Chile Colorado Burritos

After seeing a few versions of this recipe floating around on some of my favorite food blogs, I knew I wanted to make these.  Mexican food is one of my favorite cuisines.  I was overjoyed to find out that the meat for these burritos is made in the slow cooker.  Woo-hoo ... major time-saver!  Throw everything in the slow cooker in the morning, allow it to cook all day and you'll just have a few minutes of prep time just before dinner to finish up the recipe!

Today was a wonderful, lazy Saturday.  The hubby took the kids to the movies this afternoon while I stayed home and "kept an eye on dinner" (a.k.a. caught up on some recordings of Law & Order: SVU and The Pioneer Woman).

No, seriously, I did get some laundry done, too.  But, mainly, I parked my booty on the couch with the remote while I snacked on some pita chips and hummus.

(Okay ... and maybe I indulged in some Häagen-Dazs White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle ice cream.)

Shhhh!  That'll be our little secret!  (P.S. That stuff is to die for!)

What were we talking about again?  Oh, yeah ... the burritos.

I want to mention that there are "purists" out there that will insist on inflicting me with forty lashes for even suggesting the use of canned enchilada sauce for this recipe.  I've seen the recipe written with both canned and homemade.  I went the canned route.  If you know of a good homemade red enchilada sauce recipe that you'd prefer to use (and you want to invest the time), who am I to say no?

The main two brands of canned sauce that I can usually find pretty easily are Old El Paso and Las Plamas.  If you do opt for canned, the Old El Paso mild version is a little less-spicy that the Las Palmas brand.  So, that might be something to keep in mind if cooking for kids who don't like spicier foods.

Ingredients:

2 - 2 1/2 pounds stew meat or other cubed beef  (I used a chuck roast that I trimmed and cubed)
1 large can mild red enchilada sauce (mine was 28 oz. - I only used about two-thirds of the can)
1 (4 oz) can diced green chiles
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
2 beef boullion cubes
1/2 - 1 can refried beans
2 - 2 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
6 - 8 flour tortillas (burrito size)

Directions:

Spray slow cooker with non-stick spray.  Add in the beef cubes. 

Add in the enchilada sauce, green chiles, tomato sauce and bouillon cubes.

Put lid on and cook on low for about 8 hours.  (You may find you need a little more or a little less cooking time ... depending on the thickness of your meat cubes.  Just make sure your meat is completely tender before attempting to shred and assemble the burritos.)

Once meat is cooked, use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat chunks to a large plate or baking sheet.  Break meat apart and kind of shred it with a fork.

Heat refried beans in the microwave.

Turn oven on to broil.

Place about 1/2 a cup of meat onto each tortilla.  Spoon on a bit of the refried beans.

Sprinkle shredded cheese on top of meat/bean layer.  (You could add some diced onion at this point, if desired.)

Roll up burrito-style.  The recipe will yield 6 - 8 burritos depending on how full you fill each one.

Line up rolled burritos into a large sprayed casserole dish.

Spoon some of the remaining sauce from the slow cooker over the burritos.  How much you use is totally up to you, but I found that you only need a little.  Since my sauce was a bit spicy, I think too much sauce would have been a little overpowering.  (After this photo was taken, I did go back and add a little more sauce around the edges of the burrito and in the bottom of the pan so that the burritos wouldn't burn under the broiler.)

Sprinkle some extra cheese on top of each burrito.

Broil for about five minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

If you'd like your burrito a little "wetter" and don't mind the extra spice, more sauce can be spooned over the top at serving time.

Serve with your favorite toppings.  We used shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, sliced black olives and sour cream.

 

NOTE:  I didn't come close to using all of the sauce that the meat cooked in.  So, don't be surprised that you have some left.

Recipe adapted from Food Pusher and Life as a Lofthouse.