I feel like creamy chicken enchiladas are something we all grew up on. Maybe it’s a Utah thing? I grew up eating this classic dish and I know a lot of my friends did too. It consisted of canned cream of chicken soup, canned green chilies, shredded cheese, tortillas and rotisserie chicken. It’s something our moms threw together last minute for an easy dinner but something we all know and love.
There’s something nostalgic about this dish and although the basic version is great, I wanted to make it without canned soup and make a homemade sauce instead. The end result is honestly, 10x better than the version I grew up on. It only takes a little bit more effort and the results are 100% worth it.
Tips and Tricks:
- The chicken thighs give this dish a lot of extra flavor but you can totally use chicken breasts instead if you are not a fan of thighs.
- If you need a quicker version of this dish, use prepackaged and cooked shredded rotisserie chicken instead of chicken thighs and instead of cooking the thighs in the crock pot all day, just combine the cooked chicken with the cheese, seasonings and salsa verde and continue through the next steps.
- You can use whatever type of cheese you prefer but I love the flavor the Havarti gives this dish.
- You can also use flour tortillas if you prefer them over corn tortillas.
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 9
- Total Time: 9-10 hours
- Yield: 6–8 1x
Description
The classic creamy chicken enchiladas we all grew up on only no canned soup here. A made from scratch creamy and cheesy sauce puts these enchiladas a notch above the rest.
Ingredients
- 1 small package corn tortillas (18 ct bag)
- 1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 12 oz jar salsa verde
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp garlic salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 6–8 slices Havarti cheese
- 1 4 oz can mild diced green chilies
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 green onions (optional)
- 1 bunch cilantro (optional)
Instructions
- Add chicken thighs and salsa verde to a crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- Once time is up, shred the chicken with a fork while simultaneously mixing it into the salsa verde.
- Add 1 cup shredded cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic salt, and cumin to the chicken and stir until combined.
- Spray a 9×13 pan with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Fill tortillas with a little bit of chicken mixture and roll them up one at a time and place them in the pan until the pan is full. The tortillas tend to rip once rolled up but that’s okay, don’t stress, it won’t make much of a difference in the final product.
- For the sauce: In a large skillet melt the butter over medium/high heat. Once it is melted and starts sizzling, add the flour. Whisk for 1 minute then slowly pour chicken stock in while whisking constantly. Let the sauce bubble and thicken while stirring constantly until it starts thickening up again. Remove from heat.
- Let the sauce stand for 3 minutes and then add the sour cream, last cup of shredded cheese, diced chilies, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and stir until the cheese is melted and sour cream is mixed in.
- Pour the sauce over the enchiladas and cover the top with the slices of Havarti cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes then turn the oven to broil and broil for 2 minutes so the top can brown a little. Remove and let stand for 5-10 minutes.
- Top the enchiladas with diced green onions and chopped cilantro and serve.
- Category: Dinner
Keywords: Chicken, Enchiladas, Chicken Enchiladas, Mexican Food
How would I cook the chicken & salsa verde if not using a crock pot? Also how many pounds of chicken and tsp of pepper? Thank you!
I am so sorry I am not sure what happened to the original post but it looks like something went wrong and some of the measurements got replaced with ?’s. I fixed it now and it should have all the correct measurements!
Made this for Mother’s Day and it was DELICIOUS! Everyone loved it! I used chicken breast and doubled the recipe. So dang good!
Yay! I am so happy to hear that everyone loved it. Thanks for the sweet comment!