11 Easy, Cheesy Tortilla Dinner Recipes, Including Tacos and Enchiladas
If you have a bag of tortillas in your fridge or freezer, you're already on your way to dinner.
I always have a bag of tortillas in my freezer, so on nights when I don’t know what to cook, I tuck vegetables and beans into them, seasoning with warm spices and smothering everything in cheese and salsa for a makeshift taco or quesadilla. The recipes below use tortillas as a foundation. While some rely on pantry ingredients you may already have on hand, others are more complex and worth a trip to the store for specific items. Yes, there are plenty of tacos, like crispy fish versions that taste like a vacation on the California coast, and slow-cooked beef tongue like what you’d find at a favorite taco stand. But we also go beyond tacos, with a complex tortilla soup and a couple of standout breakfast recipes.
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Baja Fish Tacos
Tacos filled with crispy fried fish and a sweet, crunchy slaw are a staple of the California coast—a meal that feels like a vacation. Bring that vibe home with this recipe, which has you briefly soak the fish in vinegar and salt before battering it, ensuring bright flavor throughout and especially tender flesh. You’ll also make your own salsa by frying serrano chiles, onion, and garlic, then blending them for deep flavor.
Get Recipe: Baja Fish Tacos
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Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos
Here, you’ll use a slow cooker to mimic a confit-style salsa, relying on low, slow heat to mellow the harsher qualities of the aromatics and chiles as tomatillos, chiles, onions, and garlic cook in oil alongside chicken thighs. The result is a tender, flavorful taco filling.
Get Recipe: Slow Cooker Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos
03 of 11
Chicken Enchiladas Negras
These chicken enchiladas may differ from the cheesy, baked versions that are a staple at Tex-Mex restaurants. Instead, you’ll take a more traditional approach, dipping tortillas in lard, then salsa, before rolling chicken inside them. Here, the salsa is made from charred tomatoes, chiles, and black garlic, which impart deep, earthy flavors balanced by sweetness—this smoky complexity gives the dish its name: black enchiladas, or enchiladas negras.
Get Recipe: Chicken Enchiladas Negras
04 of 11
Real-Deal Tortilla Soup Recipe
Tortilla soups are often reduced to dump-it, set-it, forget-it recipes online, but this version gives the dish the care and attention it deserves. If you can’t start with homemade chicken broth, doctor store-bought broth with aromatics and chicken bones. Broil fresh tomatoes while the stock simmers to impart a more complex, charred flavor than canned tomatoes can provide, and use dried ancho chiles rather than standard chile powder for added depth. Add fresh corn in summer, or black beans along with the shredded chicken to make it extra hearty.
Get Recipe: Real-Deal Tortilla Soup Recipe
05 of 11
Beef Tongue Tacos With Consomé (Tacos de Lengua y Consomé)
If you’re intimidated by making this taco truck staple at home, don’t be. This recipe walks you through the process of slow-cooking beef tongue for hours to tenderize the meat, then dicing and crisping it in tallow. You’ll also make a deeply savory, rich consomé for dipping. Cilantro, warm spices, and vegetables balance that intense meatiness.
Get Recipe: Beef Tongue Tacos With Consomé (Tacos de Lengua y Consomé)
06 of 11
Pastel Azteca
Pastel Azteca is sometimes referred to as Mexican lasagna. The comparison makes sense—it involves layering carbs with cheese and sauce—but the dish stands firmly in its own Mexican home-cooking tradition. Crisped tortillas are layered with shredded chicken coated in salsa roja and stretchy queso Oaxaca. You can think of the requesón and crema as filling the ricotta or béchamel role in lasagna, if that comparison is helpful. No matter how you frame it, you’ll be eating something saucy, cheesy, and distinctly Mexican in flavor.
Get Recipe: Pastel Azteca
07 of 11
Tacos Gobernador (Sinaloan Shrimp Tacos)
Los Arcos, a high-end chain of Sinaloan restaurants, created the original version of this recipe to welcome a visiting governor. It’s now popular beyond its home in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, across northwestern Mexico, including Sonora and Baja California. The taco filling consists of shrimp stewed in a simple salsa, combined with creamy, gooey melted cheese. Because the original versions were grilled, a cracker-thin, crisp tortilla is characteristic of the dish, and this recipe aims to capture that texture while having you cook the tacos in an indoor skillet for convenience.
Get Recipe: Crispy Smashed Taco-Loaded Potatoes
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The Best Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
This recipe strikes a nice balance between pared-down Mexican enchiladas and the gooey, cheesy casseroles of Tex-Mex home cooking. Corn tortillas are soaked in a smoky chile-tomatillo sauce with a bright, fresh flavor you wouldn’t get from a canned version. Baking the enchiladas with plenty of shredded pepper Jack cheese and topping them with Mexican crema delivers on creamy indulgence.
Get Recipe: The Best Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
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Spinach, Black Bean, and Chipotle Quesadillas
Kenji López-Alt has some great tips for taking your quesadillas to the next level: Mix your filling ingredients with the cheese for even distribution in every bite. Fold a single tortilla rather than using two; this yields a more cohesive quesadilla. Add something bright and pickly to the mix. And don’t skimp on the oil—you want a shatteringly crisp tortilla crust.
Get Recipe: Spinach, Black Bean, and Chipotle Quesadillas Recipe
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Breakfast Burrito With Scrambled Egg, Chorizo, and Refried Beans
The perfect breakfast burrito is in the eye of the beholder—it’s a choose-your-own-adventure situation. Stick to these essential components: egg, meat, a carb, a creamy, cooling element, and a spicy element. Then build your burrito exactly the way you want it, following our tips for layering, rolling, and finishing.
Get Recipe: Breakfast Burrito With Scrambled Egg, Chorizo, and Refried Beans Recipe
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Grilled Skirt Steak Fajitas
Fajitas are all about finding the perfect central protein and treating it with care. In this case, that protein is skirt steak, which offers both buttery texture and beefy richness. You’ll marinate it in soy sauce, which both imparts greater umami than salt can into the meat, but also helps tenderize it. Then, cook it at very high heat to achieve a charred exterior with a juicy, perfectly-cooked center.
Get Recipe: Grilled Skirt Steak Fajitas Recipe
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