This green chile chicken enchilada recipe is incredibly delicious! Use our homemade salsa verde or your favorite store-bought green enchilada sauce.
These creamy, cheesy chicken enchiladas are a guaranteed hit. The recipe is also incredibly flexible, which is a major reason so many people love it.
You can use my homemade salsa verde for the best flavor, or save time with your favorite store-bought enchilada sauce. We’ve included several options to simplify the recipe, such as using a rotisserie chicken instead of cooking your own. For those who want a from-scratch version, we included recipes for homemade flour tortillas and corn tortillas.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: My recipe call for cooked chicken. You can use leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, or cook it using one of these simple recipes: poached chicken (15 minutes), stovetop shredded chicken (1 hour), or slow cooker shredded chicken (4 – 6 hours).
- Green Enchilada Sauce: I love this roasted salsa verde made with tomatillos, chile peppers, onion, and garlic. It works beautifully in this recipe. I’ve also used store-bought enchilada sauce and particularly love the green chile sauce from Hatch, Las Palmas, and Frontera. For red enchiladas, see our homemade red enchilada sauce (made with dried chiles) or this easy enchilada sauce (made with chili powder).
- Tortillas: Use flour or corn tortillas in these enchiladas. Corn is more traditional, but if you love flour tortillas, feel free to use them! If you’d like to make your own, try our recipes for flour tortillas or corn tortillas.
- Garlic: I always add extra garlic to my sauce and love the kick.
- Sour Cream: This makes our sauce super creamy and delicious. It also tones the spice level if you are more sensitive to spicy food.
- Cheese: I add cheese to the filling and use it to top our enchiladas. It bakes to be so melty! Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, cheddar, a Mexican cheese blend, or super melty Oaxaca cheese are great options.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Chicken Enchiladas
Tip 1: Make the sauce extra creamy. I love turning plain enchilada sauce into a creamy sauce. To do this, quickly sauté a little garlic in oil in a skillet, then pour in your sauce. When it’s bubbling, stir in sour cream and fresh cilantro. Delicious!
Tip 2: Add chicken and cheese to the sauce. For the best chicken enchiladas, I love adding my chicken to the warm sauce as well as a good handful of cheese. This way, they are easy to roll later on, and turn out super cheesy in the middle. By the way, this step makes truly delicious chicken. I could stop here and eat the whole skillet!
Tip 3: Place them seam-side down. To roll your enchiladas, add a spoonful of the chicken and creamy green sauce to the tortillas and roll them up. Then, place them seam-side down in your baking dish to keep them in place. I bake them in the oven until they’re heated and the cheese has melted (just under 30 minutes). Easy!
My Favorite Sides for Enchiladas
These enchiladas work really well all by themselves, but you can always add something on the side. Classic Tex-Mex sides, such as Mexican rice, cilantro lime rice, refried beans, or these creamy black beans, are perfect. And a bowl of pico de gallo and tortilla chips is always a good idea. My son loves guac, so he usually requests a bowl of homemade guacamole, too.
More Recipes with Salsa Verde
- Instant Pot Salsa Verde Chicken
- Our Favorite Chicken Nachos
- Green Chile Chicken Quesadillas
- Crispy Pork Carnitas (served with Salsa Verde on top)
Easy Green Chicken Enchiladas
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
These salsa verde chicken enchiladas are easy and incredibly delicious. You can use store-bought green chile enchilada sauce or salsa verde for this recipe. I like the options from Hatch, Las Palmas, and Frontera. Or, to make it from scratch, try this Roasted Salsa Verde made with tomatillos, green chile peppers, and garlic (it’s amazing).
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
6 flour tortillas or corn tortillas, 8 inches in diameter
2 cups (16 ounces) green chile enchilada sauce or salsa verde
1 teaspoon olive oil or avocado oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped, plus more for serving
1 cup shredded cheddar, Monterey Jack, Oaxaca, or use a Mexican cheese blend
Directions
1Prepare oven and dish: Preheat your oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 2-quart baking dish.
2Make enchilada sauce: Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant but not brown, about 1 minute. Stir in the green chile enchilada sauce (or salsa verde) and cook for one more minute.
3Make it creamy: Remove the skillet from the heat. Stir in sour cream and cilantro. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed. If the sauce is too spicy, stir in more sour cream.
4Add the chicken: Remove 1 cup of sauce from the skillet and set aside to assemble the enchiladas later. Then, stir the shredded chicken and half the cheese into the sauce left in the skillet.
5Assemble enchiladas: Spread half of the reserved sauce on the bottom of the dish. Place ⅓ cup of the chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla. Roll into a cylinder. Arrange rolled tortillas seam-side down in the baking dish. Spread the remaining reserved sauce over the enchiladas. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
6Bake the enchiladas: Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Then, remove the foil and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes. Allow the enchiladas to cool for 5 to 10 minutes, allowing them to set up in the middle. Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Chicken: Use leftover chicken or try one of these easy recipes to cook chicken: Poached Chicken (15 minutes), Stovetop Shredded Chicken (1 hour), or Slow Cooker Shredded Chicken (4 – 6 hours).
