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, refried black 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
1 teaspoon olive oil or avocado oil
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (about 8 ounces)
Six 8-inch flour tortillas or corn tortillas
2 cups (485 g) green chile enchilada sauce or salsa verde (from one 15- to 16-ounce can)
2 garlic cloves, minced
½ cup (120 g) sour cream
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro plus more for serving
4 ounces shredded Cheddar, Monterey Jack, or Oaxaca (about 1 cup)
Directions
1Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease a 2-quart baking dish and set aside.
2Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant but not brown, about 1 minute. Stir in the enchilada sauce and cook for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. Stir in the sour cream and cilantro. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. If the sauce is too spicy, stir in more sour cream.
3Remove 1 cup of the sauce from the skillet and set aside. Stir the chicken and half of the cheese into the remaining sauce in the skillet.
4Spread half of the reserved 1 cup of sauce over the bottom of the baking dish.
5Place ⅓ cup of the chicken in the center of each tortilla. Roll into a cylinder and arrange, seam-side down, in the dish. Spread the reserved sauce over the enchiladas, then scatter the remaining cheese on top.
6Cover the baking dish with aluminum foil. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes. Leave to cool for 5 to 10 minutes to allow the middle to set. Serve with cilantro scattered over the top.
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.
Delicious recipe! I poached the chicken and shred it. Added the garlic as described and used about 1/3 of green enchilada sauce and a small can of green chiles. Some shredded Mexican cheese and sour cream for the filling. I found corn/flour enchilada wraps and baked for 15-20 mins. Added extra Colby Jack cheese to the top of these with the rest of the green enchilada sauce. Amazing and little left over!
This is the perfect chicken enchilada recipe. I made my own green chile sauce, otherwise I followed the recipe as written. The recipe was easy and my husband loved them. We were in New Mexico for 11 years and my husband thought these were the very best he had ever had. I am adding this to my personal cookbook and plan to invite our extended family over for them next week. Thank you for sharing this – this recipe is a keeper!
This review made our day! Joanne and I are so happy you love the recipe 🙂
Can you use cream cheese and sour cream if so, how would you portion it out?
I’d simply replace half of the sour cream with cream cheese.
I’m definitely going to make this recipe but We are Mexican and my mom taught me the spice is in the membrane and the seeds inside so what we do is cut them out before roasting. There is a of flavor in the roasted part of the skin as well and it’s delicious. It’s really easy and if you want you can wear gloves so your fingers don’t get spicy. 🙂 appreciate you sharing this recipe as it looks delicious! I’m excited to make it because enchiladas are my favorite.
So yummy. I grilled thinly sliced chicken breast then put them in blender to shred it…worked perfectly. I added 2 cans of green chilis to the mix as well. So good thank you!
I love corn tortillas, but they are hard to work with, so I layer the ingredients like lasagne! So much easier, and love the recipe!
Great idea! I will be using that tip next time. I too love corn tortillas
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.
This is so delicious; it’s become our standard enchiladas recipe. I see you don’t recommend making days ahead but what about just a few hours, putting in the fridge until we’re ready to cook? How should I adjust bake time for that?
That should be fine. You probably dont need much more baking time (maybe just 5 minutes extra if you bake cold from the fridge).
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!
We made these with gluten-free soft tortillas and they were a real hit with our daughter-in law! We loved them too! I will be making these again. The recipe was easy to follow and came out great!
That’s wonderful! So happy the gluten-free tortillas worked well for you!
I added cumin, chipotle powder, paprika, black olives and chopped green onions to the chicken before i wrapped them into the tortillas. I also like extra Verde sauce too. So yummy!!!
This is one of our family’s favorite meals! Thank you so much….
I love this recipe. Is there a way to add cream cheese along with the sour cream? I think it would be super creamy and rich.
You can! I’d pull back a little on the sour cream and replace some of it with the cream cheese.
Delicious and quick! Thank you!
I made half of this recipe using 2 chicken thighs that I poached. I also used the soft Tortilla Bowl, I used 4. Absolutely delicious!!
These were such a surprising delight! Came together so quickly, and the added step of putting garlic in the jarred sauce (we used salsa verde) added a really nice richness. Will definitely make again.
Is there a way you would suggest making this specific recipe vegetarian? What could I sub the chicken for?
Hi Jennifer, You could do pinto beans and cheese inside with some veggies like zucchini or summer squash.