Guys, these white chicken enchiladas have to be one of my all-time favorite enchilada recipes EVER! This post has been a HUGE reader favorite as well.They’re cheesy, saucy, and truly downright divine. I promise you will really love these! All that and they come together quickly enough to work for my midweek dinner rotation.
If you love this type 0f enchilada, you might want to try creamy seafood shrimp enchiladas. My shredded beef enchiladas are absolutely heavenly and have an amazing homemade red sauce that is to die for on them. I really hope you try them!!! If you’re looking for a more traditional chicken enchilada, try my cheesy chicken enchiladas. They’ve been in our families regular dinner rotation for more than a decade!
Let’s make these!
What I Love About This Recipe
- Smothered in a rich, tangy, homemade sauce
- Quick to prepare
- Loaded with cheesy goodness!
- No Canned Soup
How To Make White Chicken Enchiladas Recipe
My decadently cheesy enchiladas recipe whips up in less than 45 minutes! A double win — delicious and quick.
-
In a small bowl, combine chicken and 1 cup of Monterey Jack cheese. Fill tortillas with this mixture and roll each one up then place seam side down in the prepared pan.
- Melt the butter in a skillet. Sprinkle flour over melted butter and whisk to combine. Cook for 1 minute to remove the flour taste. Remove the skillet from heat and whisk in broth. Place back on the heat and cook until the mixture has thickened and is bubbly. Cool sauce for 3-5 minutes.
- Add sour cream and chilies and stir until sauce is smooth and sour cream is completely dissolved.
- Pour sauce over enchiladas and add remaining cheese over top. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until enchiladas are heated through and sauce is bubbly.
- Turn on the broiler and broil until the top is nicely golden. Top with chopped green onions and serve.
Best Chicken To Use For This Recipe
This is a great recipe to use a rotisserie chicken in. It greatly speeds up the prep time and it’s infused with great seasoning. If you’d prefer, you can use homemade poached chicken or any leftover grilled chicken you happen to have. You can use a combo of white and dark meat or just white or just dark meat per your family’s preference.
White Chicken Enchiladas Recipe Ingredients + Notes
- Diced chiles – Our recipe calls for mild chilies. If your family likes spicy food, you can substitute hotter chilies instead. Another tasty option is fire-roasted chilies. They should be on the shelf near the other canned peppers at your grocery store.
- Chicken – You can cook the chicken according to your favorite method, such as roasting or poaching the breasts. If you’re pressed for time, using a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken from your grocer is a great time-saving shortcut. Honestly, 9 times out of 10, that’s what I use.
- Shredded cheese – We love the flavor of Monterey Jack in this dish. It also helps keep the sauce white! If you have a different cheese on hand, feel free to substitute your favorite shredded cheese in this recipe. My son loves when I use Pepper Jack instead of the plain Monterey because it adds another layer of flavor and spice. It might be too spicy for little kiddos though.
- Sour cream – We strongly recommend using full-fat sour cream in this recipe. It’s an important factor in the richness of the sauce. Also, low-fat sour cream tends to separate and get runny when heated. You might end up with gloppy enchiladas!
- Green onions – Don’t have any green onions? A sprinkle of chopped cilantro on top will add a bright flavor, too.
- Tortillas – The recipe calls for using flour tortillas, but if you prefer, you can switch them with corn tortillas. I used fajita sized tortillas.
- Seasoning – I didn’t need to add any salt or pepper to this recipe. The chicken broth I used was very flavorful and had a lot of salt already in it. The chicken was also well seasoned and obviously, the cheese had a good amount of salt.
- Tools to Make
Tools For This Recipe
- A 9×13 baking pan
- A stovetop skillet
- Mixing bowls
- A whisk: The whisk is important! This helps you get the creamiest, dreamiest sauce imaginable.
How To Shred Cooked Chicken
The quickest and easiest way to shred chicken is to use a hand held mixer or a stand-up mixer. Here’s how:
- Place boneless, cooked chicken in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand-up mixer.
- Set the mixer on low and mix.
- Et Viola! Perfect shredded chicken in a fraction on the time!!
STORING + FREEZING + MAKE-AHEAD
- How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? If you have leftover enchiladas, store them in an airtight container to keep them from drying out. Store in the fridge for 3-4 days for optimal freshness.
- Can You Freeze This? Sour cream can tend to get runny and/or chunky in the freezer. Freezing them will change the texture of the sauce. We suggest freezing the stuffed and rolled enchiladas without the sauce. Then make the white sauce on the day you plan to reheat and eat them.
- Make-Ahead Tips: If you meal prep at the beginning of the week, these can easily be prepared several days in advance. Store the stuffed and rolled enchiladas in a covered baking dish. Keep the white sauce separate until you plan to cook the enchiladas. This will cut down on soggy tortillas.
- If you’re making the sauce in advance, it may get a bit too thick when it’s cooled and reheated. This is easy to fix. Add whole milk or chicken stock, one tablespoon at a time, during reheating to achieve your desired thickness. Be sure to stir or whisk thoroughly to maintain the creaminess of the sauce.
Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Serving Recommendations
What better way to serve my chicken enchiladas than with a whole Mexican feast? My favorite things to serve with this are my Mexican Rice, jalapeno cornbread, Mexican corn salad, and my Southwest Salad (my family’s favorite salad! They always eat their veggies when I serve this). All the flavors in the dishes complement each other perfectly and I have a meal on the table that everyone is happy with.
Tried This Recipe?
Leave a review, I love hearing your feedback! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
More Delicious Mexican-Inspired Recipes
White Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 8-10 small flour tortillas
- 3 cups cooked chicken shredded or chopped
- 3 cups Monterey jack cheese shredded-divided
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 (4-ounce can) diced green chilies mild
- 2-3 tablespoons green onions sliced
Instructions
- Spray a 9 X 13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small bowl, combine chicken and 1 cup of Monterey Jack cheese. Fill tortillas with this mixture and roll each one up then place seam side down in the prepared pan.
- Melt the butter in a skillet. Sprinkle flour over melted butter and whisk to combine. Cook for 1 minute to remove the flour taste. Remove the skillet from heat and whisk in broth. Place back on the heat and cook until the mixture has thickened and is bubbly. Cool sauce for 3-5 minutes. (Don't skip this step- if the sauce is too hot and you add the sour cream it will curdle it-yuck!) Add sour cream and chilies and stir until sauce is smooth and sour cream is completely dissolved.
- Pour sauce over enchiladas and add remaining cheese over top. Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until enchiladas are heated through and sauce is bubbly. Turn on the broiler and broil until the top is nicely golden. Top with chopped green onions and serve.
Third time making it! It really is an amazing tasting dish! My husband loves it and does not like sour cream.
Wow, that’s amazing, Hannah! I’m so happy it was a hit! Thanks for the positive feedback 🙂
So good! I only used 2 cups of leftover rotisserie chicken and used 8 oz Colby Jack and 8 oz pepper Jack cheese. I used homemade chicken stock and a tsp. of chicken base. It was delicious. We are not big meat eaters and I thought the recipe had an excessive amount of cheese for our liking. Great recipe, we will make this again!
Yaaay! Thanks, Shirley! I’m glad it was a hit 🙂