Looking for ideas for a busy weeknight? These Mexican and Mexican-inspired meals need five or fewer ingredients, making them excellent additions to your weekly menu. These dishes make Mexican night simple, from street-style tacos to enchiladas. 

Here are our simplest Mexican dishes that only require five ingredients or less, whether you seek real Mexican food as you would find at the Milwalky Taco restaurant or just a recipe with a bit of Mexican flair.

Mexican casserole

Ingredients 

• Refried beans in a 16-ounce can
• 5 (10 inch) flour tortillas
• 1 Chopped onion
• 5 tortillas with flour 10 inches
• 1 salsa cup
• 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Apply nonstick cooking spray to a 9-inch pie pan. Cook the refried beans and onions in a saucepan for 5 minutes on medium-high heat.

One tortilla should go in the bottom of the oiled pan. Over it, distribute roughly 1/3 cup of the bean mixture. Add a kind layer of salsa on top of this. Add more of the bean mixture and another tortilla to the salsa. Spread a generous amount of cheese on top of the beans after them. Stack the contents evenly over the tortillas and repeat the process. Ensure you put a lot of salsa and cheese on the top layer! About 15 to 20 minutes of baking time will melt the cheese.

Chorizo street tacos

Ingredients 

• One chorizo sausage link, with the casing removed and the meat crumbled.
• 4 corn tortillas
• Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, 2 tablespoons 
• 2 tablespoons finely minced onion, or as desired
• Two tablespoons of freshly chopped cilantro or as desired (optional).

Directions

Mix the crumbled chorizo with the chipotle chiles and adobo sauce in a bowl. Heat a skillet and fill it with the chorizo mixture. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until crisp. Leave the fat in the skillet, but transfer to a dish.

In a skillet with the saved grease, cook the tortillas on each side for 1 to 2 minutes over medium heat. For each taco, stack two tortillas and fill them with chorizo, onion, and cilantro.

Flaming slow cooker pork/beef

Ingredients 

• 4 pounds of cubed pork/beef tenderloin
• Hot Picante sauce, one (16-ounce) jar.
• 7 ounces of chopped green chilies in a can.
• Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, one can
• Two juiced limes

Directions

In the slow cooker, place the pork/beef tenderloin. Add green chiles, chipotle peppers in your adobo sauce, and lime juice to the picante sauce before spooning it over the meat. Simmer the pork/beef with the lid on until it can easily shred with two forks for roughly 5 hours on High. Remove the pork/beef from the sauce, shred it, and add it back. Cook for another three to four hours on low.

Tamale hash

Ingredients

A teaspoon of avocado oil

2 tamales, divided into cubes of half an inch

2 teaspoons of handmade tomato sauce from Mexico

Salt as desired 

Instructions

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the chopped tamales and cook for about 5 minutes or until golden brown. Add tomato sauce, season with salt, cover, and simmer for about three minutes or until tamales are soft. Serve right away.

The takeaway

Use Mexican herbs to flavor the dishes.

Noa Janssen