Enchiladas with White Sauce
For the most part, I don’t cook a lot of “kid foods.” I can’t stand Mac n Cheese or Ramen Noodles; I’m not a fan of tomato soup, and I’m not sure my oven has seen a chicken nugget in six years. Don’t get me wrong, our eleven year old makes those first three meals on a regular basis for her and her younger siblings, so they aren’t deprived, it’s just not what I like to make.
That said, we do have taco night almost every single week, and it is one of the kid’s most celebrated dinner nights. Personally, I get a little tired of eating the same thing every week, but there’s no denying how easy it is to throw together a little Cilantro-Lime Rice, some ground beef, tomato sauce and homemade taco seasoning and the roundup of toppings.
While this may make my kids happy, I find there needs to be some balance in place to keep Matt and me from going crazy. That’s why a little while back, I decided to change it up and to serve our tacos in more of an enchilada style. (Little did I know it would be the last time I could eat them as is, since a week later I would start my gluten-free journey. I’ve now realized that if I want to feel human, it’s going to be gluten-free for life…so please, eat these and enjoy them on my behalf.)
With the exception of the white sauce, these go together pretty much the same as taco night, you just roll things up and throw them in the oven first. Life was made a little easier for me by the fact that I had a quart size bag of taco meat chilling in the freezer and quite a bit of leftover white rice in the fridge from our Asian night earlier that week.
It was as simple as mixing the meat, rice, and some cheese up in a bowl, then filling and rolling tortillas and setting the side by side in baking pans lined with PAM.
The white sauce was super simple. I started with a standard roux, through a can of green chilies into the mix and poured it on top before adding more cheese and baking them.
Where my enchiladas differ from most people is in how I top them. I serve them at the table with a little salsa on top, but I put out all the standard toppings I use for tacos. You’ll pretty much always find chopped olives, diced tomato, green or red onion, sweet corn, guacamole, greek yogurt, and shredded lettuce. Ariel makes fun of me because my enchiladas vanish underneath all my toppings, but wow does it taste amazing that way. There’s just something about a tortilla baked in all that white sauce that makes it taste a million times better.
This recipe is also a great follow-up to a taco night that may have happened earlier in the week, or to use as a freezer meal. You can freeze these before you add the white sauce. Just thaw in your fridge overnight and add the sauce before throwing them in the oven.
- 12-16 8” flour tortillas (corn if you are Gluten-Free)
- 1 pound of ground beef
- 4oz tomato sauce
- 1 packet taco seasoning (tip: make it yourself, I promise, it’s easy!)
- 3 cups cooked white or brown rice
- 2 cups shredded cheddar or Mexican cheese, plus 1-2 additional cups as topping.
- 3T Flour (can sub in a 1 for 1 Gluten Free Blend)
- 3T butter
- 2 c chicken broth
- 4oz can green chilis
- 1 c plain greek yogurt or sour cream
- Brown ground beef in a skillet over medium-high heat, then add tomato sauce and taco seasoning. Cook until meat is no longer pink.
- Mix taco meat, rice, and shredded cheese in a large bowl, stirring to combine.
- Spoon meat evenly onto tortillas, rolling and placing side by side into a greased baking pan. I generally use one 9x13 and one 8x8 pan for this recipe.
- In a two-quart sauce pan, melt butter, then add flour and stir to combine to form a roux. Cook mixture for 1-2 minutes over medium-high heat.
- Add chicken broth, whisking to combine. Bring mixture to a slow boil.
- Allow to boil for one minute, then remove from heat, stirring in greek yogurt and drained chilis.
- Pour sauce evenly over enchiladas.
- Top with additional shredded cheese as desired.
- Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.
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