Easy slow cooker enchiladas! Free up your oven by letting your slow cooker do the work with this family friendly Mexican recipe.
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Cinco de Mayo is coming up which means nonstop Mexican food in my household. Not that I needed an excuse to make Mexican food, it’s one of my favorite cuisines. Fajitas, burritos, tacos, I love it all. One Mexican dish I love that I don’t make too often is enchiladas so I thought I’d switch things up here with a simple enchilada recipe. No this recipe isn’t paleo, low-carb, or whole30 but I believe there’s nothing wrong with good old comfort food every now and then. While this recipe isn’t a ‘throw it in and let it cook’ slow cooker meal (you cook the filling before rolling it up in the tortilla), this is still simple recipe with a fairly short prep time.
filling
What Are Enchiladas
Enchiladas are a Mexican dish made by filling tortilla and baking it in enchilada sauce and cheese. There are 4 main components to enchiladas: tortilla, filling, cheese, enchilada sauce. Outside of that, I like to think of enchiladas as a recipe where the sky is the limit. There are lots of different enchilada recipes out there because enchiladas can be made in many different ways. This recipe is my way of making simple enchiladas however even this recipe can be tweaked to your liking.
Slow Cooker Enchilada Filling
The filling is the fun part in my opinion. This is where you can have the most leeway. Let’s start with the meat. I kept the meat generic by saying ‘ground meat’. I used ground beef but ground chicken, pork or turkey can be used as well. But of course the meat doesn’t have to be ground. Since the meat is cooked beforehand, this is great recipe to utilize any leftover meat you might have. Leftover rotisserie chicken, leftover shredded beef roast, leftover taco meat….use what you have.
before
Don’t eat meat? Chopped portobello mushrooms are a good substitute here. Or you can use a medley of other vegetables like corn, squash, black beans, onions, peppers, etc. Outside of the meat, I kept it simple with onion, bell pepper, and diced green chiles. Other good additions that I sometimes use are black beans and corn. Some people add cheese and enchilada sauce to their enchilada filling. I like mine on the dry side (see below) so I did not however of you can!
after
Dry or Wet Enchiladas?
I like my enchiladas dry so I only use 2 cups of enchilada sauce for the entire recipe. If you want your enchiladas ‘wet’ with more sauce & cheese, you can absolutely use more. I would suggest using a 19 ounce can of enchilada sauce and 2 cups of cheese. Add the additional enchilada to the filling, to the bottom of the slow cooker before adding the tortillas or on top. Add the additional cheese inside with the filling or on top. Of course, you can use more than 2 cups of cheese. You can’t go wrong with more cheese, right?
Other Mexican recipes you might enjoy:
Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Steak Fajitas
Slow Cooker/Instant Pot Mexican Beef
How Many Tortillas to Use
8-10 tortillas. I always buy 10 even though my slow cooker fits 8. I don’t know about you but I always seem to break at least one. I don’t have a solution for not tearing the tortillas when rolling them up. I roll min fairly loose so they don’t tear too much.
Slow Cooker Enchiladas
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: Serves 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1 lb. ground meat
- 2 cups enchilada sauce
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 bell pepper, diced
- 1 tbsp taco seasoning (see blog post)
- 4 ounces diced green chiles
- 8–10 corn or flour tortillas
Instructions
- In large skillet over medium-high heat, add ground meat, onion and bell pepper. Cook a few minutes until meat is no longer pink and vegetables are soft. Drain excess grease if needed. Stir in taco seasoning and green chiles and cook a few more minutes.
- Spray slow cooker with cooking spray. Pour 1 cup of enchilada sauce into the bottom of the slow cooker.
- Spread 1/4 cup of the enchilada filling down the center of each tortilla. Wrap tortillas tightly around filling then place in the slow cooker seam side down. Top with remaining enchilada sauce. Sprinkle cheese on top.
- Cook HIGH 1-2 hours or LOW 2-4.
I topped my enchiladas with fresh cilantro & sliced jalapeño. Other suggestions include tomatoes, avocado, sour cream…what do you top your enchiladas with?
I used a 3.5-quart Crock-Pot Casserole Crock Slow Cooker for this recipe. You do not need a casserole slow cooker for this, any slow 3.5-quart slow cooker will work just fine. Double this recipe and use your 6-quart if you’re feeding a larger crowd.
Need a homemade taco seasoning? Use this:
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I’m drooling by looking at your pictures! Can’t wait to try these!