Five-Ingredient BBQ Beef Tortilla Pie

This Five-Ingredient (!) BBQ Beef Tortilla Pie is a savory, satisfying main dish perfect for weeknights. It's ready in 30 minutes and uses simple ingredients. It's super customizable, too.

Tortilla pies (or tortilla stacks, or whatever you want to call these) are one of my favorite versatile weeknight meals. You layer up tortillas, cooked meat, sauce, and cheese of some kind, then bake and slice into wedges for serving. Buffalo chicken tortilla pie is a long-ago reader favorite that continues to make the rounds on my dinner menu, too.

Here beef, tortillas, black beans, BBQ sauce, and cheese come together to create a hearty, flavorful dish that tastes like there's more to it going on than just five ingredients. A whole greater than the sum of its parts, if you will.

P.S. A different cuisine but equally quick and flavorful is this shortcut paneer skillet. A true weeknight MVP.

Reasons to Love This Recipe

• This recipe is so easy, you barely have to follow it. The ingredients don't even really need to be measured!
• Tortilla pies are quick. Since the meat is already cooked by the time of assembly, all you need is for the cheese to melt and you've got dinner on the table in under 30 minutes.
• This is also a great recipe for adding a variety of vegetables, or leftover bits of this and that. Leftover sauteed kale, beans, squash, roasted sweet potatoes...it all works.

Recipe Ingredients

• Ground beef: The fat is drained off so the fat percentage doesn't matter a ton, and give or take a pound of meat is plenty. You can also substitute in a different ground meat as you like.
• Tortillas: I'm partial to flour as they often come in larger sizes. White whole wheat is a great way to add extra nutrition. 8- or 10-inch work.
• BBQ sauce: Use your favorite! While I love a flavored homemade variety (like maple bourbon BBQ sauce), for simplicity's sake I often go with store-bought.
• Black beans: These provide some fiber and heft. Rinsing and draining canned beans removes a substantial amount of the sodium.
• Cheese: Many different types work. I usually use a blend of what I have on hand: cheddar, jack, etc.

Step-by-Step Instructions

This basic recipe doesn't require much explanation, but when has that ever stopped a food blogger from writing more vs. less on the Internet?

1. Start by cooking and crumbling the ground beef in a pan. Once fully cooked, drain off the fat and transfer beef to a bowl. Stir in BBQ sauce.

2. Now comes assembly. Lay one tortilla in pan or baking dish, then brush BBQ sauce over top. Go right to the edges with the sauce to ensure that the perimeter of the tortilla doesn't dry out while this BBQ beef tortilla pie is baking.
3. Top with half of the beef mixture, then scatter the beans.

4. Top with cheese. Repeat this process one more time: tortilla, BBQ sauce, beef, beans, cheese.
5. End on a tortilla, brush with BBQ sauce, and top with the remaining cheese.

6. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or so, or until the cheese has melted and everything is hot throughout. Let it rest for several minutes after coming out of the oven so it holds together better once sliced.

Recipe Tips and Tricks

• To cut down on dirty dishes, use an oven-safe pan to cook the beef, wipe it out, then use it to assemble the beef tortilla pie.
• You can certainly bake this tortilla pie on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or aluminum foil, but I like to use a smaller pan with close edges so when slicing the filling doesn't spill out everywhere. Usually I use an 8- or 10-inch round cast iron skillet, to coincide with the tortilla size.
• For a vegetarian spin on this recipe, BBQ tempeh kale tortilla pie is always a hit, even in my carnivorous household.

Related Recipes

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Five-Ingredient BBQ Beef Tortilla Pie

This Five-Ingredient (!) BBQ Beef Tortilla Pie is a savory, satisfying main dish perfect for weeknights. It's ready in 30 minutes and uses simple ingredients. It's super customizable, too.

5 from 2 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes minutes

Servings: 4

Calories: 545kcal

Author: Alyssa

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 pound ground beef fat percentage not important
• ▢ 3 8-inch flour tortillas
• ▢ ¾ cup BBQ sauce divided
• ▢ 1 cup canned black beans divided (rinsed and drained)
• ▢ 1 cup shredded cheese divided (cheddar, colby jack, etc.)

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C).
• Add the ground beef to an oven-safe pan set over medium-high heat. Cook the beef, breaking it up into smaller crumbles and moving it around until the meat is no longer pink and is fully cooked. Drain the fat and transfer beef to a bowl.
• Pour ½ cup of the BBQ sauce over the beef and stir until evenly coated. Pour the remaining ¼ cup of BBQ sauce in a small bowl.
• Wipe out the oven-safe pan and give it a spray of cooking spray. If your pan isn't oven-safe, grease an appropriately-sized baking dish. Place a tortilla into the bottom of the pan or dish and brush the top of the tortilla with some of the reserved BBQ sauce.
• Add half of the beef evenly on top of the tortilla across to the edges. Evenly scatter over ½ cup of black beans and lightly press them into the beef. Scatter about ⅓ cup of shredded cheese evenly over top of the beef/beans.
• Take another tortilla and brush one side with BBQ sauce. Place BBQ side-down on top of the beef and now brush the other side with BBQ sauce.
• Spread the remaining beef evenly on top of the tortilla to the edges. Scatter remaining ½ cup of black beans over top, and then another ⅓ cup of shredded cheese.
• Brush one side of the remaining tortilla with BBQ sauce and place it sauce-side down on top of the beef. Brush the other side with BBQ sauce, adding a little extra if you like to make it extra saucy. Evenly sprinkle remaining ⅓ cup cheese over top.
• Place the dish in the oven and bake for 15 minutes or so, until the cheese is melted. Let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing into quarters and serving while warm.

Notes

• The ingredient quantities above are incredibly customizable. More or less meat, beans, cheese, etc.
• Another cooked meat, such as ground turkey or chicken, will work great.
• This is a great dish for adding in leftover odds and ends: cooked vegetables, meat, a blend of cheeses, etc.
• If you don't have an oven-safe pan or baking dish, you can assemble the beef tortilla pie on a sheet pan lined with parchment or foil. Just be careful when slicing so the filling doesn't spill out.

Nutrition

Calories: 545kcal | Carbohydrates: 46g | Protein: 38g | Fat: 23g | Saturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 104mg | Sodium: 1351mg | Potassium: 659mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 18g | Calcium: 380mg | Iron: 5.9mg

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Nutritional information is provided as an estimate. As it can vary due to many factors (brands used, quantities, etc.), we cannot guarantee its accuracy.

Food Safety and Nutrition Disclaimer