Shredded Beef Burritos

I stumbled across an awesome recipe the other day – I found it on Pinterest – Chile Colorado Burritos.  They looked sooo good and I just had to try them.  Try them, like, rightthisveryminute.  So, I got to rummaging around in my freezer and pantry to see if I had the necessary ingredients.

I did – well, most of them, anyway.

The one thing I didn’t have was the enchilada sauce.  So, I decided to make that myself.  From scratch. ‘Cause that’s how I roll.  I’m impatient. I don’t want to wait for a trip to the store – I WANT IT NOW!

So that was our dinner the other night. Totally spur-of-the-moment. Totally not on my menu plan for the week.  But, oh, sooooo good.  Seriously good. So good, I’ve been thinking non-stop about when I can cook these again.  They are that good.

So, if you have a hankering for some really, really good beef burritos, give these a try.  You won’t be disappointed.  And one of the best things is it is 90% done in your slow cooker. You can set it up, go about your day, and enjoy scrumptiousness for supper that night.

And here’s my recipe, just in case you want to try your hand at making them yourself (which I strongly suggest you do)

Shredded Beef Burritos

Ingredients:

2 pounds beef stew meat
Enchilada Sauce (recipe below)
Beef Bouillon cubes (2 small or 1 large)
minced onion
minced garlic
1 can low-fat or no fat refried beans
6-7 burrito-sized flour tortillas
1-2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend

Instructions:

1. In crock pot, place your beef bouillon cubes, enchilada sauce, and stew beef.
2. Add about 1 Tbsp of dried minced onion and about 1 tsp of minced garlic.
3. Cook on low for 7-8 hours (or 4-5 on high)
4. When beef is done, fish it out of the enchilada sauce & shred in a large bowl. (save the enchilada sauce)
5. Preheat your oven to 350 and set up a burrito-making station:
   1. In a 13×9 greased dish, put about 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce and coat the bottom of the dish so that the burritos won’t stick.
   2. Warm your tortillas in the microwave for about 1 minute (wrap in a damp paper towel to help them become softer and easier to work with)
   3. Your beef, refried beans – in separate bowls and ready to go.
   4. Take one tortilla and spread about 2 Tbsp of refried beans in the middle.
   5. Top with about 2-3 Tbsp of the beef and roll your tortilla closed.
   6. Place in the 13×9 dish and continue until all of your meat and beans are used. (I didn’t use all the beans in my can, but I probably would if I did it again as they make the burritos that much better to me)
6. Once all of your burritos are ready, pour the enchilada sauce over the top, making sure you try to get some on all of the tortillas so they don’t get hard on the edges.
7. Sprinkle with the cheese and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly and melted.

You can serve this with a salad on the side, chips, salsa and sour cream. But, honestly, it’s a meal all by itself and it is so good you don’t really need anything else.  It’s very kid-friendly, too. My girls loved it.

You can use store-bought enchilada sauce if you want, but I didn’t have any so I made my own.  It’s so easy, I doubt I’ll ever buy enchilada sauce.  I also like that I can control the spices and seasoning to suit our tastes.

I based my sauce after Emeril’s on the Food Network website, but I did make some modifications (because I can!)  This was super-easy. Little Bit actually did all of the cooking for this sauce. I just did the measuring and she did the rest.

Homemade Enchilada Sauce

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp (apprx) vegetable oil (I used olive oil)
1 Tbsp flour
1/4 cup (plus more for to-taste seasoning) chili powder
2 –3 cups chicken stock
1 can (12 oz) tomato paste
~1 tsp dried oregano
~2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried minced onion
1 tsp minced garlic
pinch kosher salt

Instructions:

1. In a saucepan, heat the oili and add the flour, stirring until it is smooth.
2. Cook for 1 minute and add the chili powder, stirring and cooking for about another minute.
3. Add the chicken stock (I started with 2 cups and added more later to get the right consistency) tomato paste, cumin, minced onion, garlic and oregano.
4. Bring to a boil.  Be careful here because the boiling mixture is a little like hot lava – don’t get burned!
5. Reduce head to low and simmer for about 10-12 minutes.
6. Add more chili powder and cumin if needed.