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Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

5 from 16 votes
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posted: 09/05/19

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy
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This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy

These Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas are good to the very last drop of sauce on your plate.  Your family will love this amazing and delicious dish!

over head view of a baking dish with blue handles on a wood board holding sour cream chicken enchiladas, with a white sauce, garnished with a lot of cilantro

We are on the third day of school and some time between last night and this morning all of my kids had melt downs. Dude. The transition back to the school is R-O-U-G-H. They are all tired from the long days and new schedules, and I am too. My half pot of coffee is not getting the job done these days.

So as I mentioned the other day when I shared my Ground Beef Stroganoff, I am coming at you with lots and lots of dinner recipes over the next several weeks. There will be some other things sprinkled in, but I really want to give you options when it comes to dinner time. Today I have Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas! I love these for their delicious flavor, but also because they can be frozen!

How to make Sour Cream Enchiladas

  1. Make filling: In a large bowl combine shredded chicken, diced (drained) tomatoes, chiles, and taco seasoning.
  2. Make the sour cream sauce: Start by making a roux and then add in chicken broth. Remove it from the heat and stir in sour cream.
  3. Assemble: Pour a small amount of the sauce in the pan, fill tortillas with the filling and add to a baking dish, top it all with more of the sour cream sauce and cheese.
  4. Bake: Place in the oven and bake until warm and bubbly.

Why These are the Best Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

So there are a lot of white chicken enchiladas out there, but I think these are the best for a few reasons:

  • They are seasoned with my homemade taco seasoning. If you haven’t tried that yet, you are missing out. It has great flavor, and it’s easy to make and keep on hand.
  • The ingredients are super simple in this. Nothing difficult to find.
  • It doesn’t have a green sauce. There I said. You can throw things if you like, but I am not in love with green salsas, and while this recipe calls for green chiles (which I love!) they don’t over power the dish.
  • We don’t fry the tortillas! Some enchilada recipes call for frying the tortillas before stuffing them. While I am certain that makes for a glorious enchilada, it is calories I don’t want, and time doing something I don’t have time for. We skip that in this recipe and still end up loving the final sour cream chicken enchilada.
  • This Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Recipe is freezable!  That’s right, friends! So my vote is that you make a double batch (double the ingredients, but not really double the work), make one for tonight, and freeze the other for a busy weeknight!
close up side view of white chicken enchiladas in a ceramic baking dish covered in a sour cream sauce and garnished with cilantro

Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Ingredients

As I mentioned above, the ingredients for this recipe are really simple. I’m going to talk about a few you might have questions on.

  • Tortilla Shells:  I use flour tortillas. You can use corn, but I think they are a lot more difficult to work with.
  • Diced Green Chiles: Buy these by the small can. They are available in mild and spicy. The other heat in this recipe comes from the taco seasoning, so if you like things with a kick, I would go with spicy. I chose mild because I still have little kids.
  • Unsalted Butter: I always cook and bake with unsalted butter because that way I can control the salt in my recipes. If you don’t have that on hand, use salted. It will be okay.
  • Monterey Jack Cheese: This is a great white cheese that is perfect for melting. Please resist the urge to buy it pre-shedded. It melts so much better when you buy the brick and shred it yourself.

Keeping Your Enchiladas Soft

One small key to this recipe is pouring the sauce in the pan before you then roll the enchiladas and add them. If you skip this step, the bottom of your enchiladas will become really tough and difficult to cut through with a fork as you are eating them.

A small amount of that delicious white enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan – no need to even measure it – will totally solve this problem.

two chicken enchiladas with sour cream sauce being dished out of a casserole dish, garnished with cilantro

Make a Double Batch and Freeze These Chicken Enchiladas

Yes! These can be frozen!  Just wrap the 9 by 13 inch pan after you add the rest of the sauce and cheese. Wrap it very well and freeze for up to a month. 

When you are ready to eat your frozen enchiladas, bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, covered, or until the enchiladas are cooked through.

Pro Tip

If you are using a glass pan, put the frozen enchiladas in the cold oven so your pan doesn’t crack. Go the safer route and make them in a disposable recyclable pan.

What to Serve with Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

If you’re wondering what to serve with these delicious enchiladas, here are a few side dish options:

two chicken enchiladas with white sauce on a white circle plate garnished with cilantro
over head view of a baking dish with blue handles on a wood board holding sour cream chicken enchiladas, with a white sauce, garnished with a lot of cilantro
5 from 16 votes

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Serves: 5 people
(tap # to scale)
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 25 minutes
Total: 45 minutes
These Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas are good to the very last drop of sauce on your plate.  Your family will love this amazing and delicious dish!

