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?
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Awesome , takes a little work well worth it.
Excellent, corn tortillas are a must, filling and sauce were perfect. Will definitely make again
Real enchiladas are NOT made with flour tortillas. That’s just wrong. Those type of enchiladas are Americanized. So wrong.
This is now my family’s favorite dish. I had to omit / add a few details due to picky eaters (no veggies add rice). There was a great deal of hesitation at first in that my peeps never tried shrimp in an enchilada. With that being said, I am SO GRATEFUL to have a new recipe to add into our rotation. WONDERFUL meal-
Could I use cream cheese for the sauce with a splash of cream? My husband Hates sour cream with a passion. Really thinking about making this today!
Yes, absolutely.
Made these tonight and they were amazing! I made a couple of adjustments. I only used 1 jalapeño in the sauce and it was plenty spicy, and we LOVE spicy food. I also only used 1/2 of one onion so my kids wouldn’t pick it out. Other than those minor changes I did it exactly as written and couldn’t be happier with the outcome! This is DEFINITELY going into my “Worth making again” folder!
This recipe is an absolute winner! Loved it.
these are SO GOOD! like lick the plate good!
I substituted plain greek yogurt for the sour cream and it tasted wonderful to me. thank you for another damn delicious dish. 😉
does it taste better if they tortillas are fried or not?
That’s really up to you and your personal taste preferences! I mean, you can’t go wrong either way. 🙂
Made these tonight. They were awesome!
Hi this looks absolutely amazing! I wondered if anyone had tried making the smaller , for a crowd. We are having a large group and we are all bringing a dish to share. I was thinking to double the recipe, in a 13×9 pan and make skinnier enchiladas with the the small corn tortillas?? What do you think? Will doubling it work?
I worry that it may not all fit in a 9×13 pan. But as always, please use your best judgment.
Not too bad… not my favorite! I think I would prefer this recipe with shredded chicken, possibly more zest or zing?! …But overall this was a big hit at my dinner party. I had a gluten-intolerant friend over and so I substituted the flour for almond flour! xo, thank you for the post!
Do you know how this dish would do if it were frozen and then put in the oven? What would the changes be to the cooking time?
Unfortunately, without having tried this myself, I cannot advise the changes to cooking time. As always, please use your best judgment.
I made this last night…fantastic!!! I did not find it to be to spicy but we do like heat. Next time I will double the sauce because its amazing!!!
Love this recipe! I use rotisserie chicken instead of shrimp, simply because it is easier for a quick week night meal. The last time we made them I froze the excess and I used it tonight for an egg roll filling! Dipped in a sweet and sour sauce – delish appetizer!
I have some frozen lobster tails we caught in the Florida Keys back in July. Wondering if you’ve ever used lobster for this or your thoughts?
I actually have not used lobster but it sounds like an amazing substitution!
I hope to hear the results from the person that experimented with freezing half and refrigerating half. Did you assemble, then freeze? Details thank you.
I made these last night and they were such a hit!! The shrimp mixture is definitely spicy so next time I think I won’t use as much chipotle peppers but they were so good!! We had the leftovers for lunch today and, as always, they’re never as good as fresh but we still chowed down on them!
I bought all these ingredients today and I’m going to make these tomorrow. I’m going to freeze a small portion of the shrimp mixture and keep some of the sauce aside (refrigerated). I want to see if these can be made ahead of time and frozen. Since I will have the fresh ones to compare with the frozen ones, I’ll be back with the results sometime next week. I’m going to make them exactly as the recipe calls for. I’m a huge cilantro fan, so I might use a little more of that. I’m using flour tortillas. I live in Houston. All these ingredients are readily available.
These are delicious! The only thing is, if you don’t like really spicy food then half the cayenne. That’s what I’ll do next time, because it’s too spicy for me. Other than that, perfect!