Shredded chicken enchiladas

Flavorful shredded chicken enchiladas baked in a rich home-made enchilada sauce topped with crumbled feta and grated cheddar cheese.

When you top tortillas filled with spicy, flavourful chicken in rich enchilada sauce and all the cheese, things can only be great, right?

Because that’s what we’re doing today. Enchiladas have been a favourite of mine for many, many years and it’s really not that hard to see why. The thing with enchiladas is that it really is one of those fail-safe, super easy recipes and can be thrown together in all of 20 minutes. Especially if you use shortcuts. And you know I’m the queen of shortcuts so I’m definitely not going to tell you NOT to use a jar of ready-made enchilada sauce BUT if I can convince you to make your own, I promise you won’t be disappointed. You see, it takes pretty much the same amount of time to cook your own rich, deeply aromatic tomato sauce for the enchiladas as it does to make the actual filling. We’re talking max 15 minutes here. And you have to make the filling anyway so you might as well just do the sauce yourself too, right?

And I pinky promise it will be worth it. Where we are saving time is by using either left-over roast chicken or a rotisserie chicken from your local supermarket. Yep, I’m on the leftovers train again but you guys, I feel like a thrifty superhero when I can turn yesterday’s dinner into a fantastic meal today. Some superheroes wear aprons, ok? (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.) So you’ve got the chicken shredded, now you’re going to fry off a red onion, some garlic (ok fine, a lot of garlic), a few sliced mushrooms and a generous amount of ground spices. Add the chicken, a few chopped tomatoes to get things sauced up and allow to simmer for 5 or so minutes until the mixture is moist but not wet before assembling the enchiladas. I like topping the stuffed and rolled enchiladas with a mixture of crumbled feta cheese and sharp cheddar but the cheese element is completely up to you. Mozzarella is great because it is the ultimate melter but honestly, use whatever you want. A mixture of all 3 would be peak cheese goals. Served with the guacamole from yesterday and a dollop of sour cream these are just dreamy. And listen, make sure there’s one or two of these bad boys leftover because I’m not lying when I say they taste even better the next day. 

Shredded chicken enchiladas

Flavorful shredded chicken enchiladas baked in a rich home-made enchilada sauce topped with crumbled feta and grated cheddar cheese.

4.63 from 8 votes

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Course: Chicken, Dinner, Easy

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 4

Author: Alida Ryder

Ingredients

for the enchilada sauce

• 1 red onion finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 2 x 400g tins/cans chopped tomatoes
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 teaspoons sugar optional
• salt & pepper to taste

for the enchiladas

• 1 red onion finely chopped
• 3-4 cloves garlic crushed
• 2 cups sliced mushrooms
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 3 cups cooked shredded chicken
• 3 to matoes chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice to taste
• salt & pepper to taste
• 8 flour tortillas
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

to serve

• guacamole
• sour cream

Instructions

• To make the sauce, saute the onion until soft and translucent then add the garlic and spices and fry for another 30 seconds before adding the chopped tomatoes. Add the bay leaf, red wine and sugar (if using) and reduce the heat. Allow to simmer for 10-15 minutes until the sauce has reduced slightly. Season to taste then remove the bay leaf and blend until smooth.
• Pre-heat the oven to 220°c.
• To make the filling, saute the onion in a large frying pan until soft and translucent then add the garlic and mushrooms and fry for another 5 minutes.
• Add the spices and fry until the pan dries out then add the chicken the tomatoes. Lower the heat and allow to saute for another 5 minutes until the tomatoes are broken up. Season to taste with lemon, salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
• To make the enchiladas, pour half the sauce into an oven-proof dish.
• Place a few spoonfuls of the mixture onto a tortilla then roll up and place seam-side down into the dish with the enchilada sauce.
• Repeat until you have 8 enchiladas then top with the remaining sauce and cheese.
• Place in the oven and allow to bake for 10 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese has melted.
• Remove from the oven and serve with guacamole and a dollop of sour cream.

Other Mexican-influenced recipes you might like:

Quick and easy Guacamole

Mexican chicken soup with charred baby corn 

Easy Mexican grilled chicken with pico de gallo 

Chicken tacos with guacamole and pico de gallo