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.
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Let me first say I am not a big fan of chicken enchiladas, but these are awesome. I did not think it made enough sauce so since we had left overs I made more sauce (I doubled the recipe), but I didn’t have any more chilies green chilies so I added a can of Rotel tomatoes with green chilies. We loved them. We give it 5 stars.
Hi Terry! Thanks so much. Sooo glad you liked the recipe 🙂
I added corn to the chicken mixture and doubled the chilies! Yummo explosion of flavor! Thanks for the great recipe!! 🙂 ~ Sarah
Thank you Sarah! Great tweaking 🙂
This is the recipe I wanted to make but my sister wanted a hamburger filing with an enchilada sauce. I went for her choice because she was sick and I was cooking it for her. I LOVE enchiladas and was opened minded when she said to make them with flour tortillas rather than corn.The flour tortilla came out very wet on the bottom sitting in the sause during the cooking time. Like a piece of bread soaking up liquid. I would love to try this recipe but after my attempt I don’t see how a flour tortilla can come out not soggy. My patient aka sister was disappointed too in the results of the meal. How does your flour tortilla hold up on the bottom? Is it soggy? I would love to make this for her with chicken and your sauce but if the tortilla comes out soggy again, there is no point in trying. Advise? Thoughts?
Hi Andrea. Well, I have to say, I love the way a flour tortilla soaks up some of the enchilada sauce and has a soft texture. For me, it’s a really good, yummy thing. That being said, I hear what you’re saying and, yes, this recipe will probably produce the same type of results. If that’s not a desirable thing for you then I think you need to stick with corn tortillas and lightly shallow fry them until they’re soft and pliable before rolling and stuffing them. The frying tends to seal the tortilla and keep it from absorbing as much of the sauce. You can use the filling and sauce in this recipe and just switch out the type of tortillas. Here’s a more authentic Chicken and Cheese Enchilada Recipe-I use flour tortillas in this recipe too (what can I say!). You’d probably prefer this with corn as well 🙂
I actually forgot to put the sauce on the bottom of the pan before the tortillas and they were not squishy like the other times I have made this recipe. Maybe my accident could help you!
Thank you for the tips, Chris!
Awesome!
Thanks Pam 🙂
Delicious. I just made it today and loved it.
Hey Fareeda. So glad you enjoyed these enchiladas 🙂
I want to thank you for this delicious recipe. The enchiladas were moist and tasty. I did add a spicy roasted green chillies. I’m going to be making them again for a party. Yummylicious.
You’re so welcome, DeAngela! I’m so happy you liked them 🙂
“seem” should be seam.
Thank you. You’re hired as my new editor 🙂
Hysterical!! I love it
Amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. I followed your recipe with a few small changes. I used hot chilies, also made it more likes casserole instead of rolling tortillas. I did a layer of tortillas, chicken/cheese mix, tortillas, chicken/chesse mix another layer of tortillas and poured the sauce over it. I also topped with Mexican blend shredded cheese. Anytime we have chicken left over from grilling, I throw it in a bag in the freezer as my go to for dishes like this. Thank you again for sharing. It is so much better than the one I’ve made in the past.
Hi Angela! So glad to hear you liked the Enchiladas. Great idea about freezing the leftover grilled chicken!!! Thanks for sharing it 🙂
I want to make these but have some that do not like green chilies. Would jalapeños be a good substitute?
Yes, they be delicious. Spicier though.
My family loved these! Thanks for sharing,
Hi Pat. So glad you and your family enjoyed!
I have made this a couple times now,and it is wonderful, the only thing I done was add black beans in it other than that I followed it exactly. My whole family love this and says it is a keeper, Thank you for sharing your recipe.
You’re so welcome Michelle! Black beans sound great like a great addition 🙂
Have you ever made this a day ahead of cooking them. I like to prepare ahead when hosting a dinner. Thanks
Hi Laura. No, I haven’t sorry. I think if I was making these ahead of time, I’d roll the enchilada the day before and prepare and add the sauce right before I cooked them.
Very easy, very good. I used turkey from our Thanksgiving leftovers.I added a pinch of ground cumin. It turned out creamy cheesy good. We all enjoyed this recipe!
Tina
So glad you enjoyed Tina 🙂
These are currently in the oven. They look/smell amazing. I added drained black beans and used a rotisserie chicken. My husband is already drooling watching them in the oven.
Hi Sheila! Hope you both enjoy 😉 The black beans sound like a great addition.
I was planning on making this and I was reading.. How do you recommend cooking the chicken before putting it in the enchaladas? Thanks
Hi Haley. The easiest thing to do is use a rotisserie chicken. If you have chicken you want to use, I’d suggest grilling it or baking 🙂
I do mine in a pressure cooker. The chicken is so tender and seasoned. I put onion in there with it and 45 minutes later they are perfect.
Sounds delicious Michelle!
The BEST chicken enchiladas I’ve ever had! Thank you!????
I’m so very happy you liked them Jennifer! 🙂
This was so good!! I am 14 and I cook once a week for my family And they LOVED it!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
You’re so welcome Maddy! I think it’s so cool that you’re already making family dinners at 14 years old!
I just pulled it out of the oven, took a pic, and posted on IG and FB. It was so easy, and it smells fab! I used a cup of FF Fage Greek yogurt and put pink Himalayan salt and course black pepper into the sauce. Thank you!
Paula, you are so welcome. I love how easy these are to make as well!