You had me at pepper jack cheese – yes, my friends these cheesy beef and pepper jack enchiladas are as suuuper ooey gooey and delicious as their name suggests. But what’s even more exciting is that I’ve lightened up my recipe by using extra lean ground beef – I suggest 96% lean. I do keep the cheese full fat, because cheese is life and it carries so much flavor and texture in this dish. I also swapped out traditional flour tortillas for lower calorie and higher fiber ones by Ole Extreme Wellness.
Feel free to use any jarred enchilada sauce or check out my recipe for homemade enchilada sauce made with things you likely have in your pantry.
Cheesy Beef and Pepper Jack Enchiladas
Course: Dinner, MainDifficulty: Easy10
servings25
minutes25
minutesIngredients
2 pounds extra lean ground beef (I use 96/4)
8 ounces pepper jack cheese shredded (about 2 cups)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon seasoned salt (I use Adobo)
1-3 Tablespoons chopped jarred jalapeno slices (use more for more heat)
4 cups enchilada sauce – When not making my homemade enchilada sauce, I like to use a combination of Old El Paso mild red and mild green sauces. (This is about 3 (10 ounce cans)
10 medium flour tortillas (I use Ole Extreme Wellness)
Directions
- Make the filling
- Brown ground beef in batches until all meat is cooked though. Add cooked beef to a large bowl.
- Add 1/2 of the shredded pepper jack cheese, about 1 cup to the bowl.
- Add chopped jalapenos. I only used 1 Tablespoon so that my kids would still eat it, but you can add up to 3 Tablespoons.
- Add in 1.5 cups enchilada sauce.
- Mix the beef filling mixture well and set aside.
- Roll Enchiladas
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- This recipe makes 10 enchiladas, you can make 6 enchiladas in one 9×13 baking dish and 4 enchiladas in an 8×8 baking dish. Or do 5 enchiladas in each of 2, 8×8 baking dishes. It’s up to you!
- Add enough enchilada sauce to the bottom of your baking dishes to lightly cover. Reserve the remaining sauce.
- Place 1/3 cup of beef mixture in the middle of each tortilla, sprinkle with about 1 Tablespoon of shredded pepper jack cheese and roll up tightly. Place rolled enchilada seam side down into the prepared baking dishes.
- Repeat with remaining filling and tortillas, until all enchiladas are rolled.
- Spread the rest of the enchilada sauce over the top of the rolled enchiladas and sprinkled with any additional pepper jack cheese you have left. You can also top with more pepper jack or any other shredded cheese.
- Place baking dishes into preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cheese on top is nicely melted and begins to brown.
- Serve topped with avocado, sour cream and more jalapeno slices.
Recipe Video
Notes
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Until next time!