Roasted Shrimp Enchiladas with Jalapeño Cream Sauce
Smothered in a rich, jalapeño cream sauce, how can you resist these cheesy shrimp enchiladas?!
It’s been 3 days since my wisdom teeth got pulled out and I’m happy to report back that I can finally eat real food. I’ve been eating Korean-style porridge since Monday, which I like to eat occasionally but not for 2 meals a day for 4 days straight.
But now that I can chew and open my mouth without any excruciating pain, I absolutely cannot wait to make these Pork Belly Sliders, Baked Chicken Burritos with Sour Cream-Poblano Sauce, and Texmex Sloppy Joes among many others that I have listed out on my “to-make” list.
But until I make these, I have this wonderful verde shrimp enchiladas for you today. These babies are packed with the huge prawns from Costco along with your fun veggies like onions, cabbage, carrots and spinach. Once we add a bit of chipotle flavor to the mix, it’s topped with an oh-so-creamy yet spicy jalapeño cream sauce. Who knew that the marriage of flavors between the chipotle and jalapeño melded so well together?
Now I absolutely loved everything about this dish except for the store-bought tortillas. I usually buy the handmade flour tortillas from Trader Joe’s but I thought I’d try something different so I picked up a bag of the corn tortillas. Little did I know that corn tortillas are not my thing.
Next time I make this, I’ll be sure to try out these DIY Flour Tortillas. It doesn’t even require yeast!
So here’s how you make this:
Let’s first roast some shrimp. Lay them out on a baking sheet, toss them with some olive oil, salt and pepper and then pop them into the oven for about 6-8 minutes.
Super easy and simple, right?
When they’re cool enough to handle, go ahead and give them a rough chop into bite-size pieces.
Now we’ll make the jalapeño cream sauce. We’ll first melt some butter,
whisk in the flour,
stir in the chicken broth,
stir in the sour cream,
and stir in the jalapeños, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Lots of good stuff happening here.
Then we’ll finish it off by throwing in some fresh cilantro.
Now we’ll make the shrimp filling. Let’s first saute some garlic and onion.
Then comes the rest of the ingredients – cabbage, carrot, spinach, chipotle pepper, oregano and cayenne. You want to saute it just until the spinach begins to wilt.
Now we’ll throw the chopped up shrimp back to the pot…
and voila, the filling is done. Not too bad right?
Then we’ll wrap them up in each of the tortillas, top it off with the creamy goodness and bake it until it gets nice and golden, about 20 minutes. Once it comes out of the oven, top these babies off with some more of that jalapeño cream sauce – you wouldn’t want that to go to waste!
Roasted Shrimp Enchiladas with Jalapeño Cream Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 cups shredded green cabbage
- 1 carrot, peeled and grated
- 3 cups baby spinach
- 2 tablespoons chipotle pepper, in adobo sauce
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 12 6-inch corn tortillas, warmed
- 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
For the jalapeño cream sauce
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- ¾ cup sour cream
- 2 jalapeños, seeded and minced
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to tast
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Place shrimp onto the prepared baking sheet. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil, salt and pepper, to taste, and gently toss to combine. Place into oven and roast just until pink, firm and cooked through, about 6-8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool before dicing into bite-size pieces.
- Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9×13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet. Add garlic and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions become translucent, about 5 minutes. Add cabbage, carrot, spinach, chipotle pepper, oregano and cayenne. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the spinach just begins to wilt, about 1-2 minutes. Add shrimp and gently toss to combine.
- To make the sauce, melt butter in a large saucepan. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1-2 minutes. Gradually whisk in chicken stock and cook, whisking constantly, until incorporated, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in sour cream. Add jalapeños and garlic powder and simmer until the sauce has thickened, about 2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro.
- To assemble the enchiladas, lay tortilla on a flat surface and spoon 1/3 cup of the shrimp mixture in the center; sprinkle with cheese. Roll the tortilla and place seam side down onto prepared baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and shrimp mixture.
- Pour half of the jalapeño cream sauce evenly over the top. Place into oven and bake, covered, until lightly golden and bubbly, about 20 minutes.
- Serve immediately with remaining jalapeño cream sauce, garnished with cilantro.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Delicious, but the corn tortillas don’t hold together. When you go to roll the tortilla, it just falls apart. Instead, I lined the 9 X 11 dish with tortillas, then layered the filling, sprinkled with cheese and laid another layer of tortillas on top. Cover with sauce and bake as directed. Worth a repeat!
You always have to warm tortillas either in the microwave with a damp cloth or lightly fry them in oil for just a few seconds to soften them. This goes for making any enchiladas.
These were so delicious I’m about to make another batch to freeze for another time!! Do yourself a favor and make these ASAP!
