Our new chicken enchiladas recipe made with homemade salsa verde is what comfort food is all about! It is hard to beat a delicious, filling meal that only takes minutes to prepare. Enchiladas Verdes with Chicken is one such dish; it's easy and simple enough for any night of the week.
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This delightful dish is called enchiladas verdes in Mexico and consists of rolled corn tortillas filled with cooked chicken in a creamy sauce, covered with a fresh tomatillo sauce, and finished off in the oven with shredded cheese.
🐓 Easy Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas
Delicious home comfort food has arrived in the form of Mexican enchiladas verdes!
I love making this super easy enchilada recipe that is spicy, flavorful, sweet, and creamy. It is loaded with shredded chicken, veggies, sour cream, cheese, and a homemade green sauce.
Like all enchilada recipes, they are versatile with their ingredients, and with enchiladas verdes, it is also true! You can opt to make the tomatillo salsa verde yourself or buy a can of it from the grocery store.
Alternatively, if you choose to use a red enchilada sauce instead, check out my recipe for an authentic taste of Mexico that will enhance the flavor of any dish.
I use cooked and shredded chicken breasts for my enchiladas, but you can also create the same dish with chicken thighs or rotisserie chicken.
If you like chicken, try my beef enchiladas or the veggie enchiladas made with black beans and roasted vegetables, which are both fantastic. Check my collection of comforting chicken casserole recipes for more ideas.
🍽 Ingredient notes
Enchiladas verdes with chicken require a few key ingredients like tomatillos, jalapenos, onion and garlic . Otherwise, you probably have most of the ingredients for this recipe already in your pantry and fridge.
Ingredients for the Salsa Verde
- 1 28 ounce can of tomatillos drained
- 1 28 ounce can of tomatillos drained
- 2 jalapenos seeded and diced
- ½ white onion roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups chicken stock
Ingredients for the Enchilada Filling
- 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil
- ½ onion finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 4 chicken breasts cooked and shredded or chicken thighs
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ⅓ cup chicken stock
- 1 lime juiced
- ¼ cup fresh cilantro chopped
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 12 corn tortillas or 10 if you use flour tortillas
- 1 cup mozzarella shredded
- ½ cup queso anejo crumbled
- kosher salt and pepper to taste
Substitutions
Cheese
This recipe requires a good quality grilling cheese like queso anejo to go on top of the enchiladas. Still, you can also use other varieties like cotija cheese, queso fresco, jack cheese, or cheddar.
🔪 How To Make
Enchiladas Verdes with Chicken is easy to prepare, cook, and ready in under an hour. Learn how to make this fantastic salsa verde chicken enchiladas with step-by-step instructions, detailed images, and a video walkthrough.
Prepare the Salsa Verde
Step 1
Fill your blender with canned tomatillos, onion, jalapenos, and garlic.
Step 2
Add the chicken stock to the blender so that the liquid comes just above the ingredients, then blend them together until it's puréed.
Step 3
Pour the ingredients into the saucepan and bring to a boil before letting it simmer for around 10 minutes until thicken and resembling a salsa.
Step 4
Take the pan off the heat and leave it covered for later.
Preparing the Chicken Filling
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 degrees Celsius) and grease your baking dish with cooking spray or butter.
Step 1
Heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook the chopped onion for a few minutes until soft and lightly browned. Then add the garlic, and cook for a further 2 minutes until fragrant.
Step 2
Stir in the shredded chicken, pepper, cumin, and season with salt to taste. Add the chicken stock and increase the skillet temperature to medium-high heat.
Allow the ingredients to combine and thicken by stirring occasionally.
Step 3
Cook for 5 minutes until the majority of the liquid has absorbed, then take the skillet off the heat, squeeze in the lime, and stir in the chopped cilantro and sour cream.
Step 4
Pour half a cup of the homemade salsa verde over the bottom and spread it evenly.
Step 5
Heat the tortillas in the microwave for 10 seconds or in a hot pan with hot oil, then sprinkle some mozzarella cheese in the middle of a tortilla and add half a cup of chicken mixture.
