Beef Enchilada Pasta Skillet
This one-pan Beef Enchilada Pasta Skillet is so easy and full of flavor – perfect for a weeknight dinner everyone will love! As soon as I made this dish I knew it was going to become one of the go-to meals I make over and over again. A filling, 1 ½ cup serving is just 378 calories or 10 WW Points (or 11 Points if following the diabetic WW plan) and no one will ever believe you that it’s lightened up. To view your current WW Points for this recipe and track it in the WW app or site, click here! The creamy, spicy enchilada sauce perfectly coats the seasoned ground beef and pasta and I love the sweet bites of corn throughout. As is, this pasta has a little zip, but you can easily adjust the heat to your preference by using a milder or hotter enchilada sauce or adding more or less green chilies.
This Beef Enchilada Pasta Skillet is one of those meals that kids and adults will both love and it’s so easy to make, you’ll definitely want to add it to your regular rotation. Plus, there’s only one pan to wash! Just pair it with a salad or veggie side and dinner is served. It even makes great leftovers (if you ever have any)! If you prefer, you can even substitute ground turkey breast for the beef to lower the SmartPoints on Weight Watchers Freestyle.
Looking for more tasty, lightened up pasta options? Check out the pasta section of my recipe index for favorites like Beef Stroganoff, Beefy American Goulash, Slow Cooker Kickin’ Chicken Pasta, Beef and Sausage Manicotti, Pumpkin Alfredo Tortellini Skillet, Spinach and Artichoke Lasagna Roll Ups, Chicken Cordon Bleu Pasta Bake, Tomato Soup Mac & Cheese, Spaghetti Pie, Sausage Tortellini Skillet, Buffalo Chicken Lasagna Roll Ups, Chicken Parmesan Stuffed Shells, Spicy Sausage Pasta and many more!
Beef Enchilada Pasta Skillet
Ingredients
- 1 ½ lbs 95% uncooked lean ground beef
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ cup chopped onions
- 2 oz canned diced green chilies, this is the amount I like, but if you love chilies feel to add more!
- 2 cups fat free reduced sodium chicken broth
- 1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce, (I used Old El Paso medium heat)
- 8 oz uncooked pasta, I used Barilla Campanelle (use whole wheat pasta if following the WW Purple plan)
- ¾ cup frozen corn kernels
- ½ cup fat free sour cream
- 3 oz 50% reduced fat sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (such as Cabot or Trader Joe’s Keltic Cheddar)
- Optional: I sprinkled a bit of chopped cilantro over the top
Instructions
- Place the ground beef in a large saute pan or walled skillet and bring over medium heat. Cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until the beef is browned and in smaller pieces. Sprinkle the beef with the chili powder and cumin and stir. Add the onions and chilies and stir together. Cook for another 3 minutes until the vegetables are softened.
- Add the chicken broth, enchilada sauce and pasta to the skillet and stir together. Flatten so that most of the ingredients are covered by the liquid. Turn up the heat to bring the mixture to a boil. Once the sauce is bubbling, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan. Simmer covered for 10-12 minutes. Remove the lid, add the corn, stir and re-cover. Cook for another 2 minutes.
- Remove the lid and stir the ingredients. Pasta should be cooked and most of the liquid absorbed with only a sauce remaining. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream and 1/3 of the shredded cheddar until well combined. Sprinkle the remaining shredded cheese over the top of the pasta and cover with the lid. Let the skillet sit covered for 2 minutes until the cheese on top has melted and then serve.
Notes
10 per (1 ½ cup) serving (PP calculated using a WW PointsPlus calculator and the nutrition info below) Adapted from Betty Crocker
This looks sooo good! My son and his girlfriend are coming to stay with me this week and this will be a perfect “cook ahead” dish that I’m sure we all will love. Keep ’em coming, I love your recipes!
YUMMY!!! I bet my crew would like this.
Yum! This looks so good!!
Thank you SO MUCH for approximate serving size. This is not so easy to figure with many recipes and is kind of important if you are counting the SmartPoints. Love your recipes!!!
This looks so good, totally going on my meal plan for next week!
Thank you, Emily, for another wonderful recipe! I just made it and it’s delicious (and easy to make too). I love one pot meals and this one has a nice flavor profile.
We love anything enchilada, this looks SO good! Can’t wait to give it a try!
This is really, really good!! Will definitely become a regular dish in this house.
