My family loves these green chile chicken enchiladas. They are a tasty, quick, and easy dinner! You can use homemade salsa verde or store-bought enchilada sauce in our recipe.
Our family’s green enchiladas are a guaranteed hit! We’ve been making them for years! You can make these with our flavorful homemade salsa verde, or save time with a store-bought green enchilada sauce. Either way, you’ll get perfectly creamy, cheesy enchiladas that everyone will love.
These easy chicken enchiladas are incredibly delicious and super easy. If you’re a fan, be sure to try our other recipes with salsa verde, like this Instant Pot salsa verde chicken, green chile nachos, and our speedy green chile chicken quesadillas!
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: This recipe requires cooked chicken. You can use leftover chicken or cook it using one of these simple recipes: poached chicken (15 minutes), tender shredded chicken (1 hour), or slow cooker shredded chicken (4 to 6 hours).
- Green enchilada sauce: I love this homemade roasted salsa verde made with tomatillos, chile peppers, onion, and garlic. It works beautifully in these green chicken enchiladas. I’ve also used store-bought green enchilada sauce in this recipe. I love the green chile enchilada sauce from Hatch, Las Palmas, and Frontera.
- Tortillas: Use flour or corn tortillas in these enchiladas. Corn is more traditional, but if you love flour tortillas, please use them! If you’d like to make your own, try our recipes for soft flour tortillas or homemade corn tortillas.
- Garlic: I always add extra garlic to my enchilada sauce and love the kick.
- Sour cream: Makes our enchilada sauce super creamy and delicious. It also tones the spice level if you are more sensitive to spicy food.
- Cheese: I add cheese to the filling and the top of our enchiladas. It bakes to be so melty! Monterey Jack, cheddar, a Mexican cheese blend, or super melty Oaxaca cheese, is great.
How to Make Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas
Our creamy salsa verde enchilada sauce could not be easier to make. Start by warming your homemade salsa verde or store-bought enchilada sauce with sauteed garlic, then stir in sour cream and fresh cilantro.
Next, you’ll stir in shredded cooked chicken and a handful of cheese. Adding the chicken to the warm sauce gives it a head start on heating through. The chicken absorbs so much flavor. I could stop here and eat the whole skillet!
To make your enchiladas, add a spoonful of the chicken and creamy green sauce to the tortillas and roll them up. Then, place the rolled enchiladas seam-side-down in your baking dish to keep them in place. I bake them in the oven until heated and the cheese melts (just under 30 minutes).
What to Serve with Green Chicken Enchiladas
I love serving these chicken enchiladas next to Mexican rice or cilantro lime rice and refried beans or creamy black beans. I’m always happy to see fresh pico de gallo and tortilla chips on the table and my son also loves guacamole, so you’ll usually see that, too!
Easy Green Chicken Enchiladas
- PREP
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- TOTAL
These salsa verde chicken enchiladas are easy and incredibly delicious. You can use store-bought green chile enchilada sauce or salsa verde for this recipe. I like the options from Hatch, Las Palmas, and Frontera. Or, to make it from scratch, try this homemade salsa verde made with tomatillos, green chile peppers, and garlic (it’s amazing).
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
6 flour tortillas or corn tortillas, 8 inches in diameter
2 cups (16 ounces) green chile enchilada sauce or salsa verde
1 teaspoon olive oil or avocado oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped, plus more for serving
1 cup shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack, Oaxaca, or use a Mexican cheese blend
Directions
- Make Enchilada Sauce
1Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant but not brown, about 1 minute.
2Stir in the green chile enchilada sauce (or salsa verde) and cook for one more minute.
3Remove the skillet from the heat. Stir in sour cream and cilantro. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. If the sauce is too spicy, stir in more sour cream.
4Remove 1 cup of sauce from the skillet and set aside to assemble the enchiladas later.
5Stir the shredded chicken and half the cheese into the remaining sauce in the skillet.
- Bake Enchiladas
1Preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 2-quart baking dish.
2Spread half of the reserved sauce on the bottom of the dish.
3Place 1/3 cup of the chicken filling in the center of each tortilla. Roll into a cylinder. Arrange rolled tortillas seam-side down in the baking dish.
4Spread the remaining reserved sauce over the enchiladas. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese.
5Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes. Then, remove the foil and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes.
6Allow the enchiladas to cool for 5 to 10 minutes so they set up a bit in the middle. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Chicken: Use leftover chicken or try one of these easy recipes to cook chicken: poached chicken (15 minutes), tender shredded chicken (1 hour), or slow cooker shredded chicken (4 to 6 hours).
- Tortillas: For these enchiladas, you can use either flour or corn tortillas. Corn tortillas have a more traditional flavor and texture, while flour tortillas are a better option if you prefer a softer result. If using corn tortillas, soften them before filling for easier rolling. To do this, lightly coat them in oil and bake at 350°F for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Make ahead: As these enchiladas sit, they absorb more of the sauce, making them soft and soggy. I prefer these the day I make them, and I don’t recommend making them days ahead of time or freezing them.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
This recipe really kicked up my canned enchilada sauce. Since you were adding garlic for more flavor I also added sauted onion and next time will add a poblano pepper. I always add cheese when rolling tbe enchiladas but adding the cheese to the mixture keeps your hands cleaner and is a lot quicker. The cilantro adds a lot of flavor and sour cream pulls it all together. This will be my go to enchiladas.
Goodness, gracious this is an amazing recipe! I was making it ahead so I mixed the enchilada sauce and sour cream cold and left out the garlic step. I cooked my chicken in a crock pot from frozen with half cup of water lots of garlic powder and salt and pepper so didn’t want to overdo the garlic. Prepared as otherwise directed and refrigerated until ready to bake. Did 20 min with tin foil and 20 min without and it turned out amazing and definitely going in the rotation! Thanks so much!
I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve made this. This is my favorite recipe from Pinterest. One of my husband’s all time favorite meals. I have to admit, if I need him to do one of the chores he hates I just say if you do. I’ll make the salsa verde enchaladas and boom it happens. He cooks chicken on the smoker, debones it, and freezes it. So I have cooked chicken at a moments notice all the time. It makes it a quick easy delicious meal that never fails to please. I use La Costena Green Salsa Tomatillo Sauce. It tastes just like the salsa I used to make from scratch.
This is incredible, Lana. Thank you for sharing that! I am so happy you stumbled onto our recipe and that it’s become a repeat meal for you and your family!
It doesn’t look like you heated the tortillas up in oil first or you said in oil and bake them. Usually I think people just do that in a pan, but they look like they haven’t been heated up in oil at all first like you mentioned?
I do not do that with flour tortillas since they are already soft enough. If you use corn tortillas, you should consider it.