Roll it tightly and place the filled tortilla in the prepared baking dish seam side down. Repeat this procedure with the remaining tortillas, chicken filling, and the remaining cheese.
Step 6
Pour the remaining sauce over the rolled tortillas and top with queso anejo before baking in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until the cheese melts.
Step 7
Take out the oven and serve immediately.
Optional garnish: sliced avocado, jalapenos, queso fresco, chopped cilantro, sour cream.
💭Cooking Tips
- If you don't have a blender to make the salsa verde sauce, you can achieve a similar consistency by finely chopping the tomatillos, onion, garlic, and jalapenos. Boil them with the stock for around 20 minutes, occasionally stirring for the sauce to thicken.
- These enchiladas verdes work well with corn tortillas or flour tortillas. Still, they need to be warmed up first to soften them, ready for rolling.
📖 Recipe variations
Meat
Mix up the enchiladas verdes recipe with shredded pork or brisket instead of shredded chicken breast. I sometimes make enchiladas verdes with shredded pork shoulder when I have some leftover from a Sunday roast dinner!
Vegetarian
Make these enchiladas vegetarian by substituting the chicken for some zucchini, eggplant, carrot, pumpkin, or mushrooms, and adding vegetable stock instead of chicken.
Creamy enchiladas
Take out the salsa verde and make the fabulous sour cream chicken enchiladas. These enchiladas are a creamier version of the enchiladas verdes and use cheddar cheese rather than mozzarella and queso anejo.
Spicy enchiladas
Add some extra spice to your enchiladas with a few chopped serrano chiles and half a teaspoon of chili powder.
🥗 What to serve with
If you want some side dishes to accompany the enchiladas for your next big dinner, try some of these tasty and easy-to-make options.
Avocado fries
These crispy low-carb fries are perfect as a side dish with enchiladas. I make a big batch of avocado fries when avocados are on offer and fry them in panko to serve alongside the main dish.
They turn out nice and crunchy on the outside and have that creamy texture you associate with avocado. Perfect for dipping in the salsa verde!
Jalapeno cheddar cornbread
Soak up those delicious enchilada juices with a hearty cornbread made with lots of cheddar cheese and enough jalapenos to give the bread a nice spicy kick.
Jalapeno cheddar cornbread is a fantastic recipe that is quick to make and easy to serve warm with any enchiladas recipes or Mexican cuisine.
Pinto beans
If you love Mexican food, then you have probably heard of or tried delicious pinto beans. The beans usually come mushed up and swimming in a thick aromatic gravy from the bean juices.
The recipe takes around 1 hour and a half to make and will last for 4 to 5 days in the fridge.
🙋 Frequently Asked Questions
What's the best sauce for enchiladas?
There is no doubt, homemade enchilada sauce wins every time. Not only is it easy to make, but the flavor is also bold, deep, spicy, and tangy. While store-bought sauces are easy, they tend to be rather dull in comparison.
If I had to pick a store-bought option, I'd go with a classic Las Palmas or La Victoria.
Is red or green enchilada sauce better?
Red or Green enchilada sauce, it's all personal preference! Red enchilada sauce is mild, soft, and slightly sweeter. While green enchilada sauce tend to have jalapenos for kick and red or green enchilada sauce, it's all personal preference! Salsa rojo is mild, soft, and slightly sweeter. While salsa verde tends to have jalapenos for kick, the green tomatillos give the sauce a nice tanginess. For this reason, the choice between red and green is solely based on personal preference.
🧊 Storing and ♨️ Reheating
These tasty enchiladas verdes are great for eating the next day. While most recipes are better fresh, I admit that enchiladas flavor intensifies the following day and tastes fantastic, warmed up or cold.
They can last refrigerated for up to 2 days and frozen for up to 3 months.
Refrigerated
Once you have finished eating the enchiladas, transfer the leftovers to an airtight container or wrap the baking dish with aluminum foil and store it in the fridge.
Frozen
I do not recommend freezing cooked enchiladas verdes, but I have frozen them uncooked before preparing midweek meals in advance. To freeze them uncooked, follow the cooking instructions. Instead of baking them in a casserole dish, use a throwaway aluminum tray.
