Green Chicken Enchiladas
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Salsa verde, green chiles, leftover rotisserie chicken and Monterey Jack cheese make for the best weeknight enchiladas ever!
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When I think of bomb Mexican food, I think of my favorite Mexican joint in LA.
Tacos Por Favor, also known as TPF. It’s located in a very tiny strip mall on the corner of Olympic Blvd and Bundy Drive, conveniently located next to a Coffee Bean.
So whenever I stop by this TPF, I order two things: a California burrito and green chicken enchiladas. I never deviate from this order. Never, ever, ever.
But now that we’ve moved to Chicago, I have had no choice but to come up with a TPF replacement.
And that’s these weeknight green chicken enchiladas.
It’s super simple and easy to assemble, and you get to repurpose leftover rotisserie chicken. Plus, when you combine the salsa verde, green chiles and Monterey Jack cheese, you’ll simply want to bathe in all of its glory.
So if you don’t have a TPF near you, you can now have your green chicken enchilada fix anytime, anywhere.
Oh, and the leftovers taste even better the next day.
tips and tricks for success
- Soften the tortillas. Warm the tortillas first so they are easier to roll. Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave for about 30 seconds. You can also fry the tortillas, in batches, in a little bit of oil (about 1 tablespoon vegetable oil) until crispy but pliable.
- Do not overstuff. Size matters! Overstuffing may sound like a good idea since the filling is the best part, but this can result in ripped tortilla and overspill.
- Avoid a soggy bottom. Nobody likes soggy enchiladas! Be sure to pour the sauce on top, adding the filled enchiladas to the pan first.
what to serve with enchiladas
Tools For This Recipe
9 x 13 baking dish
Green Chicken Enchiladas: Frequently Asked Questions
Both green enchilada sauce and salsa verde are made with tomatillos and green chilies but green enchilada sauce is cooked and typically served hot while salsa verde uses raw ingredients and is served cold (or at room temperature).
We love this IP rotisserie chicken and this 6-ingredient lemon herb rotisserie chicken.
Absolutely! You can use corn or flour, it really just depends on personal preference. Corn tortillas are traditionally used for enchiladas as they maintain their structure a little more (less cracking and tearing when rolled) but either option will work great here.
Sweet potato, mushrooms, zucchini and cauliflower are all great options.
We love Monterey Jack but Cheddar, Colby Jack, Pepper Jack and Mexican blend can also be used.
Add your filled enchiladas to the bottom of the pan first, then pour the sauce on top to prevent them from soaking too much sauce (hence, soggy enchiladas).
Yes! Enchiladas is a great dish to make ahead of time and assembled the night before, letting it come to room temperature for about 30 minutes prior to baking.
Green Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon canola oil
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 (4-ounce) cans diced green chiles
- 4 cups coarsely shredded rotisserie chicken
- 2 cups salsa verde, divided
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 8 8-inch flour tortillas, warmed
- ¼ cup sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish or coat with nonstick spray.
- Heat canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in garlic, oregano and cumin until fragrant, about 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in green chiles.
- In a large bowl, combine green chile mixture, chicken, 1/3 cup salsa verde and cilantro. Stir in 1 1/2 cups cheese; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- To assemble the enchiladas, lay tortilla on a flat surface and spoon 1/2-3/4 cups of the chicken mixture in the center. Roll the tortilla and place seam side down onto prepared baking dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and chicken mixture. Top with remaining salsa verde and remaining 1 1/2 cups cheese.
- Place into oven and bake until bubbly, about 35-40 minutes.
- Serve immediately, topped with dollops of sour cream.
Did you make this recipe?
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Really the Best!
What sauce do you use.
Delicious!
Simple, classic recipe just substitute corn for flour tortillas and you’re making enchiladas verde. The garlic and onions cooked with the oregano and cumin had such a lovely aroma and a lovely flavor. I will definitely add it to other recipes.They were definitely the star of this dish. Topped with cilantro, finely diced romas, and crema.
I have made this numerous times our family loves it
Tasty. But, I think I will cut down to one can of green chilies next time. It was just a bit too much with two cans.
Hands down THE BEST!!! I had 1+ cups of the chicken mixture leftover after filling 8 tortillas, so either I had a huge rotisserie chicken, or, 3 cups of shredded chicken is plenty. Other than that, I wouldn’t alter a thing! SOOO GOOD!
Excellent! Just made them and these were sooo good. I just skipped the sour cream since I don’t care for it. Served it up with red beans and rice.
We have made this several times and is always a hit. Great for sharing with others in need. However, now my diabetic (type 1) granddaughter is staying for a while and it sure would be nice to know the nutritional values of this dish per serving (particularly the carbs per serving) to calculate the amount of insulin to administer.
