These Chicken Enchiladas, are a pan of delicious. The word Enchilada, simply means "in chile". These Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas are definitely on point for that. The chipotle and green chiles give this dish a distinctly Mexican flavour. These enchiladas do have a little spice, being that this is a Mexican dish, after all, right? But they aren't intolerable for those who are spice phobic, either.
Enchiladas: Mexican Comfort Food
We love cuisines from all over the world and love to create them in our kitchen, but I have to say, our go to for comfort food is always Mexican. We adore tortillas, burritos, enchiladas, chile rellenos (my very fave thing to eat of all time) Something about the flavours of Mexico always calls. We have been on many visits to many parts of Mexico and love the country, its culture, and food. Enchiladas, though, are the best comfort dish. They're like the Mexican version of Mac & Cheese.
At our house, we do love spice, and Mexican food has plenty of that. But the beautiful thing about Mexican food is that you can dial up or down your spice as much as you like. However you like your spice, you can make a delicious Mexican dish, like these Enchiladas.
Corn Tortillas Vs Flour Tortillas
It's important to use corn and not flour tortillas in this recipe. The corn tortilla is a little harder to roll up, but it gives just the right texture and flavour for true enchiladas. These chicken enchiladas are really great to do if you have leftover chicken breasts.
Flour tortillas do have their place, but corn tortillas stand up better to baking without getting soggy and falling apart. Here's a good summary of when to use which type of tortilla: Corn Vs Flour Tortillas. Corn tortillas are also gluten-free, for those that don't, or can't, eat gluten. Just be careful to check the package if that is a concern because there are a lot of "corn" tortillas that contain flour.
Corn tortillas dipped in enchilada sauce, then rolled around a delicious filling of shredded chicken, tomato and chiles and topped with cheese and sauce before baking are a wonderful and pretty simple dinner fix. To me, an enchilada day is a day where all I can think of is dinner because it's drool-worthy. If you too, love enchiladas, you may want to try these delicious Seafood Enchiladas, too.
Want some more tortilla inspiration? Check out Coconut Shrimp Tacos, or Sriracha Salmon Quesadillas.
Recipe
Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas – Easy Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
Enchilada Sauce
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoon flour
- 2 tablespoon chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 cups tomato sauce
- juice of one lime
Enchiladas
- 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 2 chicken breasts boneless, skinless
- salt and pepper
- 1 onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3 tablespoon chilli powder
- 2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 114 ml can diced green chiles
- 4 chipotle peppers seeded and diced
- adobo sauce from the chipotle peppers about ¼ cup
- 1 28 oz can diced tomatoes drained
- 12 corn tortillas
- 2 cups grated Monterey jack cheese
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro or parsley
Instructions
Enchilada Sauce
- Heat oil in a saucepan on medium heat
- Whisk in flour to form a roux. Cook for one minute. whisk in chilli powder and cumin, cooking for one more minute.
- Add tomato sauce, stirring constantly until smooth. Stir in lime juice, and remove from heat.
Enchiladas
- In a large skillet, heat vegetable oil over medium-high.
- Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper, and cook chicken, about 6 minutes on each side, or until no longer pink inside. Remove chicken to a plate.
- Add onion and garlic to pan and cook until onion is transparent. Add chilli powder, cumin, green chiles, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, and tomatoes.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.
- Shred cooked chicken breasts by hand, and return to pan, combining with the tomato chile mixture.
- In a 9x13 baking pan, spread ½ cup of the enchilada sauce.
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Heat tortillas between damp paper towels in microwave for 30 seconds to make them easier to roll. Dip each tortilla in enchilada sauce to lightly coat on both sides.
- Put ¾ cup of chicken filling on each tortilla, and roll up, placing seam side down in the pan.
- Cover enchiladas with the remainder to the sauce, then the cheese.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling.
- Garnish with cilantro or parsley.
Notes
Nutrition
Rosy
These were deliciously amazing. I did tone down the chilli powder ; used closer to 3 tsps than 3 tbsps. I live in Alberta, Canada and the chipotle chilli spice I use is plenty flavorful. I like spicy but not crazy hot.
Thanks for the recipe!
Colleen
Hi Rosy! I'm super happy that you loved these as much as we do. Tolerance for spice levels is a big variable. I'm so with you on spicy but not crazy hot. Thank You for coming back to comment.
Chief Broom
Good recipe but I think your mesurements for chili powder are wrong. They should all be teaspoons not tablespoons. I did it with tablespoons and for me usually spicier is better (i love raw spicy peppers and molé) but this was just wayyyyyy over spiced. I could tell if the chili powder was toned down it would be bomb. For that i gave 4 stars.
Colleen
Hello! Thanks so much for your feedback. The chili powder that we buy in grocery stores here, (Canada) has virtually no heat, although it does have a lot of flavour. Which is why I used 3 tablespoons. I think I need to be more specific about what kind of chili powder is being used. I was using generic chili powder, but there are so many variations. I really appreciate your comment, and hope you'll try the recipe again toned down. 🙂
Karly
Give me allllll the enchiladas. Now please. I'm serious, these look out of this world. I think I could eat the whole pan on my own!
Colleen
Karly, I would love to share them with you! 🙂 Thanks so much!