Guys, these White Chicken Enchiladas have to be one of my all-time favorite enchilada recipes EVER — and they’ve been a HUGE reader favorite for years, too.
They’re cheesy, saucy, and downright divine, with that creamy white sauce that tastes like something you’d order at your favorite little Mexican spot. The best part? They come together easily enough to work for a midweek dinner rotation, but they’re absolutely worthy of serving to company.
If you love this creamy enchilada vibe, you might also want to try Creamy Seafood Shrimp Enchiladas — they’re rich and totally crave-worthy. Want something more traditional? My Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas have been in our family’s regular dinner rotation for more than a decade! And for an easier weeknight shortcut, our Green Chicken Enchilada Casserole fits the bill perfectly.
Looking for more dinner inspiration? Browse my Chicken Dinner Recipe collection for more easy chicken meals and family favorites.
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 bowl, combine chicken and 1 cup of Monterey Jack cheese.
- Fill tortillas with this mixture and roll each one up.
- Arrange the tortillas in the prepared pan.
- Melt butter in a skillet. Sprinkle flour and cook for a minute.
- Remove the skillet from the heat and add chicken broth. Place back on the heat until the sauce thickens.
- Add sour cream and chilies, stir until the sauce is smooth.
- Pour the sauce over the enchiladas. Add the remaining cheese on top.
- Bake.
- Top with green onions and serve.
***See the full instructions below.
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 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 handheld 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 + Meake 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 it and eat it.
- 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.
- Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety check out this link.
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, charro beans, 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.
How about some dessert? We like this with our margarita cake (totally nonalchoholic!), pineapple upside down cake, pig pickin cake, or pineapple sheet cake.
If you want to pair this with cocktails, try our pink margarita, pineapple margarita, or our old-fashioned mocktail, lime rickey!
More Delicious Mexican-Inspired Recipes
Tried This Recipe?
Leave a review, I love hearing your feedback! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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 9x13-inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside. Preheat oven to 350ºF (177ºC).
- In a small bowl, combine chicken (3 cups) and 1 cup of Monterey Jack cheese. Fill tortillas (8-10) with this mixture and roll each one up then place seam side down in the prepared pan.
- Melt the butter (3 tablespoons) in a skillet. Sprinkle flour (3 tablespoons) 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 (2 cups). 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 (1 cup) and chilies (1 can) and stir until the sauce is smooth and the sour cream is completely dissolved.
- Pour sauce over enchiladas and add remaining cheese over top. Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until the enchiladas are heated through and the sauce is bubbly. Turn on the broiler and broil until the top is nicely golden. Top with chopped green onions (2-3 tablespoons) and serve.
I have been making easy meals for my daughter and her family as they adjust to a new baby along with 2 toddlers! I purchased a rotisserie chicken and shredded. It was a super easy and quick meal to prep for them. Thanks! I’m sure they will love it
Hey, Penny! Congrats on your daughter! You’re awesome, this is really perfect for them! Thanks for the positive feedback and 5-star rating! 🙂
I had chicken breasts and almost a full pint of sour cream that had been opened so was looking for a white enchilada sauce. My college student wanted to make red since that’s what she’s familiar with but I didn’t have tomato paste. So I poached a large chicken breast (about a pound?), shredded it, and used the 1.5C of water in the pan to make the sauce. I added onion and garlic powders and some dried cilantro to it before whisking in the sour cream. We added some salsa verde to the filling to loosen the chicken and cheese mixture, and onion, garlic, chipotle and cumin as well as some diced fresh jalapeno. I thought it was going to be too much sauce for 6 smallish flour tortillas but it was perfect. I just microwaved it for 5 minutes since everything was already hot, and once it was bubbling stuck it under the broiler for a few minutes to brown the cheese I sprinkled on top. This was a big hit – we only had 1 left over from the 3 of us so that will be a light meal for our son who works nights and eats his big meal at midnight, “lunch” at 6am, and breakfast at 5pm.
Sheila I’m so happy this was a hit for your family! Thanks so much for leaving a comment and your tweaks and hints! I love our little foodie community!
My family loves this recipe and we do it at least once a month. We double it and make 2 pans as my husband and son want it the next night as well. Thank you for a perfect recipe that we can also tweak easily if we dont have ingredients/need low carb, etc. We have often not had the exact cheese we want, have used low carb tortillas and omitted the flour, cooked down longer to make a low carb dish, added in extra some pureed jalapenos, etc but the base recipe is also just awesome. Thank you again for sharing this.
You’re so welcome, Michelle! Thanks so much leaving a comment and the 5 star rating! I hope you find many more recipes that work for your family here!
I’ve made this Delicious recipe 3 time’s and it’s one of my favorites 😍
Prepping is everything to help everything go smoothly – I tweeked the chicken and cheeses filling by adding strips of roasted pablano peppers.
Hey Michelle. I adore poblanos. You said you roast them, that sounds amazing!! Thanks so much for leaving a comment with your additions and the 5 star rating! So happy you’re part of our community 🙂
We just had these for supper… they are as delicious as I remember them being! SOOOOO good!! Have You frozen these? Thanks!
Hey Tilly. We suggest freezing the stuffed and rolled enchiladas without the sauce. Then make the white sauce on the day you plan to reheat it and eat it. Thanks so much for leaving a review and for the 5 star rating!
Ok, thank You! I shared with the neighbors and he Loved them!! Thank You for responding.
Usually my husband orders enchiladas at Mexican restaurants but now we retired in The Republic of Panama where there aren’t many Mexican restaurants. So
I made these last night and the enchilada lover in our family exclaimed several times that I nailed it.
