13 Mistakes You're Making With Beef Enchiladas

Chewy is not the word that should come to mind when you're thinking about beef enchiladas. You should be indulging in a tender, juicy pocket of beefy goodness that falls apart with the touch of a fork, which is why you need to be careful not to overcook the beef in your enchiladas.

The muscle fibers in a piece of beef are composed of a mixture of protein and fat, and the reason your steak is so chewy when you overcook it is that the fat melts out of the muscle and takes the moisture with it. Instead of having a nice piece of steak that melts in your mouth, you've got to chew for what feels like an eternity. If you accidentally overcook your beef, don't worry, not all is lost. A simple method to save overcooked meat is to chop it up into little bits and mix a bit of oil in to replenish some of the fat that was lost when the meat was overcooked. To mask your meaty indiscretion further, cover your enchiladas with guacamole and sour cream for added moisture — your dinner guests will be none the wiser.

Don't get us wrong — there are plenty of great things about canned enchilada sauce. It's cheap, convenient, and provides the smoky, savory flavor that enchiladas are known for. Although it may be more labor-intensive, there is no substitute for using fresh ingredients to make your own enchilada sauce. Especially when it comes to making beef enchiladas, making your sauce from scratch allows you to customize the flavor to create a sauce that stands up to the savory flavors of beef.

Because canned enchilada sauce is so commonly used, you may not even know what's inside or how you would go about making it yourself. Homemade red enchilada sauce starts with dried guajillo and ancho chiles, which you can buy at most Mexican grocery stores. Once they're softened up with some boiling water, brown onions and garlic in a pan and blend them with the chiles, canned tomatoes, chicken broth, spices, salt, vinegar, and honey until you reach that rich consistency and deep red color. It may take a bit of extra effort, but cooking from scratch allows you to avoid processed ingredients, preservatives, and sweeteners, and it always tastes better. If you don't have time to make your own sauce, you can also amplify canned enchilada sauce by sauteing some fresh garlic, onion, and peppers and mixing them into your sauce for some added flavor.

When you serve enchiladas, you should be able to lift each rolled-up tortilla out of the dish as a single unit, for both presentation and taste (the tortilla is a separate flavor element meant to be eaten as such). The juices from the beef on the inside and the smothering embrace of enchilada sauce on the outside of each tortilla can easily make it soggy and threaten its structural integrity. But at the same time, the tortillas need to be pliable enough to roll up and snuggle next to one another in the baking dish. Cold tortillas are brittle and crack easily, so you'll have to preheat them before filling them with beef.

If you quickly fry each tortilla in hot oil, it creates a barrier between the tortilla dough and the liquids, which makes it less likely to get soggy in the oven. Right after you fry each tortilla, put it on a paper towel to get rid of excess grease and then quickly dip it in enchilada sauce so that it becomes just soft enough to roll your beef into without cracking and falling apart.

When you look at a plate of beef enchiladas, each roll should be neatly tucked next to its neighbor in an aesthetically pleasing little lineup. You should be able to easily lift each enchilada out of the pan and plate it as a single unit, not a soppy mess where you can't tell where one enchilada ends and the next begins, which is why it's crucial not to fill your enchiladas with too much beef.

Put in just enough beef to where you can comfortably close the tortilla so that it looks like a taquito with just a bit of beef visible on either end. A good rule of thumb if you're using corn tortillas, ones the size of your hand, is to use about 2 tablespoons of filling per enchilada. Before they go in the oven, place your enchiladas in your baking pan with the "seam" side of the enchilada facing down. If your enchilada is overfilled, the filling will fall out of either end of it and you'll know you need to take some beef out and distribute it to another enchilada. A loaded beef enchilada is perfectly plump and can hold its own, but an overloaded enchilada is not a recipe for success.

Once your enchiladas are out of the oven, you may think it's time to just go ahead and dig in, but you're missing a crucial step. If you've ever eaten at a Mexican restaurant, you know that the cuisine does not go light on the garnishes. A taco alone often comes with cilantro, lime, red onions, lettuce, and even pineapple. And although the bulk of the work of making beef enchiladas is over once they're sitting there steaming on your countertop, finishing the dish with a few carefully selected garnishes will take your beef enchiladas to the next level.

One common garnish is pickled red onions, which are super easy to make at home and lend your enchiladas a bold, acidic bite that cuts through the fatty flavors of the beef. Fresh cilantro not only gives enchiladas a beautiful splash of green color, but an herbaceous, slightly citrusy flavor that adds freshness and a characteristic Mexican flavor. A squeeze of lime juice can also brighten up the heavier beef notes and rounds your enchiladas out with a zing of flavor.

Enchiladas should be enjoyed nice and hot, but plopping a few dollops of sour cream on top is a great way to cool it down while adding some flavors that elevate the overall dish. A scoop of cold or room-temperature sour cream tones down the heat in more ways than one, since sour cream is helpful for reducing the spice factor of a dish. Although sour cream is the traditional choice, you can also use yogurt, which has a lower fat content than sour cream but adds the same tartness, which balances out the bold flavor of beef enchiladas.

The texture of both sour cream and yogurt is rich and exactly the creamy addition your beef enchiladas need. For creamier enchiladas with a thick, bold filling, try adding yogurt or sour cream to the beef mixture itself and mixing it all together before you place it inside the tortillas.

Beef enchiladas are a labor of love. If you're making your sauce from scratch (as we recommend you do), you'll be in the kitchen for a good bit of time before your enchiladas are ready to serve, so you might as well make a whole heaping batch because they make for great leftovers. You can keep enchiladas in the fridge for three or four days and keep them in the freezer for two or three months if they're well-sealed in a container.

When you get a hankering for a spicy, beefy, cheesy plateful, there are plenty of ways to reheat leftover enchiladas so that they're as good as the day you made them. The best way is to use the oven, which heats your enchiladas evenly, but takes a while and might not be practical for single servings. If time is of the essence, you can use the microwave to reheat your beef enchiladas, though this method will usually give you a soggier result.