This was easy & very very tasty. There were 6 people for dinner & EVERYONE raves about this dish. We will definitely make this again & soon. This is a definitely a keeper
Any way you can include the carbs in these dishes so us carb counters know how much they are? thanks, Janie
Nutritional information is provided only for select recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, we recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information. Hope that helps!
Amazing stuff. You never disappoint. I swapped Parsley for Cilantro but otherwise as written. Thanks again!
So good! We make it casserole style (layered like a lasagna) instead of fussing over rolling the enchiladas.
Made it and we loved it! We used precooked shrimp that we put in the mix towards the end. For the sauce, we replaced 1/4 of the sour cream with plain yogourt and it still tasted great, might even do 1/2 and 1/2 in the future. The adobo taste got slightly lost though, next time we might cook the shrimp in it so it shines more. Overall, a great, creamy recipe that is both full of vegetables and decadent with the sauce and cheese.
I absolutely loved the jalapeno cream sauce recipe and I just popped my own enchiladas into the oven. A few things, though, that I changed: I added some onion and garlic in with the jalapenos and sweat the veggies a bit until they were softer before beginning the sauce step (adding butter and flour and the liquids), then I let it simmer for about 20 minutes before taking it off the heat and adding the cilantro. I actually considered not adding any cilantro because I was running low, but it turned out to be EXACTLY what I needed to make this sauce the BOMB!
Oh, also, a quick tip from a seasoned enchilada maker: Set up a sort of assembly line, but be sure to include in said line a way to quickly heat each individual tortilla. Those corn tortillas, especially the store-bought ones, like to crack and crumble on you unless you ‘cook’ them prior to rolling. Personally, I set up a pan with some vegetable oil (just a little!) and fry them for about 15-30 seconds on each side. Use a spatula unless you have asbestos fingers! When you get really good at the assembly, making enchiladas is a snap if you have all the primary ingredients.
Much love! You have a beautiful blog and thank you SO much for this recipe. I may try it with shrimp next time (once they go on sale, teehee!), but this time I did it with a barbacoa and cheese filling…the cheese is mostly there to keep the barbacoa contained! Either way, shrimp or beef, I think the star of this dish will be the sauce.
What an amazing recipe! I made only ONE change….I used a coleslaw mix rather than shred cabbage and carrot. It worked beautifully with the spinach for the spicy slaw. Can’t wait to make these again….and again…..and again….
That’s awesome! And great modification. I’m sure it was tasty!
What we woui be a good side for this cilantro rice?
Cilantro rice sounds amazing!
Wow!!! Impressive. I had no cabbage so I used extra of all other veggies plus chopped mushrooms and tomatoes. Any veggies would be good added, use what you have.
I added cilantro to the veggie mix also.
For the cream sauce I was out of sour cream so I used a mix of heavy cream and cream cheese and it turned out great. Very spicy and a big hit!
Great improvising! So happy you liked it!
Made these for a family dinner last night and everyone raved over them. I did substituted roasted red bell peppers for the cabbage to add another layer of flavor. The kids kept telling me this recipe is a keeper.
These are very good. I would however note that as Chipotles are smoked jalapeños so it’s no surprise the flavor chipotles blend well with jalapeños.
Just finished downing a few of these. Wow. I rarely write a review but these deserve it ! They are excellent ! I am a spice wimp so the ONLY thing I changed was I only used a half of a jalapeno, lol. It was still spicy though, and just enough for a wimpy spice person like me. My husband loved these too. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe !
I made these enchiladas the other day and I’m from Houston Texas where this is probably the Tex-Mex capital of the world. they were probably the most delicious seafood enchiladas that I’ve ever eaten. The only changes I made was I had already had boiled shrimp (did not roast them) and I did a mixture of Monterey Jack and mozzarella cheeses. These are definitely restaurant quality or better. I will definitely be making these again. Thank you so much for the recipe .
Could I make these? with imitation crab meat
Yes, of course.
Hi- can a little of the chipotle sauce be added to the cream sauce for color? How would that work?
Yes, absolutely.
Wow! So good! It’s rare to find a recipe everyone in my family loves- and this one was a big hit! Only one question- any idea on calorie count per serving?
Nutritional information is provided only for select and new recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, I recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information. Hope that helps!
Could I use vegetable stock instead of chicken broth?
Yes.
I have tried many of your recipes, they are always great! This was no exception! I did make some substitutions and changes. I used canned green chilis in place of the jalapenos, turned out great! My sour cream had gotten pushed back to the back of the fridge and had frozen :(…..so I used some plain greek yogurt. I left out the cabbage and carrots to save time and just used more spinach. I used manchego cheese which was marvelous! I used whole wheat flour tortillas. This was a total hit with my family! Everyone went back for seconds! Thank you for another great recipe!