Sunday, October 15, 2006

Spicy Dutch Oven Enchiladas

In celebration of the only tortillas you should ever buy, here's my recipe for this week. We were fed these at our Labor Day celebration and they were fabulous. I've wanted a Dutch oven for some time and went out and bought one the next day. The recipe came from Byron's Dutch Oven where there are plenty more good recipes--Barbecue Pork Spare Ribs are also great (though it always tastes best when you're camping, right?)

For filling:
2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 11 oz can mexicorn, drained
1 15 oz can black beans, drained
1 c black olives, chopped
3 T fresh chopped cilantro
2 t chili powder
1 t paprika
1 t cumin, ground
salt and pepper to taste

For sauce:
1 T olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c green bell pepper, finely diced
2 14 oz cans tomato sauce
1 4 oz can green chilies, diced
2 T chili powder
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

Also:
2 pounds shredded cheddar cheese
24 10" four tortillas
3 14 oz cans of enchilada sauce

Prepare Filling: Heat a 12" Dutch oven using 20-22 briquettes bottom until hot. To oven add ground beef, onions, and garlic. Cook until beef is brown and onions are translucent. Spoon off excess grease. Stir in mexicorn, black beans, olives, cilantro, chili powder, paprika, and cumin. Salt and pepper to taste. Heat thoroughly then remove mixture from Dutch oven.

Prepare Sauce: Heat a 10" Dutch oven using 12-14 briquettes bottom until hot. Add olive oil, onion, garlic, and bell pepper. Saute until peppers are soft and onions are translucent. Stir in tomato sauce, green chilies (juice included), chili powder, paprika, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring sauce to a boil and simmer gently 10 minutes. Remove from heat.

Assemble Enchiladas: Place a tortilla in oven with sauce covering both sides of tortilla. Place on a plate and fill with 1/4 - 1/3 cup of the meat filling and sprinkle with cheese. Fold in ends and roll up tortilla. Place in original 12" Dutch oven seam side down. Repeat process for each tortilla covering the bottom of the Dutch oven. Make additional layers as needed. Cover tops of enchiladas with remaining meat filling. Pour remaining sauce over top and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

Bake: Cover and bake using 12-14 briquettes bottom and 12-14 briquettes top for 20 minutes until sauce bubbles and cheese is melted. Alternately, cook in the oven at 350 until sauce bubbles and cheese melts.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't have a dutch oven but it does look delicious!

Anonymous said...

OMG ~ that looks divine! YUM! :=D

Anonymous said...

I'm going to have to try this...

Anonymous said...

YUM!! I love Mexican food...

Geekwif said...

That looks really tasty. I don't eat beef, but I bet it would be good with just the beans too! I may have to try this one of these days. Hubby and I love us some good Mexican food!

Oh, and in answer to your question over at my blog the other day. I can barely keep up with my blog now, but I'm going to give it a shot. Last year I just blogged occasionally with updates throughout the month. I hope to do a little better this year.

Bec said...

I adore anything that can be made to feed many people in a single pot! I have the dutch oven, I've see tortillas in the shop, but I am absolutely certain we do not have 'mexicorn' here! How does it differ from corn corn?

Allysha said...

I am so in awe of you people who cook. it is a foreign land to me...

Kate said...

I am SO printing this out right now. Mexi mexi mexi - love it all! Thanks for making me crave this now! ;)

Scribbit said...

You know I should have mentioned this, but luckily blogging isn't about perfection so you'll forgive me the oversight:

Mexicorn, dear ladies, apparently is some canned version of corn and chilies (you already know my position on canned vegetables) so I myself substituted prepared, previously frozen, corn with a small can of chilies added.

I was trying to remain faithful to the original recipe courtesy of Byron's site by including it in the post.

Anonymous said...

Looks really good!

Scott Stambler said...

wow - that looks really fantastic. I read in your other post how you're opening up the house to strangers and all. Can you also send some of those enchiladas our way?

enough for 8 ought to do it...

Unknown said...

I would like to welcome those to the world of Dutch Oven Cooking or thinking about it. to help you get into the thick of it. I have a few suggestions to help get you started. My wife and I use a 12 inch frying pan with 4 inch sides, with a cast lid. we use this in our electric oven to try out different recipes. Granted, it dose taste better when done outside and even better when camping. One has to agree, to try different recipes, it is time consuming and expensive.
Moving Forward. What we discovered by cooking it in an electric oven was that you have to cook it like you do outside. Outside you put most of your heat/coals on top of your D.O. Right!

In your electric Oven, just simply turn on your broiler? you may have to take out a wire rack to make it fit. but hey, it works really well.

This is my suggestion if your wanting to try it. Lets assume that you have a recipe that takes one hour to cook @ 350 degrees.

I set my timer for 15 to 20 minutes and cook from the bottom to help get things started. then I switch to the broiler for the remainder of the time. this generally works for me when I'm cooking hardy meals.

A word caution. The top will be very, very hot when taking it out. so be careful.