Throw away baking trays work perfectly for frozen enchiladas, and there's no need for thawing. Just pop them in a preheated oven for 30 minutes or until piping hot, and the cheese has melted.
🍳 Related Enchilada Recipes
If you like this enchiladas verdes with chicken, you should try one of this enchiladas recipes made with comforting ingredients.
For more mexican recipes, check my collection of best mexican soup recipes.
👪 Serving Size
The recipe is sufficient for feeding 6 adults or make a double batch of enchiladas for a midweek meal.
If you love enchiladas as much as I do, then I am positive this delicious creamy chicken enchiladas recipe with homemade salsa verde will be an instant hit at your dinner table.
Love enchiladas? Add my easy and delicious sour cream chicken enchiladas to your meal planner. You don't want to miss this one!
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page.
Try one of my comfort dinner recipes for your next family meal! And if you have any questions, I'm here to help!
📋 Recipe
Enchiladas Verdes with Chicken
Ingredients
for the salsa verde:
- 1 can tomatillos - 28 ounces drained
- 2 jalapenos - seeded and diced
- ½ white onion - roughly chopped
- 2 cloves garlic - minced
- 2 cups chicken stock
for the filling:
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- ½ onion - finely chopped
- 1 clove garlic - minced
- 4 chicken breasts - cooked and shredded
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ⅓ cup chicken stock
- 1 lime - juice
- ¼ cup cilantro - chopped
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 12 corn flour tortillas - less if you use flour
- 1 cup mozzarella - shredded
- ½ cup queso anejo - crumbled
- salt and pepper - to taste
Instructions
make the salsa:
- Put the tomatillos, jalapeños, onion and garlic into a blender.
- Pour in enough chicken stock to almost cover the tomatoes, then blend together until everything is pureed.
- Pour the salsa into a medium saucepan and bring to just boiling, then reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
make the enchiladas:
- Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (204 degrees Celsius) and spray a large casserole pan. Spread about ½ a cup of the salsa in the bottom of the pan.
- Heat the oil in a large skillet, over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, about 3 - 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
- Add the shredded chicken and sprinkle with the cumin, generously add salt and pepper, then stir well to combine. Stir in the chicken stock and increase the heat to medium. Cook for about 4 - 5 minutes, or until most of the stock is absorbed.
- Remove from heat and squeeze the lime over the chicken, then stir in the cilantro and sour cream.
- Heat the flour tortillas for a few seconds in the microwave, then one at a time sprinkle with some mozzarella cheese and top with about ½ cup of the chicken filling. Roll up tightly and place seam side down on top of the salsa in the casserole dish.
- Spoon the remaining salsa over the enchiladas and sprinkle with the queso anejo. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, or until heated through.
- Garnish with additional sour cream and avocado.
Video
Notes
- If you don't have a blender to make the salsa verde sauce, you can achieve a similar consistency by finely chopping the tomatillos, onion, garlic, and jalapenos. Boil them with the stock for around 20 minutes, occasionally stirring for the sauce to thicken.
- These enchiladas verdes work well with corn tortillas or flour tortillas. Still, they need to be warmed up first to soften them, ready for rolling.
- Mix up the enchiladas verdes recipe with shredded pork or brisket instead of shredded chicken breast. I sometimes make enchiladas verdes with shredded pork shoulder when I have some leftover from a Sunday roast dinner!
- Make these enchiladas vegetarian by substituting the chicken for some zucchini, eggplant, carrot, pumpkin, or mushrooms, and adding vegetable stock instead of chicken.
- Take out the salsa verde and make the fabulous sour cream chicken enchiladas. These enchiladas are a creamier version of the enchiladas verdes and use cheddar cheese rather than mozzarella and queso anejo.
- Add some extra spice to your enchiladas with a few chopped serrano chiles and half a teaspoon of chili powder.
Jan Avedisian
It looks amazing but what I would like even more is that pan!! The handle looks like All Clad but I'd love to know the brand.