Green Chicken Enchiladas
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Green chicken enchiladas are made with salsa verde, green chiles, leftover rotisserie chicken + Monterey Jack cheese! The best weeknight meal!
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Why you’ll love green chicken enchiladas
- Super simple recipe. These green enchiladas are incredibly easy to assemble with a killer salsa verde sauce that’s bright and slightly tangy (a fun twist on traditional red enchiladas). You can also make this ahead of time, assembling the night prior for the easiest weeknight meal (great for entertaining company too!).
- Repurposes leftovers. This is a great recipe to repurpose leftover rotisserie chicken, a time-saving shortcut while adding pre-seasoned juicy meat right into your enchiladas.
- Leftovers are even better. If you are graced with any leftovers, the leftovers taste even better the very next day, reheating so easily.
- Meal prep magic. You can whip up a double batch to store leftovers and freeze for later. They also make for wonderful meal train meals for new parents, those recovering from surgery, or new neighbors moving in.
Key Ingredients
- Tortillas: 8-inch flour or corn tortillas
- Filling: shredded rotisserie chicken, green chiles, and salsa verde
- Aromatics: onion, garlic, oregano, and cumin
- Cheese: shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- Toppings: sour cream and fresh cilantro leaves
How to make green chicken enchiladas
- Sauté the aromatics. Cook the onion until translucent and tender in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Then stir in the garlic, oregano, and cumin until fragrant. Remove from heat and stir in the green chiles.
- Mix the filling. Combine the green chiles and onion mixture, leftover rotisserie chicken, salsa verde, cilantro, cheese, salt, and pepper.
- Assemble the enchiladas. Lay a tortilla on a flat, clean surface, and spoon about 1/2 cup of the filling in the center. Roll the tortilla tightly around the filling.
- Transfer to a baking dish. Place the rolled tortilla seam-side down into a greased 9 x 13 baking dish, repeating with the remaining tortilla and filling.
- Top and bake. Top the enchiladas with salsa verde and sprinkle with cheese in an even layer. Bake at 375°F until the cheese melts and bubbles, about 35-40 minutes.
- Serve. Serve warm with desired toppings and garnishes.
Make-ahead, freezing, and storage
Prep
To make ahead, cover the enchiladas tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate up to 24 hours. To bake, let the enchiladas sit at room temperature for 15-30 minutes. Remove plastic wrap and bake as directed.
Storage
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Reheating
Reheat in the oven at 350°F, covered in aluminum foil until warmed through, about 15-20 minutes.
Freeze before baking
Cover the enchiladas tightly with plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. Label, date, and freeze up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge, remove the plastic wrap and bake as directed, adding a few more minutes of cook time as needed.
Freeze after baking
Let the enchiladas cool completely; cover tightly with plastic wrap, then aluminum foil. Label, date, and freeze up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw overnight in the fridge and reheat in the oven at 350°F, covered in aluminum foil until heated through.
what to serve with enchiladas
Tools For This Recipe
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).
Yes! I use this IP rotisserie chicken and this 6-ingredient lemon herb rotisserie chicken interchangeably.
Absolutely! You can use corn or flour, it really just depends on personal preference. Flour 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 excellent options.
I prefer 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 assemble the night before, letting it come to room temperature for about 30 minutes prior to baking.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days, reheating in the oven at 350°F, covered in aluminum foil, until warmed through.
Green Chicken Enchiladas
Video
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 cast iron 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.
Equipment
Notes
- 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.
- Use the right cheese. Use melting cheeses such as Monterey Jack, Oaxaca, or Chihuahua.
- 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.
Did you make this recipe?
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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
I have cooked this several times now. My husband and I love it! As my kiddo’s tastes grow and change, he oscillates, lol. I usually do the tortillas, but I have also made it twice now (including last night) by putting the filling together and just spreading it over rice, then putting the salsa verde and cheese on top. Costco was out of rotisserie chickens when I went, so I put 2 frozen chicken breasts in my pressure cooker with 1/3 cup of salsa verde and 1 cup chicken broth. After I put the cooked rice in the pan, I poured some of the broth from the pressure cooker over it, then put the enchilada filling on top. Soooo good!
It was almost comical how much both my kids (and my husband) enjoyed these enchiladas!
I absolutely love this recipe!! The first time I made it following the directions. Since then all bets are off!! I’ve added black beans, which I really like, but I usually don’t put it on the tortillas since I don’t need the calories or carbs! I like it on spaghetti squash or with scrambled eggs or just alone! I make a batch and freeze it in serving size containers to nuke and have any time I want. Love it, love it, love it!! Thank you!
the only time i make this is for big family gatherings so i double or triple the size. the only addition to this wonderful dish is i add a box or 2 of zatarans dirty rice. cooked ofcourse. everyone says its the best enchiladas they ever had
This recipe was really good and easy but I just realized I forgot to add the cheese and cilantro in with the chicken mixture! It still tasted delish! The bottom did get stuck to the pan some (I did coat the pan) so next time I’ll add salsa verde to the bottom first. Will def make again!
What salsa verde brand would you recommend?
Personally, what always works best for me is LasPalmas. Only, I wouldn’t suggest using the red sauce because I don’t really enjoy the taste, but the Green Chile Enchilada Sause is amazing.
This recipe was fantastic and so easy. I had chicken breasts on hand, so I baked those first and chopped them up for the filling. It worked perfectly! My husband said this one is a keeper.