An excellent substitute for Italian-style filled shells is this. Serve this dish with salsa, chips, and sour cream.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Additional Time: | 5 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 5 |
| Yield: | 5 servings |
Ingredients
- 36 jumbo pasta shells
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 cup water
- 1 (1.25 ounce) package taco seasoning mix
- 1 (16 ounce) can refried beans
- 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chiles
- 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
- ¾ cup picante sauce
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook elbow macaroni in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until tender yet firm to the bite, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook and stir beef in the hot skillet until browned and crumbly, 5 to 7 minutes; drain and discard grease. Add water and taco seasoning mix and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes.
- Stir refried beans, Cheddar cheese, and green chiles into ground beef; cook and stir until cheese is melted and mixture is smooth, about 5 minutes. Fill shells with beef mixture.
- Combine tomato sauce and picante sauce in a saucepan over medium-low heat; cook and stir until heated through, 5 to 7 minutes. Spread 1/2 cup sauce in the bottom of a 9×13-inch baking dish.
- Arrange stuffed shells side-by-side in the baking dish and top with remaining sauce. Cover dish with aluminum foil.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 657 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 76 g |
| Cholesterol | 86 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 9 g |
| Protein | 37 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 1712 mg |
| Sugars | 7 g |
| Fat | 22 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I love these! Easy but messy to make, still delicious! At the bottom I like to pour in some enchilada sauce. I also add some cream cheese in my meat. YUM
Really fun to make but instead of putting it in the oven, I threw it on the grill and man it turned out AMAZING!! Definitely highly recommend
It’s a good base recipe for Mexican stuffed shells. I would make it again, though I would probably add something to give it more kick.
This was a pretty good casserole, definitely something different. It was very messy to make, about halfway through fighting with the shell stuffing part of this recipe I placed the rest of the mixture into a large storage bag, cut the corner and piped the rest into the shells. That worked much better and was not as messy. I would also triple the sauce recipe for the top…..someone said double but I ended up making a triple batch for a 9×12. I would not make this a menu staple but would make it for guests, potluck, etc.
We thought it was great! Messy to make but so what . It’s a keeper for us very tasty not bland the way I made it . try using Mexican cheddar cheese too .adds to the taste . use 23 shells too fits better in a 13×9 pan . Also double the sauce recipe for the top of the shells. a tip from me I put tooth picks on top of shells after I put cheese on the top of the shells to keep from sticking worked well too. Hope you enjoy !
In my opinion this was just okay. Too much work for how it turned out. I like my Mexican food spicy and even with the taco mix, it was kind of bland. It also reminded me of a layer Mexican casserole I have made with tortillas. (much easier to make). If you do not like hot and spicy you might like this—presentation is great!
These were a little messy to stuff and not too pretty to look at but the taste was excellent. I never would have thought to add refried beans to my ground beef but I really liked it. The leftovers reheat nicely as well. Very tasty recipe and one I will make again!