Enchilada lasagna recipe with corn tortillas is a cheesy Mexican casserole packed with lots of flavor. A cross between your two favorite family meals, this easy ground beef recipe is for you.
I wasn’t quite sure what to even call this when I made it the first time. We thought the name enchilada lasagna just made sense! Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Manwich. It’s a favorite quick and easy casserole. (affiliate links present)
Enchilada Lasagna Recipe
We make a lot of Instant Pot casseroles but if you don’t have one of those machines, you can bake this in the oven. This one is a combination of our favorite foods put together to make a warm comfort food. Full of yumminess and of course lots of cheese! Similar to a sort of enchilada casserole, layered like lasagna but with tortillas.
We used canned corn and beans to make things even easier but cut off the cob and from dry homemade black beans would work great too. Rather use ground sausage instead of beef, no problem. Make the swap, I sometimes will use half spicy Jimmy dean and half regular for a bit of heat.
If you love the this layered classic dish with pasta you’re going to go crazy over this one. No noodles, but the same basic way to make it.
Ingredient Notes
- Manwich or enchilada sauce will give it more of a tomato sauce flavor without any heat – 15 oz. can
- Corn tortillas, I used the small taco sizes for this to layer
- Corn – canned is what I use
- Black beans, canned or homemade works
- Diced tomatoes – I like petite versions so they are easier to eat
- Diced chiles – canned or freshly roasted and diced are great
- Onion and garlic minced is a nice addition too if you like
- Cheese – Cheddar and Jack or your choice
- Ground beef or shredded chicken could be used
- A dash of chili powder would add a bit of heat
- Sprinkle with salt and pepper before serving
Substitutions
You don’t just have to use beef but typically that’s what we use. If you have leftover chicken breasts you could use that too for sure! Even shredded pork would work, you’d just skip the browning part for precooked meat.
The prep work is under 30 minutes which is great and if you have any left over it’s great warmed for lunch the next day too. Layered with black beans, cheese, corn, mild chiles and a Manwich that gives it a kick of added flavor. This enchilada lasagna casserole is just the best. 😉
Can You Make Enchilada Lasagna with Flour Tortillas?
You could but they will be mushier and the texture won’t be the same. Of course there are many ways of making lasagna step by step but below is the best. Precooking the ground beef first is necessary too. If you’d rather make it vegetarian you can leave this step out and quite frankly it would still taste amazing.
You can use as little or as much cheese as you’d like too. We are all about cheesy goodness so we use it in between and on top of this dish. Now that my husband is lactose intolerant I thought we were done for, that this was off the table. Luckily I found a lactose free shredded cheese at Walmart and it has been a great alternative.
Kids have never been able to tell the difference, it still melts really well and tastes pretty close to the regular kind. Here’s the entire recipe for you to follow, let us know what you think!
in Crockpot
You can in fact bake this very similarly (but with rice instead of tortillas) following our Crockpot Enchilada Casserole instructions. As far as the meat is concerned you could use a lot of different things, or a combination of them all. If I had to say which was my favorite I would say half a roll of Jimmy Dean sausage + 1/2 roll of their maple version is killer.
with Noodles
Our Instant Pot sloppy joe casserole uses Manwich too so you’ll love that! It uses pasta instead of corn tortillas so if you prefer noodles give this a whirl. For other ideas think outside of the box more often. Deconstruct your favorite labor intensive dish to make it more often.
Make a batch of our Jiffy Mexican cornbread to serve on the side and a great duo is created.
Other easy casserole recipes
- You can make no boil Crockpot lasagna too. This is a delicious one with all the flavors you love but a lot less work for you.
- Crockpot lasagna casserole is great for a throw it all in and leave for the day one pot meal
Could add a dollop of sour cream on top and chives when serving too! If you want it to stay together like lasagna and come out in a less messy allow it to cool for at least 15 minutes when it comes out. There won’t be any leftovers of this for sure. Try it for dinner tonight!! It’s a great recipe that’s like a casserole form and a feel good meal y’all will love.
Enchilada Lasagna
Equipment
- 1 9×13 pan
Ingredients
- 12 tortillas, small corn
- 1 can Manwich, 15 oz., or red enchilada sauce
- 1 can corn, drained
- 1 can black beans
- 1 can diced tomatoes, I like using petite
- 1 small can diced chiles, we use mild but you could use hotter
- 1/4 onion, diced
- 3-4 c cheese, we use 4 for the whole thing
- 1 lbs ground beef
Instructions
- Brown your meat on the stovetop with your diced onions.
- Add meat and all of the other ingredients (excluding tortillas and cheese) into a bowl and mix well.
- Spray a 9×12″ dish with non stick spray and add a small layer of your meat mixture.
- Then add 6 tortillas overlapping a bit so it covers your meat layer. Sprinkle 1 c. of cheese on top of tortilla layer.
- Add another layer of meat mixture, then another tortilla layer, cheese on top of that, and then last top layer is the remainder (1/3 on each layer) of your meat mixture.
- Cover with tinfoil and bake at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Take foil off and sprinkle last 3/4-1 c. of cheese and bake for 10 more minutes uncovered. Serve! Could add a dollop of sour cream on top and chives too!
- If you want it to stay together like lasagna and come out in a less messy way allow it to cool for about 15 minutes when it comes out before cutting…but either way it is delicious.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
You basically use the same ingredients so the nutrition is the same for traditional or deconstructed enchiladas. The latter is a lot easier to make though because you just layer the tortillas instead of filling, rolling, and making sure they don’t unroll while baking.
You could make enchiladas deconstructed with flour but those will become a bit more mushy. Corn will hold together better and the overall texture will be better so I would recommend those as we state in this recipe here.
What is a good alternative to Manwich?
We used this classic sloppy joe caned ingredient to pack the flavors in there. It makes the whole thing really simple to make without mixing it all together yourself. You can find spicy versions or classic. Spaghetti sauce would be another substitute, but red enchilada sauce would be better.
What if I don’t want to use Manwich? Ground beef and what?
I might substitute half spaghetti sauce and half diced tomatoes for the same amount as the can of Manwich.