White Chicken Enchiladas

ByAlexis
Jump to Recipe

Welcome to the recipe that went viral on Pinterest! If you haven't seen it yet, make sure you're following me on Pinterest for this and alllll my delicious recipes I'm sharing over there. White Chicken Enchiladas are ALL the rage, and for good reason. The flavor is incredible.  Bold flavor but not spicy.  Creamy comfort food, yet not too rich.  These are a winner in all categories and will satisfy even the pickiest eater. (Yes even with green chilies and sour cream!)

Not your everyday Enchiladas...

These are not your typical enchiladas.  Traditionally, enchiladas are made with corn tortillas and a red or green sauce.  These are a "whole other thing"….and so so good.

 
Creamy White Chicken Enchiladas on plate with fork

I have a big family and we love to have big Fiesta Night dinners.  Tacos, taquitos, nachos, and of course these enchiladas are a must.  There are never any leftovers (I blame the Sour Cream and green chillies!).

White Chicken enchiladas in pan from oven

I like to put these on the Menu for Monday because I can cook the chicken in the slow cooker on Sunday and assemble everything and stick the pan in the fridge.  Then when we get home Monday from school, activities, appointments, and general chaos that comes with the beginning of the week, I can pop these in the oven and know that we will all be looking forward to a delicious dinner.

Welcome, Pinners!  

Thanks for visiting!  There have been hundreds of comments and questions on this recipe (White Chicken Enchiladas) so I want to make some of the answers known upfront.  🙂  

After you make these, you will probably want to try a few of my other VERY popular recipes that are similar

The Recipe:

Print

White Chicken Enchiladas

Print Recipe

White Chicken Enchiladas are ALL the rage, and for good reason.  The flavor is incredible.  Bold flavor but not spicy.  Creamy comfort food, yet not too rich.  These are a winner in all categories and will satisfy even the pickiest eater.

  • Author: Alexis

Ingredients

Scale

10 flour taco shells

2-3 cups cooked, shredded chicken *see notes*

2 ½ cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese

3 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp flour

2 cups chicken broth

1 cup sour cream

1 can (4oz) diced green chilies

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x14 pan.

Mix shredded chicken and 1 cup of cheese in a bowl.  Roll up the chicken into the 10 tortillas and place seam down in the prepared pan.

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium-high heat.  Stir in the flour and stir while cooking for 2 minutes.

Add in the broth and whisk until smooth.  Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly.  This will take about 15 minutes.

Turn off the heat on the saucepan and stir in the sour cream and green chilies.   Stir well and remove from heat so your sour cream won't curdle.  When it is mixed well, pour your sauce over the enchiladas in the pan.

Top with the remaining 1 ½ cup cheese.

Bake for 22 minutes and then broil on high for 3 minutes at the end to get the cheese bubbly.

Enjoy!

Notes

*To make my shredded chicken, I use 4 frozen chicken breasts and sprinkle with 2 tsp cumin, 2 tsp garlic powder, and ground black pepper (just a bit) and cook on low in my slow cooker all day.  Then they easily shred up when you are ready to make dinner.*

*For a professional shredding tip, toss your cooked chicken breasts into a kitchen aid mixer and mix on low and watch them shred up perfectly before your eyes.  You are a dinnertime champion!

Pro Tips:

  1. This recipe calls for diced green chilies.  Don't let that fool you, these are NOT spicy in the least.  My 3 year old and 1 year old love them.
  2. If you would like, you can substitute Greek yogurt for the sour cream in the recipe.  It is a 1 for 1 substitute.
  3. If you cook your chicken first (rather than using a rotisserie chicken), you may want to add some spices to give it extra flavor.  I like the chicken to have good flavor.  I tend to cook my chicken in the slow cooker with 2 teaspoon ground cumin,  2 teaspoon garlic powder, and a few shakes ground black pepper.
  4. You can make this ahead and keep it in the fridge up to 24 hours.  Just put it in the oven and increase the time a bit.  You will want to make sure they are heated through.
  5. This sauce does not freeze well.  Then enchiladas themselves freeze really well.  I freeze a few pans of them double wrapped in foil and then I just make the sauce the day of.  Thaw them first, add the sauce, cook according to original instructions. (Need more freezer meal ideas?  I've got a ton!)

Yes, your friends and family will lick their plate and ask for you to bring them to every gathering from here on out.

*These are seriously so so good*

Love this recipe?

Check out the most popular recipes here.
Did you make this recipe?  Share it on IG or Facebook and tag me @joyfulmomma

Subscribe below to keep up with my current recipes. I am always adding new favorites!