My 1yo and 3yo gobbled this right up! I think it’s going to end up a regular
Love this! Super easy and delicious! I used ground turkey and doubled the chili’s 🙂
Made this last night- turned out soo good and it was easy!
I tried to make a vegetarian version of this with red beans, black beans, and Morningstar crumbles. It tasted good, but I ended up having to add flour to it to thicken up everything (otherwise it was watery). Any tips? Thank you!
Emily- again, you’ve made a delicious, family-friendly meal. I opted to use the lean ground turkey breast instead of beef that you noted when I made it last night. It’s very filling and is definitely going in my rotation!
Made this last night and we loved it!
This was delicious And so easy! I added black beans and garlic, because I used ground turkey and I worry that turkey can be flavorless. But this was fantastic. Thank you!
I’m so happy you loved it!
Making this again tonight. It’s on my weekly meal rotation now. Love this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing.
This was delicious. It received rave reviews from my husband and company over the weekend. No leftovers, darn it.
I made this tonight! I used a little less ground beef and subbed in daiya cheese AND it was still AMAZING!
Made this today and it’s delicious! I used ground turkey, and next time I’ll add black beans – for color if nothing else!
This has been on my list for a while and we finally had an opportunity to make it! The only thing we did differently was we used taco seasoning in place of the chili powder and cumin. We both thought we had chili powder and tore apart our spice rack…nope. Definitely picking some up on our next trip. Anyway, this was soooooooo delicious!! Definitely keeping this one around, thank you for sharing Emily!!
Replying to my own comment to say we made this again but as written…my husband likes it better with the chili powder and cumin. I prefer the taco seasoning version. We’re making it again tonight with taco seasoning and chili powder. Maybe that’s the sweet spot
I made this tonight, but instead of using ground beef, I used shredded boneless/skinless chicken breast (had some left over when I made the chicken chili earlier this week), but followed rest of the the recipe as instructed. I was worried my family wouldn’t like,it, but they LOVED it. It was really good – definitely a keeper.
Oh. My. Goodness. This was so good — so satisfying and a very generous serving size. I am so happy that I get to eat this again tomorrow! Thanks!
Emily,
You’re my hero, this was the bomb! Thank you!
New to Weight Watchers. Love your recipes. I have celiac so I have to sub in gluten free items. I have done so in several of your recipes with great success. This is no exception! It was wonderful. Thanks so much!
Any idea how points change on purple if using ground turkey?
Emily: do you think Greek yogurt could be substituted for the sour cream? I can’t find FF sour cream to save my life! Thanks!!!
Sure! It will taste a little different but it should definitely work.
Are the cheeses you suggest already shredded?
Nope, I shred them!
I made this last night and I substituted Nonfat Greek Yogurt for the Sour Cream. It was delicious! I think that I’ll use Taco Seasoning Mix next time instead of the Cumin and Chili Powder. Such a great recipe! Thanks!
Made this for my family tonight. I have 2 15 year old athletes so I doubled the recipe. Hit with everyone (esepically the kid who said pasta and hamburger with a look of disapointment)! They are on the their first round hoping to have leftovers after the 2nd round following practice! Thanks for a hearty healthy meal!
I just made this and it is DELICIOUS!! Keep up the awesome work, Emily.
Made with extra lean gr. Turkey, 0 pt. Homemade enchilada sauce, greek yogurt instead of sour cream..4 big helping and only 1 purple point. Delicious!! Will be on rotation for sure
I’m going to try this recipe tonight but am substituting Impossible Burger meat for the ground beef – not sure how that will change the SP’s, but just going to enjoy and hope to figure out the exchanges some other time. ; )
I am making this now and just panicked! 8oz of pasta, is that dry measure or by weight? I just got a little WW food scale and weighed 8oz of rotini, but that measured out to almost 2 cups. It all got covered by the liquid, so fingers crossed!
This is a great two day meal for a family of two. To stretch even farther, add more pasta. I make this dinner every other week. Everyone enjoys it.
This is so delicious and easy!
Absolutely delicious! Used homemade enchilada sauce but it was still so good!!
Easy and delicious!
Tangy, wonderful and another of your recipes that my family loves! Thank you!!!
I make this in the morning so we can just reheat when we get home from work and school- any suggestions on best way to reheat a whole batch without drying it out- microwaving each bowl separately seems silly.