Beef and Sweet Potato Enchiladas

These hearty beef and sweet potato enchiladas are ready to serve in less than an hour! A few key shortcuts make these easy enchiladas doable on a weeknight or make them a day ahead to bake for dinner later. Topped with lots of cheese and sauce these enchiladas are a cozy and comforting dinner.

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There’s a lot of great reasons to have a few enchilada recipes up your sleeve:

• The flavor combinations are endless as evidenced by the gazillion enchilada recipes floating around. So many combinations, in fact, you could probably have enchiladas for dinner every night for a long, long time and never have the same ones twice.
• They can be as complicated or as simple as you like. These days, I tend to favor the simple end of the spectrum and look for shortcuts – like I used in these sweet potato enchiladas I’m sharing today – but more about that in a second.
• Depending on the recipe, homemade enchiladas are often a smart make-ahead dinner. Make the filling, assemble the enchiladas and pop them in the fridge up to a day in advance when you’re higher-risk for going out for enchiladas instead of making them at home on a Monday night.
• And they rank high on the comfort-food gauge. Cheese, savory fillings, and more cheese go a long way to take the edge off a long day.

This is all to say I have another enchilada recipe for you today. Beef and sweet potato enchiladas to be specific. With a quick 15 minute filling, and even quicker wrap and roll assembly operation, these hearty beef and potato enchiladas are ready to serve in under an hour. Most of that time, by the way, is oven time otherwise known as hands-off time.

Beef and Sweet Potato Enchilada Filling

It starts with the beef and sweet potato enchilada filling:

• Ground beef
• Chili seasoning
• Frozen diced sweet potatoes
• Salt, pepper, and dried oregano
• Fresh cilantro and lime juice

I used frozen sweet potatoes because it’s just too easy. They cook a lot faster than fresh and you get to skip the whole wash, peel, and dice part which saves time.

Chili seasoning is a mix of different spices, which also makes this easy. No need to tear apart your spice cabinet looking for ten different spices. Use your favorite brand (I like Chugwater Chili Gourmet Chili Seasoning Blend) or you can also use your favorite taco seasoning, too.

• It starts with the beef in a skillet and, once it’s about half-way cooked, you can add the chili seasoning, sweet potatoes and other spices.
• Cook it all together until the sweet potatoes are tender. Add the cilantro and lime juice right at the end and the filling is done.

How to Assemble Enchiladas

To assemble the enchiladas you’ll need the filling, corn tortillas, store-bought or homemade enchilada sauce, and shredded cheese (I use a combo of cheddar and Monterey jack cheese).

You definitely want to warm up your tortillas beforehand so they don’t crack and break while you’re rolling them. I just spread them out in a (mostly) even layer on a baking sheet and warm them up in the oven for a few minutes. Or, you can nuke them in the microwave, too.

• Spread some enchilada sauce in the bottom of your baking dish. Just enough to coat the bottom is enough.
• Scoop some filling onto a warmed tortilla, roll and place it in the baking dish. This recipe makes enough for 12 enchiladas.
• Top the enchiladas with the rest of the sauce and all of the shredded cheese.

That’s it – they’re ready to go in the oven.

Cover the baking dish with foil and pop them in the oven. I like to bake them for about 15 minutes at 350°F while they’re covered and then uncover them and bake them for 10 minutes more.

Rest the enchiladas for a couple of minutes before you serve them. I like to squeeze fresh lime juice and a sprinkling of chopped cilantro over the top for garnish.

You can, of course, top yours with your favorite enchilada toppings like guacamole or sliced avocado, sour cream, and salsa. Maybe make a batch of margarita wine spritzers, too?

Tips for Making Beef and Sweet Potato Enchiladas Ahead

You can make these enchiladas up to a day in advance:

• Make the filling and assemble the enchiladas.
• Tightly cover them with plastic wrap and keep them in the fridge until you’re ready to bake them.
• When you’re ready to bake them remove the plastic wrap and cover them with foil.
• You can take them out of the fridge about 30 minutes ahead to take the chill off them and bake them for the recommended time. Or, you can bake them straight from the refrigerator but you will need to add 10 minutes or so to the bake time.

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Happy cooking!

More Delicious Enchilada Recipes

Love enchiladas? Here are three more of my favorite recipes if you’re looking for more ideas ❤

• Creamy Poblano Chicken Enchiladas | Chicken enchiladas topped with a creamy sauce flavored with fresh poblano peppers and cilantro.
• Black Bean Enchilada Pie | Instead of rolling up the filling the tortillas are stacked in a dish with the black bean filling layered in between.
• Chicken Enchiladas with Slow Cooker Salsa Verde | The homemade salsa verde and chicken cook together in the slow cooker so all you have to do at dinner time is assemble the enchiladas and bake them.
• These Skillet Enchiladas I found on Leite’s Culinaria look delicious, too!

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The nutrition information in this recipe is an estimate only and was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.