Easy Stovetop Enchilada Mac and Cheese is kid friendly and adult approved! Have a cheesy, flavorful dinner in 30 minutes with this enchilada pasta!
Love easy dinners? Try our caprese chicken skillet for a quick and hearty meal. Or give our chicken fried rice a try next.
Why this recipe works
Crockpot Enchiladas and Ritz Macaroni & Cheese are two of my kids all-time favorite dinners. While planning out dinners for the upcoming week, I decided to try combining the flavors we love from beef enchiladas with a creamy mac and cheese pasta.
This Beef Enchilada Mac and Cheese received rave reviews from everyone in my family! Flavorful ground beef with Mexican spices mixed with a cheesy bowl of pasta makes for a fantastic kid-approved meal.
Remember when your mom would reach for a box of hamburger helper to make a fast dinner?
This enchilada pasta recipe is just as easy as those meals I remember from childhood but made with fresher ingredients that deliver a much better flavor. Think of this is a slightly more sophisticated take on those comforting macaroni and hamburger meals from your childhood.
Enchilada mac and cheese is filled with real cream, real cheese and real taste!
Today’s recipe is a perfect dinner idea. I used lean ground beef, but ground turkey (or even shredded chicken breast) would be delicious too! Chicken Enchilada Mac and Cheese is equally tasty.
Ingredient Notes
While I’ll never turn down a gouda macaroni and cheese, this macaroni is made on the stovetop in under 30 minutes using a few simple ingredients.
Here’s what you need for beef enchilada pasta:
- Cooked ground beef
- Heavy cream
- Cooked pasta shells
- Cheese
- Red enchilada sauce
- Cumin and kosher salt
How to Make Enchilada Mac and Cheese
STEP 1. In a large pot (or saucepan), heat cream, enchilada sauce, cumin and salt on medium heat. Whisking often, heat until mixture just begins to bubble.
STEP 2. Reduce heat to medium low and add in cheese. Stir until smooth. Mix in the cooked ground beef and the cooked noodles.
Serve hot and ENJOY!
Tips and Tricks
- This is a great use for any leftover ground beef you have in the fridge from taco night. If you have the pasta and ground beef ready to go, the enchilada mac and cheese is ready in just about 15 minutes. Don’t worry if you have to cook ground beef just for this recipe, it adds just a couple minutes of extra time and it’s well worth it!
- We really like using shell pasta for our macaroni and cheese. Feel free to use any kind of pasta noodles you have on hand. Elbow macaroni, penne and bow tie pasta are all great options.
- If you want to add a little more color to this dish, feel free to throw in some chopped bell peppers or other veggies you like in your mac and cheese. (Creamy pasta is always a perfect vehicle for sneaking a few more veggies onto your kids plates.)
- I’ve used both jarred enchilada sauce and Homemade Red Enchilada sauce for this recipe. Both are equally tasty!
- Leftover enchilada pasta keep well for a few days covered in the fridge. I love making a double batch of this and sticking leftovers in tupperware containers for easy reheating throughout the week.
Enchilada pasta is a full flavorful meal on its own, using minimal equipment and ingredients (not to mention the no fuss clean up). It hardly gets any quicker or easier to get a homemade meal on the dinner table!
More Easy Dinner Ideas
- Instant Pot Chicken and Dumplings
- Broccoli and Cheese Soup
- Instant Pot Mac and Cheese
- Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff
- Grape Jelly Meatballs
- PF Chang’s Lettuce Wraps
Easy Side Dishes
See all Side Dishes recipes
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Beef Enchilada Mac and Cheese
Ingredients
- 16 ounce medium shells cooked and drained
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 cups colby jack cheese shredded
- 1 can red enchilada sauce 10 ounce
- 1 pound ground beef cooked and drained
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- In a large pot (or saucepan), heat cream, enchilada sauce, cumin and salt on medium heat. Whisking often, heat until mixture just begins to bubble.
- Reduce heat to medium low and add in cheese. Stir until smooth. Mix in the cooked ground beef and the cooked noodles.
- Serve hot and enjoy immediately!
Notes
- This is a great use for any leftover ground beef you have in the fridge from taco night. If you have the pasta and ground beef ready to go, the enchilada mac and cheese is ready in just about 15 minutes. Don’t worry if you have to cook ground beef just for this recipe, it adds just a couple minutes of extra time and it’s well worth it!
- We really like using shell pasta for our macaroni and cheese. Feel free to use any kind of pasta noodles you have on hand. Elbow macaroni, penne and bow tie pasta are all great options.
