Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas 
20 Comments
There is nothing difficult about making REAL sour cream chicken enchiladas. Every phase of the preparation is really easy. They simply take time and a love for Tex-Mex cuisine. I highly recommend you make two batches of enchiladas; one to eat, one to freeze. This recipe will fill two 13x9 inch casserole dishes.
HERE'S ALL YOU NEED TO GET STARTED
Chicken Filling
- 6 roasted chicken breasts, shredded
- 1 can (15 oz.) Southwest style diced tomatoes
- 4 oz. can diced green chilies
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 3 tablespoons cumin
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
Sour Cream Sauce
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/2 cup flour
- 32 oz chicken broth
- 2 cup sour cream
- 20 flour tortillas
- 8 oz. Monterey Jack Cheese, grated
In a large skillet on medium high heat, add shredded chicken, diced tomatoes, green chilies, minced garlic; cook for 7- 10 minutes, until you see the tomatoes breaking down. Add in cumin, chili powder, and flour; cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly and getting the spices mixed well over the chicken. Pour in chicken broth, stir in well.
Chicken filling at this point should have enough liquid to stir easily, but NOT be soupy. (It's just like when you're seasoning taco meat, the liquid is there to help the spices adhere to the meat.) REDUCE HEAT to medium low. Continue to cook until meat has thickened and almost dry, stirring regularly, about 20-30 minutes. Remove from heat.
DO AHEAD TIP
At this point, you could easily move the chicken filling to an airtight container and store in the refrigerator up to three days. I like to refrigerate overnight to get a better flavor when I'm rolling tamales and enchiladas.
Back to the enchiladas!
Prep your work area for assembly.
Spray the casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray. Use a tray or large sheet pan to work on; it's easier to clean up. Take one tortilla and fill with meat filling across the bottom of tortilla, as seen in picture above. Depending on the size of the tortillas, the amount of meat will vary. I, personally, like meaty enchiladas, so I fill'er up! As you can see from the pictures. Once you've filled the casserole dish, set it aside.
Preheat oven to 375F degrees.
It's time to make the sour cream sauce!
In a medium sauce pan on medium heat, melt the butter and add flour. Whisking flour constantly; cook for 2 minutes. Gradually whisk in chicken broth and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Remove from heat; stir in sour cream; pour sauce evenly over chicken enchiladas. Top with Monterey Jack cheese. BAKE uncovered 25 minutes.
Cover the second casserole dish with heavy foil and freeze to eat later. When you're ready to eat it; thaw enchiladas. Heat oven to 350F degrees and reheat for up to 40 minutes, or until hot. I recommend keeping the foil cover on the baking dish.
It's truly worth all the effort to make your own sour cream chicken enchiladas. Your family will really feel special when they taste them.
My good friend, Ben over at What's Cooking.com makes The Perfect Mexican Rice go to with these enchiladas.
Butter!? Butter?!!! You put B-U-T-T-E-R in your enchilada sauce?!!
Will you marry me?
Yes, B-U-T-T-E-R. (For some reason, I want to sing it like Tammy Wynette’s D-I-V-O-R-C-E.)
Ahh, a great cook AND a sense of humor. Your husband is one lucky man.
Thank you, Rhonda. He is pretty lucky.
Yumy! I love the way you prepare the chicken filling, it sounds a lot tastier than just plain shredded chicken. And I am with Francie in the B-U-T-T-E-R part of the sauce. YUMMY!
And that Mexican rice goes perfectly with any enchilada :-p
These are some of the best enchiladas I’ve ever had. And having been raised in Southern California, I’ve had the pleasure of alot of great Mexican dishes. I rank these Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas in my personal top five.
Thanks Jill.
ROCK-N-ROLL!!! Thank you Mike!
I am a tex-mex maniac, Lived in Texas for 20 years, and am VERY picky with my food. This is BY FAR the best at-home tex-mex possible. Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas are a favorite of mine, and this is even better than many restraunts i’ve eaten at.. BRAVO on your recipe! I will see what other masterpieces you have made!
Thank you Sean!
This recipe has the flavors that I want the restaurants to serve me.
Every time Charlie & I visit a new Tex-Mex restaurant, we order sour cream chkn enchiladas as the test dish. It only makes sense to use a popular meal. If it’s made cheaply or bland, you can bet the rest of menu is the same.
Just an fyi – way too much liquid. I quadrupled this dish. The flavor was wonderful, but the chicken broth in the recipe was about double of what we needed. I had to drain the chicken before I wrapped the tortillas…maybe others have known this was too much, but I didn’t. I even tried to cook it down for couple of hours, but didn’t help.
Thank you, J.Davis, for the heads up.
You’ve reminded me of something. I have a friend who works in the kitchen at the hospital. And she is always telling me that not all recipes can be doubled or tripled and come out the same. She says they have to adjust the measurements when trying new dishes. I’m thinking this is a recipe that has to be adjusted if it’s going to be quadrupled.
How much chicken broth do you think it should have called for?
Did any other ingredient need a different measurement?
Hmm those enchiladas sound so good! And thanks for the shout out. Mexican rice would go perfectly with these.
I’m an enchilada fiend! Looks awesome!
Holy Cow! This was the BEST I’ve ever tasted, much less produced in my own home. The flavors of the cumin and chili powder were in perfect proportion, and the cream sauce was so smooth. My family raved, and this recipe will be one of our classics. Thanks so much!!
Thank you, Kelly!
It is always so good to hear when a Simple Daily Recipe is a big hit with another family. If you ever feel like making chicken tamales, use this same chicken filling; it’s a big crowd pleaser, too.
And that cream sauce, you’re right, smooth and dee-licious!
I can’t wait to make this dish! I do have one question. In the picture of the sauce you have a dish of enchiladas in the background…Is that pats of B-U-T-T-E-R sitting on top of the enchiladas?
No, just extra chunks of Monterey Jack cheese.
This has the makings of a great regular Friday night easy meal for my house. I am going to try making it with a slow cooked whole chicken. I have found that just breast meat can sometimes make the enchiladas dry. My family loves these enchiladas so I do not want to ruin them but I want to try something different.
I’ve never frozen anything (other than raw meat, veggies, and fruit) to reheat later. Is there something special I should do when freezing this dish? Can I really just put aluminum foil over my baking pan and that’s that? I’m thinking these enchiladas will be exactly what the Dr. ordered post-baby…
Good morning Veronica!
If you’re freezing something a week or two before you need it, a good fitting foil cover does the job.
However, if you planning a month or three ahead, then lay down a sheet of plastic wrap first. A plastic liner making full contact with the food and going all the way to the edges to keep out air will block out frost build up. THEN, cover the dish with heavy duty aluminum foil.
Come cooking day, you’ll need to allow your dish to set out to thaw before baking. Remove the plastic wrap liner BEFORE placing the dish in the oven. Reuse the foil cover while cooking so as not to overbook the top while the center is heating through.