When I first started coming up with recipes for my upcoming Cinco de Mayo / birthday fiesta, I was all set on only including authentic Mexican recipes. I researched meticulously, I took notes, I ordered special ingredients online… aaaand theeeeen these Creamy Three Cheese Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas happened. Sometimes you just gotta follow your heart.
Just look at those and try to tell me that my heart lead me in the wrong direction. I dare ya.
So what makes these enchiladas so amazing (besides the obvious, of course)? They’re incredibly cheesy, with cheese both in the filling and mixed into the chipotle pepper-spiked sauce. Zesty ranch seasoning and sour cream help to add cool and tangy flavor to the sauce that the enchiladas are absolutely smothered in, balancing out the heat from the peppers. They are impossible to resist, which is probably why I made them 3 times in the past week.
So let’s start at the beginning. To make chicken enchiladas, we need chicken of course. You can use leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, or you can throw some dark meat chicken into a pot and boil it until easily shred-able, like I did. Dark meat chicken is my favorite for enchiladas, because it stays juicy even after being baked as the enchilada filling.
But chicken by itself can be a bit boring, so I mix it with some onion, garlic, chipotle pepper, ranch seasoning, chicken broth, and heavy cream before spooning it into the corn tortillas, topping the chicken with 3 types of cheese, and wrapping everything up.
But remember what I said! THE CHEESINESS DOESN’T STOP THERE, MY FRIEND. See that sauce, with its strings of melted cheese as it’s poured? It’s the star of the show. It’s the Mona Lisa of creamy enchilada sauces. It’s a mouthwatering dish; a most wonderful wish come true. I want to fill a pool with it and spend the rest of my days swimming in creamy, cheesy bliss.
It warrants that level of creepiness, for sure.
I want to keep gushing but I have some Creamy Three Cheese Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas leftover that I need to eat, STAT. You know how hard it is to look at these pictures and know you have some in the fridge and keep telling yourself that you’ll reward yourself with one AFTER you finish your blog post?
It’s torture. Pure torture.
So go, make these chicken enchiladas for yourself so you can become as obsessed with them as I am! And while you’re at it, take a photo and tag #hostthetoast on Instagram or Twitter. I want to see ’em– I won’t even be mad if you can’t help yourself and you take a few bites first. Who could blame you, right?
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Creamy Three Cheese Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas
- Prep Time: 30 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: 12 enchiladas 1x
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Pin RecipeDescription
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman’s White Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons canola oil, divided
- 12 corn tortillas
- 2 1/2 – 3 cups cooked, shredded chicken breasts
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 6 chipotles (from 1 can chipotles in adobo), very finely chopped, divided
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 oz dry ranch seasoning packet, divided
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 1/2 cups Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- Cilantro, Chopped, to top
- Green onion, chopped, to top
Instructions
- In a small skillet over medium-high heat, heat 2 tablespoons of the canola oil. Add in one tortilla at a time and fry for 10-20 seconds to soften. Make sure to take the tortillas out before they crisp, you just want them to be pliable. Set on a paper towel lined plate or baking sheet to absorb excess oil.
- Heat the remaining tablespoon of canola oil in separate skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 2 minutes, then mix in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken, one of the chipotles, 1/2 cup of the chicken broth, and the heavy cream. Stir until the mixture begins to bubble, then mix 2 tablespoons of the dry ranch seasoning until well-combined. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a separate large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Sprinkle in the flour, whisking constantly until golden. Whisk in the remaining chicken broth, and then stir in the remaining chipotles.
- Reduce heat to low, then stir in sour cream and the remaining ranch seasoning. Add half of the cheese and stir until melted.
- To assemble, spoon the chicken mixture in a line down the center of the tortillas, one at a time. Top with cheese, and then roll the tortilla tightly around the filling. Place seam side down in a 9 x 13″ casserole dish and repeat until the dish is full.
- Pour the creamy chipotle sauce over the top of the enchiladas. Bake for 30 minutes, or until beginning to bubble and lightly brown on top. Sprinkle with cilantro and green onion and serve warm.
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How did you Cook your chicken meat? Step by step. This where thights or drunsticks?
It says right on the recipe. “You can use leftover chicken, rotisserie chicken, or you can throw some dark meat chicken into a pot and boil it until easily shred-able, like I did.”
Tried these tonight. Delicious! Thank you Morgan!
Could I prep all this a night before. Then just re-heat the chipotle sauce until smooth, assemble the chicken roll-ups and pour the chipotle sauce over…? Or would you not recommend?
This is an amazing recipe, thank you!
★★★★★
This is time consuming but the flavor is amazing!! I have started adding the first skillet ingredients; cream, broth, garlic, onions, 2 tbsp. of ranch, and chicken breasts into my crockpot and cooking together. This deepens the flavor, makes for very tender chicken. Do the second skillet cooking while assembling the insides. This is a favorite! It also freezes beautifully, make enough for two batches, put one in the oven & one in the freezer. Let it thaw, cook as directed, the flavor is just as good.
★★★★★
When you say “add half the cheese” can you be more specific. The recipe has 3 different types of cheese?
Hi Rim! You want to add half of the total amount of cheese. You can mix all of the 3 cheeses together in a bowl and add half, if that’s easiest! Hope that helps 🙂