooking tip ever!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add blended ingredients to butter and flour mixture. Carefully, this will splatter! Stir. Add tomato sauce. Stir until smooth. Let simmer on low heat ten minutes.

While sauce is simmering, heat vegetable oil in skillet. Add tortillas, one at a time. Fry quickly on each side until just beginning to bubble. About ten seconds each side. Remove to paper towel covered plate. For every four you fry, place two more paper towels on top.

When all tortillas are fried. Turn off heat. (Be very careful with hot oil! Do not pour down sink! This will ruin your sink! Let cool completely and discard.) Turn off heat to enchilada sauce.

Pour a little enchilada sauce in pan you are cooking the enchiladas in, to coat it. Take a tortilla and fill with shredded beef. Roll. Place seam side down in pan. Repeat 7 more times until pan is full.

Repeat the step above with another pan.

Pour sauce equally over Enchiladas in both pans. Distribute cheese equally over enchiladas.

Cover with foil and bake for fifteen-twenty minutes. Remove foil. Bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove pans. Turn off oven.

Serve with toppings and optional sides.

Enjoy!