Easy Weeknight Mexican Skillet Enchiladas
Your next Taco Tuesday recipe is here! Warm, bubbly Mexican Skillet packs in veggies and beans for a complete, vegetarian, one-pan meal. If you choose gluten-free enchilada sauce, you’ll also make this meal naturally gluten free.
Who says kids need bland food? A lot of kids go wild for Taco Tuesday. We love helping kids learn to love international cuisines, in all their bold and spiced glory. In our experience, Mexican-inspired food gets the thumbs up from kids and their parents alike. And a dinner everyone can agree on is priceless, especially on a hectic weeknight.
This Easy Weeknight Mexican Skillet meal satisfies your biggest enchilada craving, without the fuss of rolling up the filling inside tortillas. Make it in less than 30 minutes!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Great Nutrition for Taco-Loving Kids
Pat yourself on the back when you serve this meal: you’re getting a plethora of healthy ingredients into your kiddos.
Fresh veggies like bell peppers, tomatoes, corn, cilantro, and avocados add color, flavor, texture, and vitamins. Even if you think your kids might balk at this variety, try to avoid catering to their tastes by leaving veggies out. It’s not harsh: it’s how kids learn to become more adventurous in their eating habits.
Most corn tortillas are considered whole grain. (Gluten-free families can also rejoice! No gluten here.) Shredded cheese adds protein and fat that kids need.
And let’s not forget the beans. Our love affair with beans knows no bounds. Beans have more fiber than just about any other food. Just 1/2 cup of black beans supplies a third of kids’ daily recommended amount of fiber! The skins also boast impressive levels of antioxidants (just like the skins of other plant foods, like grapes and apples.) Beans also get a healthy dose of protein into kids’ bodies–especially important for kids who are still learning to like meat.
Mexican Skillet: a 30-Minute, One-Pan Wonder
Dinners you can truly make in 30 minutes– truly truly— are not as easy to find as we might like. But you can get this one to the table SO FAST, especially thanks to shortcuts like canned beans and pre-shredded cheese. Which is to say: preheat that oven first, because you’re going to be ready to pop that skillet in to the bubbly-cheese-maker in 15 minutes flat. (If you’ve prepped your veggies ahead of time, you can cut that time in half.)
To make this Mexican Skillet dinner, toss your chopped veggies into a big, oven-safe skillet. Let them soften for a few minutes, then transfer 3/4 of the mixture into a bowl. Then cut the heat and start layering. If your kids are big enough to stand safely near the hot pan, let them layer on the tortillas, cheese, and remaining veggie mixture. Then in it goes! Fast, simple, and so yummy.
More Taco Tuesday Meals
Keep up with serving your kids exciting international flavors! Try more Taco Tuesday meal ideas like Crockpot Chicken Tacos and Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas.
Easy Weeknight Mexican Skillet Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup diced onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 medium bell pepper, red
- 10 ounce enchilada sauce
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin, ground
- 1 cup corn, frozen
- 1 can black beans, canned
- 1 can diced tomatoes, canned
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- 8 regular tortillas, corn
- 1 1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
Toppings
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1 medium avocado
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, plain
Instructions
- Preheat oven to broil.
- In a large oven safe skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat.
- Add onion, garlic and red bell pepper. Sauté until soft and onions are translucent.
- Add enchilada sauce, chili powder, cumin and salt and pepper to taste. Mix in corn, black beans, diced tomatoes and lime juice. Turn heat down, and let simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Spoon ¾ of the mixture into a separate bowl.
- Begin layering your enchiladas. Place a layer of tortilla halves in the skillet on top of the veggie mixture, then sprinkle with cheese. Top with veggie mixture and spread evenly until it covers that tortilla layer. Continue to layer until you have used all of the tortillas and veggie mixture.
- Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Use more cheese if you like!
- Place in the oven on broil until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Serve warm from the pan, topped with cherry tomatoes, avocado, cilantro and Greek yogurt.
Nutrition
Natalie Monson
I'm a registered dietitian, mom of 4, avid lover of food and strong promoter of healthy habits. Here you will find lots of delicious recipes full of fruits and veggies, tips for getting your kids to eat better and become intuitive eaters and lots of resources for feeding your family.
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Great recipe!
Can’t wait to try it.
The only question is: how can I replace tomatoes and can I even do it? I have an allergy, so I hope that I will manage to come up with something and the dish will remain as tasty as it is now.
Hi there, this one might be tricky to make without tomatoes, because the enchilada sauce has tomatoes in it as well.
I found a green enchilada recipe that you might like to try instead: https://www.superhealthykids.com/recipes/crock-pot-green-enchiladas/
I hope this helps!
Really good, next time I’ll leave out the chili powder for the kids, the enchilada sauce had enough spice for them.
Which you had a video for this recipe!
Super Yummy! The kids had seconds and the husband requested this be a repeat. Due to quarantine I didnt have all the ingredients, and was short on these. I did use refried beans instead of black beans and added ground beef.
It was really good. Left out chili powder and my enchilada sauce was medium so it ended up being too spicy for my 2 year old. I added beyond meat plant based meat crumbles and left out tomato chunks. I loved it! She tried it and helped making it so it is still a win! Thank you.
Delicious and simple. Can’t go wrong.
Should the tortillas be fried or baked first so they aren’t soggy?
You could! They do soften, just like baked enchiladas. But if you don’t like that texture you could crisp them up first. 🙂
You don’t fill the tortillas and roll them up, you just lay them flat and layer them for this recipe?
Yes, that’s correct! 🙂
“Great recipe!
Can’t wait to try it.
The only question is: how can I replace tomatoes and can I even do it? I have an allergy, so I hope that I will manage to come up with something and the dish will remain as tasty as it is now.”
You could just leave them out. 🙂 Or try replacing with a can of pumpkin, or diced cooked zucchini! It will still be delicious.