- If you want to add a little more color to this dish, feel free to throw in some chopped bell peppers or other veggies you like in your mac and cheese. (Creamy pasta is always a perfect vehicle for sneaking a few more veggies onto your kids plates.)
- I’ve used both jarred enchilada sauce and Homemade Red Enchilada sauce for this recipe. Both are equally tasty!
- Leftover enchilada pasta keep well for a few days covered in the fridge. I love making a double batch of this and sticking leftovers in tupperware containers for easy reheating throughout the week.
Nutrition
With ingredients you probably already have on hand in your fridge, this enchilada pasta recipe is a delicious answer to the question, “What’s for dinner?”
Looks delicious, guess we’ll be having this for dinner tonight thanks!
You’re welcome, enjoy your dinner!
This looks insanely good! I’ll be making this in the near future. Pinned. P.S.- Now I wanna feed a calf.
hahha!! I think everyone should experience feeding a calf, at least once. It was one of the highlights of my trip for sure. That and the cheese.
This recipe is really good. Tonight I made it with green chile enchilada sauce and jalapeno Jack cheese, then baked it for 30 minds at 375 F with some cheese on top. My husband LOVED it, and so did I!
LOVE that you baked it with extra cheese. And I love green chile enchilada sauce too, great tips Jennifer! Thanks for stopping back with some feedback!!
I tried this tonight. It was sooooo delicious! And easy!! My kind of meal!! I liked that it made a lot so there are plenty of leftovers without being so much that we’d be eating it for a month. I also liked how the cream lightened up the flavor enchilada sauce so it wasnt too strong of a flavor. It just came out perfect! I can be quite picky with my foods, so even though recipes look good I always have a little bit of fear going in, afraid it won’t taste as good as I think it will. But your recipe was BETTER than I thought it would be! It will be on regular rotation at my house! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Oh! Thank you so much for the sweet feedback. I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe!!!
Great idea for mac & cheese! LOVE LOVE your blog 🙂
This looks awesome. I love the fact that you used 2 cups of heavy cream in this. My followers would kill me…just kidding 🙂 What a fun trip. Those cows really looked well taken care off!! Lovely post and great recipe!!
Yeah, they probably would! You could totally cut it back to skim milk with some thickener (flour/cornstarch) to make it a bit healthier. Or, just come to dinner and your readers would never know 😉
Wow, that sounds like an amazing trip. I love cheese! This mac looks great!
I have to admit that milking a cow scares me a bit, BUT I would love to feed those baby cows, they are adorable! Oh and this mac and cheese? Brilliant, Aimee! Mac and cheese and enchiladas should have gotten together a LONG time ago heehee. 😀
Yeah, the big cows were a little intimidating. I was seriously just waiting to get pooped on. Fortunately that didn’t happen (to me anyways…). But yes, the baby cows were quite adorable!
Pinned! This looks like one of those great go-to-recipes when you need something tasty in a hurry! I’ll keep this one handy. Great job!!
Sounds like you had a great time on the farm! And this mac and cheese looks so creamy and filling. Now I am hungry 🙂
Visiting a dairy farm sounds like tons of fun. This beefy mac and cheese is right up my ally!
What a fun trip! This recipe looks great 🙂 Going to have to try it.
SUCH a fun trip! I love reading everyone’s recaps and reliving our cheesy adventures. Also, the idea of enchiladas and mac n cheese joining forces is totally blowing my mind. Hello comfort food!
It was great to finally meet you Erin!!
Oh, this looks delicious…even at 8:00am! I love easy weeknight meals!!
My 3-year old would go NUTS for this. She wants mac and cheese everything… including pizza and ice cream!
My kids loved it too Eva! Enjoy!
The mac & cheese looks delicious. I will definitely be giving it a try.
Looks like you had a great time on the trip!
Thanks Stephanie, it was a big hit it our house! And easy too, which makes it a hit in MY book!
I looooove cheese! I probably get more than my daily amount of dairy just from eating BabyBell Cheese. 🙂 this recipe for Mac n cheese is so fun! I need to try it!!!
Oh I love babybell too!!!
This looks so delicious and I love any kind of homemade mac and cheese!!
Seriously yes please! I’m totally obsessed with mac and cheese. The dinner at the stadium must’ve been so cool!
It was very cool! Too bad I’m not a big Browns fan 😉
Looked like a wonderful experience, and this mac and cheese looks extra cheesy and scrumptious!