Description
Tender flour tortillas filled with shredded chicken and creamy sauce, topped with melted Monterey Jack and cheddar cheese, baked until golden and bubbly.
Ingredients
For the Enchiladas:
- 10 flour tortillas (taco size)
- 5 cups cooked, shredded chicken
- 2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese (divided)
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
For the Sour Cream White Sauce:
- 16 oz sour cream (one container)
- 10.5 oz can cream of chicken soup
- 4 oz can diced green chiles
Instructions
Turn oven to 350. Put tortillas in pan for 5 minutes. Don’t skip this or they’ll tear when you try to roll them and you’ll be standing there with a mess cursing at your kitchen.
I learned this the hard way. First time I made these I skipped warming the tortillas because I was in a hurry. Spent twenty minutes trying to roll cracked tortillas that kept splitting open. Finally gave up and just layered everything like a casserole. Still tasted good but looked like garbage.
Stir together sour cream, soup, chiles in your bowl. That’s literally it. Mix until it’s all combined and you don’t see any lumps of sour cream. Some people get fancy and use a whisk but a spoon works fine.
The mixture will look kind of pale and chunky at first but keep stirring. It’ll come together into this creamy, smooth sauce with little flecks of green chiles throughout. Taste it if you want. It’s good enough to eat with a spoon.
Now comes the fun part. Take your warm tortilla and put about half a cup of chicken down the middle. Don’t overstuff or you won’t be able to roll it. Add a couple spoonfuls of your sauce right on top of the chicken. Sprinkle some Monterey Jack over everything.
Roll it up tight starting from the edge with all the filling. Keep it snug but don’t squeeze the life out of it. Place it seam side down in your pan. Do this nine more times until you’ve used up all your tortillas and they’re all lined up like little soldiers in your pan.
Pack them close together so they support each other and don’t unroll. If there are gaps they’ll spread out and look sloppy. Nobody wants sloppy enchiladas.
Pour whatever sauce you have left over the whole pan. Use a spoon to spread it around so everything’s covered. Don’t worry about making it perfect – rustic looks good too.
Now dump both cheeses all over the top. Use all of it. This is not the time to be conservative with cheese. More cheese equals more happiness. That’s a kitchen rule.
Cover the whole thing with foil and stick it in your oven for 25 minutes. The foil keeps everything from drying out and helps the cheese melt evenly.
After 25 minutes, pull off that foil and put it back in for another 5 minutes. You want the cheese to get golden and bubbly on top. You’ll know it’s ready when the sauce is bubbling around the edges and the cheese looks gorgeous.
Don’t be tempted to skip the foil part. I tried that once thinking I’d save time and the top got all brown and crispy while the inside was still cold. Learn from my mistakes.
Notes
Put the sauce in the middle of the tortilla first, then add your chicken and cheese on top. When you roll from that end everything stays put better instead of sliding around.
Rotisserie chicken from the grocery store is your best friend here. It’s already cooked, already seasoned, and saves you like an hour of work. Don’t feel bad about taking shortcuts. Life’s too short to poach chicken breasts for enchiladas.
If you have time and energy, shred your own cheese from blocks. Pre-shredded cheese has all that anti-caking stuff on it that makes it melt weird sometimes. Fresh grated melts smooth and creamy.
Warm those tortillas properly or they’ll crack and leak everywhere. Nobody wants enchilada filling all over their pan bottom.
You can assemble these earlier in the day and just stick them in the fridge until dinner time. Just add maybe 10 extra minutes to the cooking time since they’ll be cold.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Mexican-American