- Tortillas: For these enchiladas, you can use either flour or corn tortillas. Corn tortillas have a more traditional flavor and texture, while flour tortillas are a better option if you prefer a softer result. If using corn tortillas, soften them before filling for easier rolling. To do this, lightly coat them in oil and bake at 350°F for 3 to 4 minutes.
- Make ahead: As these enchiladas sit, they absorb more of the sauce, making them soft and soggy. I prefer these the day I make them, and I don’t recommend making them days ahead of time or freezing them.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
After reading all the comments I doubled this recipe. I do make my own salsa verde and after reading others I used 1/2 greek yogurt and 1/2 cream cheese as I needed to use them up and did not have sour cream. It was okay, but if you change a recipe don’t rate it so I am not going to give any stars. I also think I perfert red sauce better. I glad the people who follow the recipe enjoyed it.
Hi Barbara, Cooking is all about experimentation, so good for you for trying something new. If you’d like, you can check out our red enchiladas to see if these are more to your taste.
So after reading reviews I want to make your recipe. I read the notes and it said not rerecommend to freeze what about if I am using corn totillas and fring them frist?
Hi Barbara, The corn tortillas will hold up a but butter when freezing/thawing.
This is my go to chicken enchilada recipe. YUMMY 😋
Very good! Love knowing how to heat the tortillas!
I WILL MAKE THIS RECIPE FOR A FRIENDS BIRTHDAY. I WILL LET YOU KNOW. CAN’T WAIT TO TRY IT. LOVED THE REVIEWS!
The recipe was great. I would increase the quantity of sauce. I also used gluten free tortillas amd cut them into strips after frying for layers because they were impossible to roll.
Best ever green chicken enchiladas!. I’m throwing my other recipes out and only using this one. Next time I’m going to cut up a jalapeño and place some in each enchilada. I can’t wait to make again!
Just made these tonight. I read many excellent reviews! And I agree, these were SO good, yet simple & easy! I always cook my tortillas first before filling: in a hot pan, spray the tortillas with nonstick spray, THEN, sprinkle a bit of Lemon Pepper on one side, cook for 10 sec each side on med/high!!! SO flavorful! Then fill, place in dish as directed & bake. For toppings, we did sour cream, sliced scallions & salted avocado slices!!
Wonderful recipe! I added diced white onion and minced jalapeño the sauce. Baked on the BBQ in metal bread pans greased with olive oil. (Bring the BBQ to temp and then turn the heat off on the side with the pans.)
ridiculously easy – I used the suggested easy stovetop shredded chicken and bottled verde sauce. DELICIOUS. best recipe I have found for Enchiladas Verdes. Highly recommend. Make extra – great the next day also. We didn’t have enough left over for the next day 🙂
So happy you enjoyed them, Michelle!
Delicious! My family members each had seconds 🙂 Thank you!!
These are wonderful!!! Will be having these often!! I added an extra cup of petite shrimp to add a little extra to them!! Thanks Guys!
Don’t usually comment on recipes but OMG this was so good, quick and easy. I had a spoonful left in pan after rolling enchiladas -next time I’m doubling this recipe to have more because that stuff would be good over rice, baked potato topping, chip dip etc.
This was so simple and all 4 of my kids not only loved, but and ate it all and asked for more! I have a 10, 6, 4 and 1 yr old. 6 & 4 yr old are so, so picky-every day is a struggle to get them to eat. There are not many dishes that all my kids enjoy. This is definitely one of them! I pulled out frozen left over rotisserie chicken, white corn tortillas, used a can of Las Palmas green enchilada sauce and Chihuahua cheese. I didn’t use cilantro due to not having any. Stress free and tasty! Thank you so much! This is on our rotation from now on.
This is amazing, Helen, and it makes us so happy! We absolutely know the feeling when you find a recipe that everyone in the family enjoys 🙂
Excellent!!
These were AWESOME!!!!! I have been NEEDING some green chicken enchiladas (it’s a comfort food thing) and I made these for my household and my son & daughter-in-law’s household! Wow, home-cooking REALLY hits the spot, doesn’t it? THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this yummy recipe!!!! (Oh, BTWs, I saved the unused sauce and made it again days later and that one came out perfectly AS WELL!!! Definitely a crowd pleaser!!!! 🙂
Great dish. One of my go too dinners. A question, how can I make this vegetarian?
Hi Ruben, I’d replace the chicken with a medley of sautéed veggies.
The food looks great however being someone with extreme ADHD I didn’t find it as easy as you stated — maybe 80% easy. I’m still going to try it but re-write the directions/ instructions so I can understand it better. Wish me luck!
This is a bi-weekly dish in our house. We love it so much! Big fans over here.
I’ve made this one a few times now. It’s quick and easy, and delicious!Always a favorite for dinner! Love it!
These were excellent!