I used flour fajita tortillas. Someone else mentioned sprinkling smoked paprika, garlic and onion powder on the chicken so I did that. We used Serrano peppers diced and discarded the juice. We grated fresh from block cheeses, mixing Pepper Jack and Jack Marble cheese. They melted beautifully and the Colby in the marble cheese gave the top some lovely color.
To prevent soggy tortillas I seared them in a little oil before adding the sauce. Using a countertop oven avoided needing to broil at the end.
This was delicious and we will start eating enchiladas at home. Thank you for the recipe!
Hey, Dayna! Oh my, that’s so wonderful! Your story made my day 🙂
We’re so happy this recipe was a hit! I love your tweaks on the chicken, cheese, and all!
Thanks for the positive feedback and rating!
This recipe was incredible, so delicious and easy to make! I used lg boneless skinless chicken breasts and cooked them in the Instant Pot in three batches, adding 1c water for the first batch. It made the breasts super tender and easy to shred, and made 2c of chicken stock which I used in the recipe. I made a double batch for a dinner party, and also took a small pan over to a neighbor and his kids. All three couples at the dinner party had seconds AND asked for the recipe before leaving. And the neighbor sent me a message that they were the best enchiladas he’d ever had! He loves Mexican food, so that was high praise coming from him! This recipe is my new go-to, replacing my mother-in-law’s recipe – don’t tell her! 😉
Oh Sue you made my day! I absolutely love when one of our recipes is so successful for members of our community! Glad this is your new go-to recipe! Shhhhh, I won’t tell your MIL. Thanks so much for the 5-star rating!!!
These are so good!! My family loves enchiladas. The recipe makes it so good and I like this better than using canned soups. Enough for a meal or 2 later.
Hey Renee. I’m so happy your family loves these enchiladas. We adore them too! Thanks for leaving a comment and for the 5 star review!!
These are delicious both with flour and corn tortillas very homemade taste I would give it more than five stars excellent 👌
Yaaay! Thank you so much 🙂 We’re glad you like this. Thanks for the 5-star rating and positive review
Hi, looks delicious! Have you ever tried to make with corn tortillas? I have a picky ester.
Hey, Kim. Yes, you can switch them with corn tortillas. 🙂
Can this dish be frozen or how many days in advance can this be made. I am thinking about the day after Thanksgiving and I like to have everything ready to just pop into the oven. Thank you…
Hey, Judi! Advance happy thanksgiving! 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.
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 it and eat it.
If you use a rotisserie chicken, does it take one or two chickens? white meat only.
Hi, Melissa. Whole rotisserie chicken normally yields 3-4 cups of meat. I’m not exactly sure the result of white meat only part. Maybe two whole will do.
This recipe is very easy, low cost and delicious! It’s a favorite in my home, and I make it weekly! Only change I made is adding seasonings to the chicken and sauce. I use smoked paprika, pepper, garlic salt and onion powder. I also use bakery butter tortillas. So delicious!
Hey, Corinne! Yaaay, it’s now a regular in your home 🙂 I love your version! Thanks for the positive feedback and rating 🙂
I have made this 3 times. Using garlic herb rotisserie chicken. It has been a hit all 3 times. Even our 3 granddaughters 5, 8 and 12 love it. So glad I found it. It’s on our meal rotation. Have a blessed day.
That’s wonderful, Donna! I’m so happy it was a hit 🙂 Thanks for the positive feedback
Hi!
Have you tried this with reduced fat sour cream or fat free greek yogurt? Thanks!
Hey, Brooke. 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.
Would I be able to leave the green chili’s out? Family isn’t a fan of spicy or chilli’s
Sure you can Lisa.
Yes! Sour cream chicken enchilada recipe. This is my go to for making during the week. So easy to follow and the end results have been consistent. I have made this probably a dozen times and your recipe is the best! Thank you for sharing!
Aw, thanks so much Dianne. I’m so happy you like these enchilada’s and keep them in your dinner rotation! We eat this recipe all the time! Thanks for the 5 star rating!!
My family’s absolute favorite!
Made for my New England relatives and now it is their number one request when I go up to visit!
Wow, that’s awesome, Lindaaa! I’m so happy it was a hit in your family 🙂
Thank you so much for your positive feedback and rating!
I’ll give you a five but I don’t see a temperature on here and that’s all I needed temperature and cooking time. If its there I apologize if not kinda doesn’t make sense.
Hey, Bennie. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Bake it for 20-25 minutes or until the enchiladas are heated through and the sauce is bubbly.
I had some leftover smoked pork that I wanted to get creative with, so I halved this recipe and put it over the “pork enchiladas” in a loaf pan. Served them with some black beans and *chef’s kiss*
Thanks for sharing and reading!
Wowza! That’s a winner!! Thanks for sharing, Monixa 🙂
Making this for July 4th / Husbands birthday party. This is one of the easiest and most requested dinners I receive from my family! These are AMAZING! Don’t look for any leftovers….thank you for sharing your recipe with me ❤️
Wow, that’s amazing, Kim! 🙂 I’m so happy it was a hit 🙂
Absolutely delicious and easy recipe. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical due to the small amount of ingredients. Even my picky eater enjoyed this. I found I needed to let it cool down to let the sauce thicken. Thank you for a great recipe.
Hey G, so happy you enjoyed! Thanks for your 5 star rating!!
This recipe is so so good. We had it for dinner last night and lunch today.
Thank you for sharing,
Thank you so much, Mary! I hope this’ll be on your dinner rotation 🙂