Mexican Manicotti

From: knmorrow

On Oct 31, 2009

I was completely impressed with this receipe but I will make it again with some adjustments. Next time around I will leave out the beef and just stuff the shells with beans because I didn't like the texture of the beans and beef together after it cooked. It made just a mushy paste that didn't have any flavor! The sauce itself didn't set up very well either...pretty watery. I think next time i'll adjust the amount of water added to the picante sauce to see if it will be thicker after cooking.

From: persi

On Oct 19, 2009

We enjoyed this, the first time around the SO liked it a lot more than I did but the second time I thought was really good too. I made a handful of adjustments to the recipe based on other reviews. When making the filling I added a can of Rotel, minced garlic, half a chopped onion, some fresh cilantro and a bit of cayenne pepper. Obviously I had more filling than I could fit in my shells so I just mixed that with my water and salsa (that I used instead of picante sauce) and poured it over the manicotti. I made two 8x8 pans, one to eat that night and the other to freeze. The one that night was good but I admit I was a bit disappointed. The flavor wasn't bad, just not as much oomph as I expected from the ingredient list. The texture also felt off, I didn't want to add rice but I think I was missing a solid mouth feel to go with the mexican flavor. Next time I would definitely add cheese to the filling in addition to what is on top and I might either lightly mash some beans rather than using refried beans or perhaps use more meat (maybe even a spicy sausage).**UPDATE** Yesterday we pulled the one from the freezer for dinner and I forgot the sour cream so we added it to our plates instead. The frozen dish was wonderful! After baking, the sauce was a bit more watery than the original but the taste was so much better. I don't know if it was leaving off the sour cream when baking or if something happened in the freezing process but it was substantially better the second time around. I also served it over rice the second time and I think that contributed to an improvement in the mouth feel. With all these changes, I will definitely be making again!

From: Lizzie-Babette

On Jun 6, 2002

Good heavens, the dish definitely has a Mexican/Southwest flair, so the name fits it. Made it last night, and it is fabulous, easy, and worthy of company. I did tweak it a bit, however as follows: added 1 heaping teaspoon of McCormick's Chipotle pepper powder as well as the heaping 3 teaspoons of regular chili powder, used refried beans with green chiles, added a couple of tablespoons of hot sauce to the picante sauce/water mix, and I topped it off with lowfat sour cream and pepper jack cheese. It was to our taste for spicy (we like food hot). I intend to try it with ground pork, chipotle salsa in place of picante sauce, and even more chipotle pepper powder. There are many ways to tweak this recipe - it's excellent.

From: yooper

On Apr 30, 2002

What a great do ahead dish! I was a little concerned about using the raw ground beef, but it turned out fine! I used 2 cups of shredded Taco cheese for the topping because I love cheese! This dish puts "Taco Bell" in the dog house!!