Beef Enchiladas with Corn and Black Beans

The strange thing about this recipe is that it’s entirely my own! I didn’t borrow or steal this recipe from anyone, I just threw everything together and made a meal all on my own.

Very strange.

But fun, I think.

I’ve made beef enchiladas a million times, but when I’ve done it, it’s been a primarily ground beef and enchilada sauce mixed up, put inside flour tortillas, and topped with more sauce and a whole bunch of cheese.

It’s very tasty done this way, but the problem is that it’s very boring. I just wasn’t feeling it, but I wanted something similar, so I decided to spice it up a bit with some additions.

Here is what I used: black beans, enchilada sauce, chopped green chilis, cilantro, onion, canned corn, ground beef, Greek yogurt, Mexican-blend cheese, flour tortillas, and a bit of refried beans to serve on the side.

First step, chop up the onion.

Second step: I sautéed a half cup of chopped onion for a few minutes, then added a half cup of rinsed and drained black beans. I figured they needed to cook down a bit so that they’d be tender before I put them in the enchiladas.

Then I added a half cup of corn.

Mixed all around.

Finally, I added the whole little can of chopped green chilis and let everything cook down until tender.

Then I took the mixture out of the skillet and set it aside.

(Nazzers – recognize the bowl? Points for those who do!)

Moving on. Next, I sautéed the beef in the same skillet.

After it was browned, I drained off the grease and then added a can of enchilada sauce.

Once it was heated up, I added most of the bean/ onion/ corn/ chilis mixture back in, though not all of it because it seemed like a lot.

In retrospect, I’m not sure it was necessary to separate everything out only to recombine, but ah well. It worked out.

Last step: a spoonful of Greek yogurt. This was really the change I was most looking forward to. I have recently discovered Greek yogurt and was looking for ways to sneak it into food, making it creamy, without tipping hubby off.

All melted and mixed into the mixture, this is what it looked like.

I laid out a bunch of tortillas in a dish and carefully scooped a bit into each one of them.

When the mixture was doled out, I rolled up the tortillas.

I poured the other can of enchilada sauce on top

And finally, I topped it off with Mexican-blend cheese.

Okay, by this point, my camera’s battery light was blinking at I wasn’t able to use the screen, so I actually had to use a viewfinder. That’s not something I’ve done in years! Ha.

Anyway, I served the enchiladas with some Mexican rice and refried beans on the side, and also topped with a spoonful of Greek yogurt in place of sour cream.

Very tasty. Different. I think I should have included less chilis, since they were a little overwhelming, but otherwise I liked it a lot.

Who am I kidding? I’m just smug that I made my own recipe and that hubby liked it enough to eat the leftovers. Maybe I’m learning a thing or two about cooking.

Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas

Most days at my work involve frantically jumping from one appointment to the next, filling in any time between the cracks with attempts to do paperwork that documents everything that I do at work. Sometimes, this crazy pace will abruptly screech to a halt as I somehow manage to catch up on paperwork and not need to run anywhere for an appointment just yet.

That happened to me once this week. It was wonderful. Sitting at my cleared-off desk, my thoughts turned to what I would make for dinner when I got home. I thought about what I had in my fridge before turning to my coworker and announcing that I wanted needed to invent something with chicken breasts and cream cheese. She raised her eyebrow in bemusement and told me to knock myself out.

Challenge accepted.

I did a quick ingredients search on allrecipes and settled on this one simply because it was already in my saved recipes, meaning that I’d once looked at it and decided it was worth making. It also looked easy enough to make. Anyway, any attempts at Mexican food are received well in my home.

And it had cream cheese. Did I mention the cream cheese? It’s my favorite ingredient ever.

Add in a cup of salsa. I added the remnants of my last batch of homemade salsa, which actually ended up being exactly one cup.

Keep stirring over medium heat as the cream cheese melts and blends with the salsa.

Meanwhile, I boiled some chicken breasts. Simple enough.

I also got some pinto beans ready. Gonna be honest, there’s a less-than-ideal story about them. I’d asked hubby to pick up some pinto beans and kidney beans when he went to the grocery store a while back, since I wanted to make chili. I should have specified that I meant cans, but I didn’t, and he came back with dry beans. I’d never prepared dry beans before, so I didn’t realize how far they went. I made a whole bag of each. Since I only needed a cup or two for the chili, and since I hate throwing away food, I froze the rest. So yeah, these were reheated frozen pinto beans.

Still good, though. I tossed them in the sauce, and by then, the chicken breasts had cooled down enough to cut up, so I added them, as well.

Stir it all up. Nom nom nom.

I had assorted tortillas in the freezer, two multigrain and four regular white. Zapped them in the microwave and they were nice and soft and ready to go. One by one, put the creamy chicken filling in each one.

Then roll them up, resting them seam-side down.

And top the whole thing with shredded Mexican-blend cheese. So authentic.

Cover it with foil and bake.

Someone thought it smelled divine.

A half hour later, it looked amazing.

Top the enchiladas with sour cream and some chopped tomatoes. I also cooked up some Spanish rice to go along with it.

Hubby gave it two literal thumbs up and announced that it was the closest thing to authentic Mexican food that he’d had in a while. His feedback on food is pretty honest so I took it as a genuine compliment. He did note that the boiled chicken could have been improved upon by soaking it in marinade and grilling it, but he said it was delicious as-is and gave me a kiss.

Good enough for me.