Crockpot Enchilada Casserole with Ground Beef

Mexican Cheesy Crockpot enchilada casserole with ground beef is comfort food times 1,000! Packed with black beans, tomatoes and more the flavors are great for dinner with your family. NO layering required like our Pressure Cooker Mexican Casserole but cooked all day long.

Crockpot Mexican Casserole Recipe

If you love super easy ground beef recipes, this is something you should try. Want more heat? Use a roll of spicy Jimmy Dean sausage instead or half and half which we love. Heck we have even used a sliced kielbasa thrown in there, anything goes really.

With green chiles, quinoa, black beans, diced tomatoes and diced bell peppers you get all your main food groups in one bite. 😉 It’s a bit like the filling in our slow cooker stuffed peppers but way less work to it. A fun tweak to taco Tuesdays or any day of the week. Great one pot meal on chilly days.

Let’s talk a little bit about slow cooking shall we?? First off I have a few different varieties and I love them all. Each one has an occasion to be used like….

1. This is my favorite 6 quart programmable one with a locking lid so it’s great for bringing to a potluck too.
2. I prefer not to use liners, but rather just spray olive oil inside before adding my food for easier cleanups.

Let me give you a peek of my pretty thang I bought recently. It goes with my kitchen so I can just leave it out on the countertop all the time. 😉

I mean you can throw all sorts of things into this baby. You’ll just need to use the same amount of liquid to quinoa ratio so that will get nice and tender. It needs either water or broth to come out right, the latter is better.

Mexican Casserole Ingredients

1. Ground beef or spicy ground sausage is amazing too. This will need to be precooked before adding it into your pot. You can make Crockpot ground beef but you wouldn’t have time to make that and this unless you started really early in the morning.
2. Quinoa is used over rice to add protein and it holds up better when cooking for a long period of time.
3. Can of black beans
4. Red enchilada sauce can be mild or hot
5. Diced onion and smoked chiles
6. Beef broth
7. Mexican cheese blend with taco seasoning in it works great
8. Flour tortillas or tortilla chips could be served on the side

There are a lot of seasonings and spices inside too. You can adjust what is listed but what is shown is a great combination.

Once your meat is cooked and browned you can just literally throw everything in. It’s a great one pot meal for sure. Whether you make it for Cinco de Mayo or just because for your whole family, you’ll surely love it. If you have never made a dump dinner like this one we have done it time and time again. Another one that is similar but with a different meat is this slow cooker chicken and rice casserole.

How to Make Crockpot Deconstructed Enchiladas

• Spray non stick spray into slow cooker.
• On the stovetop brown ground beef with onions until meat is no longer pink, drain grease and put into Crockpot.
• Add all other ingredients EXCEPT cheese.
• Stir together, close lid and cook on high for 3 hours or 6 hours on low heat cooking time.
• Stir in 1 cup of your cheese, it will melt quickly.
• Serve in bowls with remaining cheese sprinkled on the top of each bowl.
• Garnish with slices of avocado, sour cream, fresh diced tomatoes, chopped cilantro, etc.

Many days it is just so nice to drain, dump, stir and cover your meal. Go off on our day and when you return you just dish it up for everyone to enjoy. If you are a hard no when it comes to adding beans of any kind you could leave those out. When it comes to Mexican dishes, canned or making Slow Cooker Black Beans Soaked first to use are a must for us though. Or you could serve them on the side as another option.

My husband is kinda’ like that sometimes. He has always been a “don’t mix my food” kind of person, until he met me. Over the years he has gotten better at tasting casserolish dishes since that is where I came from. It is a work in progress let’s say. lol

Crock pot Chicken Enchilada Casserole

If you wanted to use precooked or leftover chicken Slow Cooker enchiladas instead of beef you could. I would recommend to follow the directions above or for deconstructed, add medium sized and cut them in half so they become fork tender. Top with green onions and/or fresh cilantro for a fun flare.

This would be a bit healthier, using breasts instead of beef or ground sausage. I prefer the latter choices just because it’s what I am used to but there is room for variety in every recipe out there so I like to list other possibilities for everyone.

Cheese is also optional but I can’t imagine this dish without it. I mean if you really want to take this over the top and ignore the calorie content, add a dollop of sour cream inside too. Makes it super rich and creamy.

What to Serve with Enchiladas

I insist on slices of avocado or guacamole on top when it is served up too. Then again I will put this green goodness on Slow Cooker Taco Meat with Tomato Sauce and just about everything I can, every day of the week. It is by far my favorite food on this earth.

Serve this in bowls with all sorts of other goodies on top too like; sour cream, pico de gallo salsa, green chilis, diced jalapenos etc…. If you want to supplement this meal with something so it goes further, make some baked potatoes and serve this inside. That way each person gets a smaller amount, has a bit less calories, and you can feed more at once.

It is a bit heavy so to serve it on top of rice or inside a vessel like taters is a nice duo. You could even do something like make tater tot nachos with this on top as a fun treat for dinner. The kids love this.

Now we have made a layered enchilada dish, very similar, in the oven before too. This one includes layers of corn tortillas but with very similar flavors. You should try them both and see what you think.

What to Make with Enchilada Filling

You could totally serve this over chips to make killer Air Fryer Nachos with this. We also have another different way of making this sort of Mexican casserole of sorts. Of course we do right?? Since our foodie journey started by way of the pressure cooker, we have that method as well.

A bit different since we added pasta noodles to this one, it still feels in the same direction as this one so I thought we’d share.

Nutritional information is displayed below and is calculated using all of the ingredients, and amounts, listed. If you vary at all that will of course need to be adjusted. It is calculated by the recipe card itself so I cannot guarantee how exact it really is.

Just eat in moderation and enjoy every bite y’all. This is a great Cinco de Mayo brunch item, or served as an out of the box idea for taco Tuesdays.