Ingredients

  • 1 pound chicken cooked and shredded (see note)
  • 15 ounces diced tomatoes drained
  • 5 ounces diced green chiles
  • 1 tablespoon taco seasoning
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 15 ounces chicken broth
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 10 10 inch flour tortillas
  • 8 ounces Monterey Jack cheese shredded

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 by 13 inch baking dish with cooking spray and set aside.
  • In a medium bowl, mix together the chicken, drained diced tomatoes, chiles, taco seasoning, and 3/4 a cup of the cheese.
  • Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat; stir in flour to make a roux, stirring and cooking the mixture until bubbly. Gradually whisk in the chicken broth. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in the sour cream.
  • Pour a small amount – just enough to coat the bottom – into the 9 by 13 inch pan.
  • Add 1/2 a cup of the chicken mixture to each tortilla and roll tightly. Place seam side down in the preparred baking dish.
  • When all 10 tortillas have been added to the baking dish, top with the remaining sauce and then the reamining cheese.
  • Place in the oven, uncovered, and bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is fully melted, the sauce has begun to boil near the endges and the visable tortilla shells are just beginning to brown.

Notes

Please note that the cook time for this recipe does not include cooking the chicken. I would suggest buying pre cooked shredded chicken, using a rotisserie chicken, or using my recipe for Instant Pot Shredded Chicken.
Additionally, the nutritional information listed can change dramatically depending on what type of tortilla you use. The tortilla used in this calculation was 210 calories per tortilla.
Serving: 1enchilada Calories: 465kcal (23%) Carbohydrates: 43g (14%) Protein: 17g (34%) Fat: 23g (35%) Saturated Fat: 13g (81%) Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g Monounsaturated Fat: 2g Cholesterol: 48mg (16%) Sodium: 708mg (31%) Potassium: 304mg (9%) Fiber: 2g (8%) Sugar: 2g (2%)
Author: Lisa Longley
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
over head view of a baking dish with blue handles on a wood board holding sour cream chicken enchiladas, with a white sauce, garnished with a lot of cilantro

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Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

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Hi! I'm Lisa Longley, and I am committed to giving you simple dinner ideas and recipes that are easy to make; recipes that will fill your home with joy. I am the owner and author of SimpleJoy.com and I'm so glad that you are here.

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  1. Susan Marx says

    5 stars
    Great recipe, thank you. I left out the green Chile’s and tomatoes and added 1/2 C. diced Spanish onion and used more cheese. Delicious!

    Next time will add some finely diced, pickled Jalapeños and a hint of cilantro.

    • Lisa Longley says

      So glad you liked them!

  2. Jeri says

    5 stars
    I simmered two chicken breast in a can of Rotel with the other seasonings, then shredded the chicken. They were delicious!

    • Lisa Longley says

      Rotel is SUCH a perfect short cut in this recipe.Thank you so much for coming back to tell me how much you liked these!

  3. Michelle Devers says

    Have all the ingredients to make them. Just wondering one thing… Is it ok to make the filling a day before? Then just put into the fridge until ready to make the enchiladas 🤔???

    • Lisa Longley says

      Yes, making the filling the day before is fine. I would just wait to make the sour cream mixture until right before constructing them.

  4. Karen Howard says

    5 stars
    Wow! Yummy. I would add sliced Black Olives to the Enchiladas too, & since I personally like it cheesy, prob add a bit more& leave out the sour cream for later & put it on top when finished w/ chopped chives or green onions, & have a Nice Mixed Green & Fruit Salad ( Lettuce, Spinach, Radichio, Cukes, Mango, Green Seedless Grapes, Watermelon, Mandarin Orange Segments & Red Bell Peppers) & Spanish Rice w/ it for color, texture & contrasting flavors. And it wouldn’t be complete without Spanish Wine, Red Sangria, or a Margarita or Mojito !❤😀

  5. Debbie says

    Making this for dinner tonight, I will let you know if my fussy family likes it. Thank you for this recipe it looks delicious.

  6. Diane Wedding says

    This was delicious, will definitely make again

    • Lisa Longley says

      So glad to hear you liked it!

  7. Julie Sheehan says

    Can you make this the night before and cook the next day?

    • Lisa Longley says

      Yes! That will work!

  8. Angela T says

    5 stars
    This was a big hit with all 4 of “my boys”! My hubby has gluten allergies and this is a whole new area of cooking for me. It also means I make 1 and 1/2 of this recipe to feed myself & the 4 “boys”. From the ages of 51 down to 7 they loved it and asked for 2nds & some 3rds! It was even compared to a Mexican restaurant as being even better! Sour Cream Enchiladas are what I and the youngest order each time we go! I was so excited to find something we all can eat. Granted it required me to make 2 recipes, one flour, and one corn tortilla, their praises made the extra work worth it.
    Thank you so much! Angela Taylor, Texas
    ** Side note, the only changes I made was to half the receipe.

    • Lisa Longley says

      So happy you liked this!

  9. Susab says

    Can you use packaged taco seasoning that is in envelope.

    • Lisa Longley says

      Yes, you can

  10. Kathy jo young says

    5 stars
    I made the chicken enchilada dish. I did alter it a bit. I put 3 large boneless skinless chicken breasts in crockpot with 1 can of green enchilada sauce over chicken. I cooked all night. Woke to an amazing smell! The chicken shredded perfectly.

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