These easy, creamy chicken enchiladas are cheesy, soft, and full of flavor! This recipe even includes a recipe for yummy enchilada sauce!
If you have been looking at some of my other chicken recipes on the blog, you may have noticed that I really prefer using chicken tenders. I just really like how, well, tender they are but less fatty than chicken thighs. You can swap the tenders out for breasts in this recipe but the cook time in the sauce will be increased!
You can make this a vegetarian recipe but removing the chicken altogether!
If you are using chicken, you’ll get the best flavor by cooking it in the sauce!
The enchilada stuffing is pretty customizable but my base is always chicken, black beans, spinach, corn, cheese, onions, cilantro, jalapenos and my secret ingredient: cream cheese!
You can use ricotta or extra regular cheese if you want but the cream cheese is so thick and rich that the flavor is the best!
To make sure the tortillas don’t break when you roll them, you want to warm them up on a pan a few at a time so they are pliable. For about 14 – 16 enchiladas, you want to scoop about 1/3 of the stuffing into every tortilla.
The amount of enchilada sauce made for this recipe is the perfect amount to keep your enchiladas moist. The best ratio is a third of the quantity of the sauce goes on the bottom of the tray and the final two thirds go on top of the tortillas. Then sprinkle some more cheese on it.
Then cover and bake.
Enjoy the creamy chicken enchiladas with slices of avocado and fresh cilantro!
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
- .75-.8 lbs Boneless skinless chicken tenders
- 1½ Tbsp OIive Oil
- 1 Large clove Garlic, grated
- 1 tsp Cumin divided
- 1½ tsp Mexican Chili Powder divided
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt divided
- 29 ounces Tomato Sauce Hunt's no salt added
- ¾ Cup Water divided
- ⅓ Cup Onion, diced
- ⅓ Cup Corn
- ⅓ Cup Frozen Thawed Spinach water squeezed out
- ⅓ Cup Black Beans can, drained
- ½ Jalapeno, seeded and finely diced
- 2 ounce Cream Cheese, full fat
- ½ Cup Mexican Cheese more to top with
- 14-16 Small corn tortillas
- 6-8 sprigs Cilantro, chopped
Instructions
- Heat up the olive oil in the in a pot and add the chicken, grated garlic, ½ tsp of cumin, ½ tsp chili powder, and ½ tsp of salt.
- Cook until chicken is seared and add the tomato sauce, ½ cup of water, ½ tsp of salt, 1 tsp chili powder, ½ tsp cumin.
- Cook until chicken is tender and about to fall apart, remove chikcen and set aside.
- Add another ¼ cup of water and simmer with lid on while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
- In a large bowl, add ⅓ cup each of corn, frozen thawed (drained) spinach, and black beans (drained), chopped cilantro, jalapeno, and onion.
- Shred the chicken and add it to the bowl.
- Mix 2 ounces of cream cheese and ½ cup of shredded mexican cheese to the large bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Pre heat the oven to 350°
- Warm up the tortillas two at a time on a pan to make them flexible.
- Scoop about ⅓ cup of the stuffing onto the tortilla and shape it into the center, lengthwise and roll it up (refer to photos)
- In a baking dish, line the bottom of it with some of the enchilada sauce. (this applies if you're using multiple dishes or just one , but you want about 1/3 of the sauce on the bottom and 2/3 to go on top of the tortillas)
- Place the stuffed tortillas in the baking dish (assemble them however you like), top with enchilada sauce and add cheese on top.
- Cover with foil and bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for a few more minutes if the cheese on top isn't fully melted.
- Enjoy with some mexican rice and some sliced avocados!