This summer, I’m on a quest to make the best grilled chicken so I find myself with several chicken breasts in the freezer. Then along comes this recipe. Since there are only two of us, I split it in half
— baked one and froze one. I made a couple of minor changes to the recipe, such as ‘accidently’ added a little extra cheese to the top, using two full cans of sauce, and adding a tablespoon of the sauce to the inside of the enchilada when I rolled it up. I opted for Mexican crema and Cojita cheese as a topping, along with a side of guacamole. If I have one criticism, the cilantro was a little strong in some bites so I plan to mix it in with the chicken before adding any other ingredients. This was extremely easy to assemble. It does need to cook a little longer than 30 minutes, mostly because I covered it with foil the first half of the cooking time.
Very easy recipe, I doubled it and it tasted amazing. Instead of Canola oil I used stick butter and on the second step I put the onion mixture in the bowl without stirring in the green chiles. After this step, in the same pan I used to cook the onion mixture, I put 4 diced jalapenos in the pan, let them cook for 1 minute or so and then added 6 12.5oz cans of chunk chicken breast. I then added 1/4 cup McCormick Taco Seasoning Mix (you can add more or less depending on how much you would like in it) and while mixing it in cut up the chunks in the pan with my spatula and after about 1 minute of doing so I added in 1 cup of Beef Broth and stirred it in for about 20-30 seconds and added my desired amount of heavy cream. You can add more broth and heavy cream depending on how creamy you want it or how it tastes for you. My measurements are also estimated since I normally go by eye. Then I just moved on to step 3 and instead of Monterey Jack cheese (since I didn’t have it) I used Fiesta Blend cheese and it worked just as well. My family thought it tasted wonderful and I will be using this again. I would also add that if you think something goes well in it then test it and make it your own:)
So basically you didn’t follow the recipe at all. Why even bother leaving a review
Great, easy recipe! I didn’t have green chilies unfortunately but I had a green chile tomatillo salsa for the sauce but otherwise followed the recipe exactly. Very tasty and restaurant-style! Loved it!
OMGoodness, these are beyond delicious!!! And I’m a bit of an enchilada snob! The chicken mixture is so flavorful and moist, and I love how easy flour tortillas are to work with. These will definitely be in our regular dinner rotation, the flavor and ease make this an A+ recipe!
I would suggest to use only corn tortillas, warm in pan then fill. They will not crack. Flour tortillas become gummy. I use Trader Joe’s Green salsa , tomatillo based and the perfect acidity for this dish and I will also add sour cream and cheese to filling. Melts wonderfully
What salsa verde did you use? Please and thank you! These look amazing!
I used LasPalmas branded Green Chile Enchilada Sause.
I love this recipe! I made it a few weeks ago and my friends loved it so much they requested I make it again for our Cinco de Mayo party tonight! I made it with corn tortillas and dairy free cheese because we have a few people who can’t eat wheat or dairy, but everyone loved it!
Absolutely loved the flavor of these!
Because I’m extra, and I have to be gluten free, I made some corn tortillas from scratch. They were normal taco sized tortillas you get in the grocery store, not the street taco size. I had 16 corn tortillas and the amount of filling was way too much. Not sure if this goes less far with the flour tortillas, but holy cow. I’m saving it for another batch, hopefully in the next couple of days. The amount of tortillas I had was enough to fill an entire normal sized casserole pan, so not sure if I just did something wrong. I even tried to err on the side of less turkey. I had at least a cup and half leftover.
Other things I did, I browned the onion and garlic with the spices, then I threw them into a blender with the chiles and salsa. It was great! I didn’t use quite all of the remaining 16 ounces of salsa verde, but it was still plenty and gave great flavor.
This is a really good use of leftover rotisserie chicken! Really delicious. The only thing I would leave off us added salt when you put the filling ingredients together- the rotisserie has salt rub on the skin, the cheese has salt, and the salsa Verde has sodium in it.
This is a delicious recipe. I used corn tortillas and instead of rolling them, I layered them like making lasagna. I have debilitating arthritis and had to make a last minute decision wether to torture myself rolling them or simplify the process. I arranged tortillas in 3 layers, bottom, middle and top with the chicken mix in 2 layers. (You can cut some of the tortillas in half to fill the cracks created by setting the whole tortillas side by side.) I covered the top with cheese and cilantro with added sliced black olives. It was very flavorful and still tasted like enchiladas!
So good and easy to throw together! I used corn tortillas and Mexican cheese blend and pepper jack blend. Delicious