(Find it here first before all your friends find it on Pinterest!)

414 Comments

  1. I recommend adding one can, undrained, each of black beans, diced tomatoes/chiles and creamed corn to the shredded chicken for great flavor and a little moisture to help keep the chicken from becoming dry. It's a family hit every time!!

  2. I made these last night and everyone really enjoyed them 🙂 Thank You for the WONDERFUL recipe...the sauce really makes this recipe 🙂

  4. Do you think it would taste the same if you prepared this the night before and just popped it in the oven the next day??

    1. I was wondering the same thing. I want to bring it to a friend who just had a baby, but would have to make it the night before. Thoughts?! BTW, another friend made these for a get together and I couldn't get enough!!!

    2. IDK about waiting until the next day to actually cook them, but when I make them for my family we always have leftovers and both myself and my hubby will take them to work the next day for lunch and they are just as wonderful heated up in the microwave.

    3. Yes, that would be just fine. I have taken them to friends in the morning and they just put them in the oven when they were ready to eat that night. May take a smidge longer to heat.

  6. I remember seeing this exact recipe from an old issue of Southern Living, and just as it did then, it cries out for salt and seasoning. I found that simply salting the sauce drastically improves the flavor. That one simple addition would be helpful for first time users!

  7. my husband took a bite of this and said, "you know when you take that first bite and think, 'oh yeah. this is a good one......' yeah. this is one of those." and it got better the second day as leftovers when the taste had infiltrated everything.... such a good recipe. making it again tonight!

  8. Do you think greek yogurt would work in place of sour cream? Love all your recipes btw!

    1. I was wondering the same thing. Making them tonight with low fat sour cream. Next time I plan on trying Greek Yogurt...when I get around to it, I'll come back and let you know 🙂

  10. I made this tonight for dinner. Literally just got up. My husband wants to know when i plan on making this again! Thank you so much for your sharing of your recipes. It helped get us out of a major rut! Super easy and tasty! I served over mexican rice. We are having Taco casserole tomorrow 🙂 Thank you again so very much!

  11. What size tortillas do you use, as in how many inches? I want to make them tonight, this looks delish!

  12. Just made these tonight. Soooo good! Only thing I changed was I added cumin to the chicken and cheese. My husband loved them!

  16. I'm making these tonight!! The hubby can't wait!! My main concern is that it may be too spicy for the kiddos? Anyone had this prob or no?? I am going to add some Mexican rice in with the chx along w/ extra seasoning (not spicy), and going to do half cream cheese- half sour cream. ( It always seems as though, to me, cream cheese sometimes takes away a little of spiciness, etc. ) I'm really excited about this recipe, sounds Delish!! And a great alternative to the red!!! Thank you so much for posting!! I'll comment on how good it was after dinner!! ;)) -- if anyone could go ahead and give me some feedback about the spice factor for my kids, I would greatly appreciate it!! (that way I'll know to make a separate pan for them if need be!) thanks so much!!!

    1. These are not spicy in the least. Don't let the green chillies intimidate you. They are not spicy, just have flavor. My husband eats no spicy food and he and my 2 year old gobble them up!

  17. I made these tonight and they were great! I subbed the chicken for ground beef, and used veggie broth instead of chicken. Everything was great, I did add onions to the ground beef and cheese mixture that I cooked quickly in a pan with olive oil! I had a lot of ground beef left over so I sprinkled it on top before the cheese sauce. So good and EASY!! Also the "corn" tortillas that I used had green chillies in them, from Whole Foods, added a good flavor!! My husband loved it! There are zero left overs and it was just him and I!!! Well and my 14th month old son, but he only can eat so much!:)

  18. I made these last night and loved them. It was like Chicken ala King goes to Mexico. Will definitely do again. Thanks for sharing.

  19. Excellent recipe. Found you through a friend on Pinterest. I am on Weight Watchers so I skinnied this meal down. Tastes great. The only problem I had was the broiling part. I had them in for like 1.5 min and they started to burn. I think I'll just forgo that part next time, otherwise they are yummy. (I'm eating before the family, so we'll see what they say) I will make this again, it's super easy.

  20. I started out using olive oil instead of butter. Boiled chicken and used a food processor to shred. I also shredded fresh cilantro onion tomatoes and spinach and added it all to the chicken to roll up. the only thing i added to the sauce was chili powder. Turned out good and I was able to get some healthier foods mixed in.

Comments are closed.