Enchilada Casserole, layered with crushed tortilla chips, cheddar cheese, and a sauce of ground beef, onion and garlic, cream soups, green chilies and enchilada sauce.
Ground Beef Tortilla Enchilada Casserole
I would imagine there must be a thousand different ways to make this Tex-Mex style casserole that uses tortilla chips instead of corn or flour tortillas, and I've tried quite a few of the variations myself. This recipe was shared by one of our readers Cindy, who gave me permission to share it on our recipe sharing Facebook page. Cindy's version of this popular casserole was the best tasting of all that I have tried.
Tortilla chips are one of my snacking indulgences, so I always seem to have the tail end of bags of them in the house. You know the ones with the broken chips in the bottom of the bag that aren't quite large enough to use for dipping, but that you also just hate to throw away?
This casserole is perfect for those. I usually have plain around so that's what I used, but a lot of folks like this with the flavored varieties of Doritos, especially the nacho cheese. If you've got some tortilla chips leftover yourself, this is certainly a great way to use them up.
Just a quick reminder.... if you aren't interested in the chit chat, info, photos, tips and such on a blog, as always, you'll find the complete recipe text with measurements and instructions, as well as a printable document, a little bit further down the page. Just swipe or scroll down to the bottom of the post!As I have mentioned before, I generally recommend shredding your own cheese off of the block. Pre-shredded cheeses are convenient to buy and they are great for topping, garnishing, or adding as a finish, but for cooking, I prefer using block cheese and shredding it myself.
My Ninja (#ad), which I keep right on my kitchen counter, does a great job of shredding cheese in literally seconds, so I really don't have to haul out the big Kitchen Aid (#ad) anymore, unless I'm shredding a large amount. The Ninja also isn't quite as annoying to clean either.
The reason I prefer block cheese in cooking is that the pre-shredded cheeses contains fillers, stabilizers and other non-cheese stuff such as starch, that help to keep the cheese from sticking together and clumping. Unfortunately those additives also remove moisture and dehydrate the cheese, affecting the creaminess in your dish as well as how smooth and evenly it melts when heated. If you've had a mac and cheese that didn't have the results you wanted and you used pre-shredded cheese, that's why.
I do keep a variety of block cheeses on hand and the best way to keep them fresh is with some kind of vacuum sealer. You'd be surprised how much better you can store certain foods with one, and there are a wide variety of them available today from the larger, but compact (#ad) models, to the handheld (#ad) versions, which because of space constrictions in my tiny, galley style kitchen, is what I use personally. It's one of my favorite gadgets!
To keep things easy, I picked up a can of mild enchilada sauce when I planned to make this, however, my homemade red sauce that I shared recently on the Pintos and Cheese Dip, would work here as well. The casserole has a nice light bite to it, though not overwhelming, but could certainly take even more heat for those of you who really love to spice things up.
By the way, the serving pictured above was cooled, sliced and reheated. As with most layered casseroles such as this, that's about the only way to get a nice, blog-worthy photograph, but if you're just planning to sit down and eat, you don't need to worry about perfect squares. Just portion it out and serve!
Cindy tells me that this recipe was shared with her family by a fellow church member many years ago. Aren't those always the best recipes? It sure is good and I hope you enjoy it as much as we have! Here's how to make it.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 13 inch baking dish; set aside. Melt the butter in a large skillet; add onion and cook until softened. Add ground beef and cook until browned; drain off any excess grease. Add garlic; cook and stir for 3 minutes.
Add the soups, undrained green chilies, enchilada sauce and milk. Mix well and heat until bubbly.
Your sauce is done! Taste and check for seasonings as needed.
Layer half of the crushed chips in the bottom of the prepared baking dish and spoon over half of the sauce (about 3 cups).
Add half of the cheese, then repeat the layers. Cover and bake at 350 for 40 minutes, remove, uncover and let casserole rest for 5 minutes.
For more of my favorite Tex-Mex recipes, visit my page on Pinterest!
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