Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce
Every layer of these delicious Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce is packed with flavor!
Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce
Corn tortillas filled with flavorful shredded chicken breast, homemade enchilada sauce and two different cheeses, man your going to love this!
As I said at the top of this post, every layer of this recipe has flavor. To start with, your not going to use just cooked shredded chicken breast. Your going to use chicken breast cooked in broth with spices. If your a busy momma or daddy and like to prep ahead for weeknight meals, cook the chicken the night before . Shred it and refrigerate it to use the next day. If you’re looking for a super fast dinner, you could always use a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket.
Making the homemade enchilada sauce is as easy as making a homemade gravy and again, can be made a day ahead and stored in the refrigerator. You start the enchilada sauce by whisking and cooking the flour and oil together like a roux. After it’s boiled and cooked a couple of minutes, add the spices and whisk to combine. The chicken broth is added to the pan and simmered until the mixture slightly thickens. Think of it as Mexican gravy. A rich delicious combination of flavors you can make right at home.
The last flavorful layer but certainly not the least is the cheese. Melting shredded Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheese covers the top of this delicious dish and it’s enough to make your mouth water just looking at it. The combinations of flavors in this recipe are fantastic. But the best part is, with a little planning ahead if need be, you don’t have to wait for the weekend to make Chicken Enchiladas with Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce, you can have it tonight and ENJOY!
PIN IT FOR LATER!
Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 2 whole chicken breasts, uncooked
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 Teaspoon garlic powder
- one 10 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 medium onion , diced
- 12 corn tortillas
- 2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
- 2 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese
Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 Tablespoons flour
- 4 Tablespoons chili powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 Teaspoon salt
- 1/2 Teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 Teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 Teaspoon cayene pepper
- 2 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.Place the diced onion, tomatoes, garlic powder, chicken broth and the whole chicken breasts in a large saucepan. Simmer for 30 minutes until the chicken breasts are tender enough to easily shred. Let the mixture cool. Remove the chicken breasts and shred, discard the remaining ingredients in the pot. . Spread 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce onto the bottom of a 13x9 inch baking pan. Spread about a 1/2 Teaspoon enchilada sauce onto the middle of each of 12 corn tortillas. Place 1 Tablespoon of shredded chicken on top of the enchilada sauce followed by a sprinkling of both cheeses. Roll the corn tortilla up and place in the 13x9 inch baking pan. Repeat for the remaining 11 tortillas. Top the rolled enchiladas with the remaining enchilada sauce and both shredded cheeses. Bake at 400 degrees, uncovered for about 20 minutes or until bubbly.Homemade Red Enchilada Sauce directions:Place the flour and oil in a medium size saucepan under medium heat. Whisk and cook the mixture until it starts to boil, then boil another minute or two to remove the flour taste. Whisk in the seasonings until well blended. While still whisking, add the chicken broth to the pan, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 10 minutes or until slightly thickened.
Video
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Kudos to you Bunny for not using jarred sauce. Do you know how many times I have looked for recipes for homemade enchiladas and they directed me to buy a jar of enchilada sauce. You cooked your own chicken too. You have a lucky family to be eating this!
Thank you Rachel! I absolutely love being able to make what you can buy at the store homemade. It’s like a gift isn’t it? One less thing to buy and homemade is easy and sooooo much more flavorful! Thank you for taking the time to come by and visit Rachel, I appreciate it.
I husband loves chicken enchiladas! These look amazing!!
Thank you Jocelyn!
Homemade enchiladas are just the best. I love that you even made the sauce!
I love this recipe! Enchiladas are my favorite dish to make at home. I am definitely ready to start making my own enchilada sauce! Thanks so much for sharing.
Just like Mom use to make, loved it! But to spicy for husband will make again with less chili powder.
Awe Denise, I love comments like this. Thank you so much.
Note to self- read entire recipe before cooking 😂
Did everything as planned until I got to the bottom and read to COOK the enchilada sauce 😂😂
🤷🏻♀️ oh well! Lesson learned. Hopefully it still taste good.
Can you move next to me.
Made this tonight. It’s very tasty. However, I would definitely cover the dish with foil for the first 20 minutes. The cheese became too dried out and tortillas too crispy.
Good tip Randi, thank you for coming back with it.
Red enchilada sauce recipe is awesome!
A couple of notes- 2 WHOLE chicken breasts is way too much… I froze enough for tacos and such for quite awhile. I think you want to recommend 2 whole half boneless, skinless breasts.
And why Discard diced tomato and onions? I drained and retained and used in the filling also adding roasted corn
We like it hot so topped with sliced jalapeños, served it on a bed of red jalapeño salsa and cilantro, and squeezed a wedge of lime for a bit of zing.
Your the best Brent, thank you for your tips, we all appreciate them!
The chicken enchiladas were fantastic!Your the bomb!! As far as leftover chicken, I just put out in a baggie in the fridge, next day I grabbed a bag of potato chips, and put the shredded chicken on top of a chip and ate it as a snack, and it was pretty darn good. Thanks so much for sharing your recipe. My granddaughter and I enjoyed them.
Great recipe. My son, who does not like chicken, loved these enchiladas! It will definitely be in our rotation.
WONDERFUL Sheila, another fantastic recipe your son will eat, that’s priceless.
Loved this! But it was way too much chicken. So I shredded it in the juice it was cooked in, used what I needed for the enchiladas, and refrigerated the rest in the juices, to use for burritos later on. Oh…So…Good! And even better the second and third days. Love those leftovers!!!!!! Thanks for a great recipe.
Wonderful AnneMarie and good for you to freeze the leftover chicken for another meal! Thank you for taking the time to come back and comment sweetie , I appreciate you!
I do not understand how the above recipe makes RED enchilada sauce. Is there a missing ingredient?
4 Tablespoons of chili powder makes the red enchilada sauce red honey.
Just made these tonight. They were easy enough that I could make them as a student, so that’s a win for me! I prepped the chicken last night so I wouldn’t have any excuses not to cook today. I will definitely make these again!
That’s what I love to hear Honey, just a warning, if you share with your fellow students your going to make them all the time!!LOL!
These were fabulous. Will ever buy canned enchilada sauce again…ever!
So delicious! Just don’t like waisting the broth the chicken was cooked in 😅
Use it to make Mexican rice in the pressure cooker
NICE Connye, fantastic idea, thank you!
These were delicious! My picky family loved them! I used a rotesserie chicken, but still made the tomato/onion sauce and combined a little with the chicken so that it has a flavorful juice. I even made some for my son without cheese and he loved it!
1 tbsp of chicken per enchilada can’t be correct?
Also it would be helpful if you included the directions for the enchilada sauce with “instructions” instead of readers having to hunt it down further up the page.
Hello, I just love this easy recipe for the red enchilada sauce. I would always buy the can but just wasn’t satisfied with the taste but I love enchiladas so I just settled. I had every ingredient on hand except for the chicken broth so I used water. I will never buy red sauce from a can again! My husband went back for seconds. Thank you so much!
You made my day! So glad to hear this- it’s hard to go back once you make it homemade!
Made this twice love it the whole family
So glad the fam enjoyed it!