Green Chicken Enchiladas
Soft flour tortillas, overflowing with chicken, cheese, seasoned beans, and green chilies. These amazing bundles are nestled in a baking dish and topped with enchilada sauce and more cheese. Pure deliciousness.
This recipe was written for the Arizona Republic.
This hearty dish isn’t just perfect for a busy weeknight, it’s also great for entertaining
And you can prep the dish up to 24 hours before baking too. Prepare the dish as directed, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to bake and serve.
What is green enchilada sauce?
Green enchilada sauce is a blend of green chiles, green tomatoes, and jalapeños, and it’s a one-stop-shop for great flavor. Look for the sauce (typically sold in cans) in the Mexican food aisle of the grocery store. If desired, you can use red enchilada sauce instead.
Since this recipe calls for seasoned beans, you need very few additional ingredients. You can use seasoned black beans or chili beans of choice. If you don’t have seasoned beans, you can certainly use regular canned beans; just rinse and drain them before using to remove excess salt.
How should you serve your green chicken enchiladas?
You can top these enchiladas with additional ingredients if desired; sour cream, avocado, jalapeños, salsa, and black olives would all make great garnishes.
Green Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
- Cooking spray
- 4 cups shredded or diced cooked chicken
- 3 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend, divided
- 15- ounce can seasoned black beans or chili beans of choice, undrained
- 4- ounce can diced green chiles
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 8 soft taco-size, medium flour tortillas
- 28- ounce can green enchilada sauce
- Chopped fresh cilantro for serving
- Chopped green onions for serving
Equipment
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9×13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a large bowl, combine the chicken, 1 1/2 cups of the cheese, beans, green chiles, and chili powder. Mix well.
- Arrange the tortillas on a flat surface. Top the center of each tortilla with about 2 tablespoons of the enchilada sauce, making a line down the center. Top the sauce with the chicken mixture, filling up in the center, from one end of the tortilla to the other.
- Roll up tightly and arrange the filled tortillas in the prepared pan (seam-side up or down, it doesn’t matter; just pack them in tightly). Top the tortillas with the remaining enchilada sauce (if it seems like you have too much sauce for your pan, leave about 1/2 cup out). Top with the remaining cheese.
- Cover with aluminum foil (spray the aluminum foil with cooking spray to prevent sticking) and bake for 15 minutes. Uncover and bake for 5 to 10 more minutes, until the cheese melts and the tortillas are golden and crisp where they’re not covered with sauce and/or cheese.
- Top with fresh cilantro and green onions and serve.