Chicken Enchiladas

Takes way too much time for a Mom with 3 kids.

We thought these were just ok.  I read through the reviews and while I did poach my own chicken, I only used about half the cooking broth thus saving reduction time.  I also did not dip the tortillas in the sauce but used my microwave tortilla warmer and then poured the sauce over the top.  I didn't mind the time involved really (weekend dish) but the flavors just didn't really do it for us.  They were good, but not outstanding for the effort.  Won't make again.

My husband and I make this together and love it.

We usually get about 8-9 tortillas filled at 1/3 c each.

We do not dip the tortillas in the sauce but instead microwave them in one of those nifty tortilla warmers until they are very pliable. We can make the recipe earlier in the day and add the sauce to cover the enchiladas right before cooking. One of the Mexican blended 2% shredded cheeses works nicely for the topping. The green sauce is different and nicely spicy!

The first time I made them, I reduced the sauce and didn't have enough left to pour over them. When I made them again, I didn't reduce the sauce and they didn't get dry when I baked them. I had plenty of chicken for 2 dozen enchiladas but I used less than 1/3 in each one. It's a favorite recipe of mine. I've also made a similar recipe using whole wheat tortillas.

I gev this four stars because I had to edit the recipe.  When reading the recipe it did not make sense to me to do all the work of cutting up carrots, onions and celery to then just discard especially since I try to ge my family to eat as many veggies as possible.  I used a rotesserie chicken breast and added the vegetables finely chopped to it.  I also did not reduce the sauce I just used one cup of stock and one cup of salsa verde.  I heated it up and then added the cream.  I don't like soggy enchildas so I did not submerge the tortilla in the sauce instead I added a layer of sauce before adding the meat mixture.  This mixture made 10 enchildas.  I poured the ramining sauce over the middle of the enchiladas and added the cheese.  This also you to have softness and crispiness to the enchildas which are just perfect.  My family loved them and I will make them again.  Oh I used whole wheat tortillas.

always love a new enchilada recipe! This one is a bit more involved and time consuming than I like for weeknight meals, but still delicious! Here is my blog post on it: http://heatskitchen.com/2015/08/24/chicken-enchiladas/

Okay, firstly the reason people are having trouble with mushy watery consistency is that the instructions on cooking down the sauce for "30 minutes" are way off. To get 1 1/2 cups of liquid I had to cook it down for over an hour. Secondly, the previous posters are correct that you can't fill 12 tortillas with the recommended 1/3 cup filling. So I use about 2 Tbsp each. The flavor is not affected and there is enough for all tortillas.

You need to use soft corn tortillas and dip and hold for 10 or more seconds before rolling. I use Dempsters corn tortillas that have some flour in to make them all pliable.

Barring these changes, this is my hands down favourite cooking light dish. So tasty and spicy and hard to believe it's light. It's big effort but great reward.

Never again. Measurements were way off, 2 jour process, and I could not get the corn tortillas to roll, instead made a casserole. I wish have read previous reviews.

Fantastic flavor but time consuming, and I couldn't get the tortilla count to come out right with the filling. I doubled the recipe and used a 1/3 cup measure for the filling, but I ran out of filling with the 18th tortilla instead of being able to fill 24. The doubled recipe fit nicely into a 13x9 casserole dish. The preparation took me the better part of an afternoon, but I thought that the outstanding depth of flavor, especially in the green sauce, made the effort worthwhile. Because of the work involved, I plan to make this dish only when I have company over.

Used rotisserie chicken & drained canned tomatoes. Made stock according to directions w/out chicken & only started w/ 2 c water - all else the same & according to directions except reduced red pepper. I was a little nervous about pouring the sauce on at the end as it was so thin, but the tortillas soaked it up & was not runny. Ended up with 9 enchiladas - agree it becomes more like a casserole - which is fine w/ me as a good way to use leftover chicken. Next time may just layer the tortillas instead of roll.

We really liked these. Great flavors and perfect for leftover chicken. I accidentally skipped the cream in the sauce and didn't even notice! Will definitely make again. I did reduce the amount of liquid I used in the sauce since it seemed like too much and I didn't see the point in reducing it. I just poured on what seemed appropriate.

In all fairness, this is a pretty tasty casserole, but as far as an enchilada dish, it's an outright disaster. The times and amounts in the recipe are so wrong, so many times, that it's not worth even trying to note them all individually. Perhaps the biggest issue is that there is not enough chicken to fill twelve 6-inch corn tortillas using a 1/3 cup per tortilla. As a result, the serving sizes on this dish are all out of whack, so good luck trying to figure out nutritional info per serving. Also, like a LOT of people have pointed out, the tortillas fall apart in prep and are basically mush when you take them out of the oven. In all fairness, the gloppy casserole-like dish you're left with is pretty darn tasty, but if you're expecting this disaster of a recipe to yield something resembling enchiladas, or the stated serving sizes, you better think again.

Odd dish. Reviews all point out how far off the mark the recipe is in multiple ways, yet it still has four stars? Well, make me yet another person who agrees with the criticisms and actually gives it the number of stars it deserves. First off, even with a wide bodied saute pan, the reduction time is closer to 40 minutes. The chicken takes closer to 12 minutes. 12 enchiladas in an 11x7? Maybe, but you'll have to stack them. Not to worry though, a 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture only fills six 6-in tortillas. Oh, and about those corn tortillas...whether you dip them in the sauce, brush the sauce on, or just fill 'em up with no sauce applied, they're going to tear at best and dissolve into mush at worst, so, take that into consideration before buying corn tortillas. After adding sauce and baking, you basically get a mushy casserole, because the tortillas continue to dissolve. And, the whole thing takes closer to 3.5 hours, including cleaning. DO NOT MAKE THIS AWFUL DISH

As some other reviewers stated the sauce was too thin even after simmering for over 30 minutes. I reduced the liquid by about 1 cup (before simmering) and added about a tablespoon of cornstarch, which did the trick. However, the Herdez Salsa Verde that I used was made with mostly tomatillos which gave the sauce a weird taste. I think using can green chilis instead of the Herdez Salsa Verde would have been better and rotisserie chicken with can/boxed chicken stock in lieu of the chicken cooking step would've tasted better and reduce the wasted veggies the recipes tells you to discard.

The sauce was too watery and would have taken 4 hours to reduce to a decent texture and flavor. I'm surprised this was chosen for Our All-Time Favorite Recipes edition. There is a better chicken enchilada recipe CL has published which is much easier and tastier.

Great for Monday night with left overs for Tuesday. Agree with others that the first part is way too labor intensive. I just boiled the chicken in water and then used chicken stock as my liquid with the salsa verde. Easy, filling and delicious.

Very tasty. I ws skeptical that all the steps of this recipe would result in a deeply flavored dish, but it was worth it. I had to cook the sauce for over an hour to reduce it to 1.5 cups, but it was because I used a normal sauce pan. Next time, I will definitely use a deep saute pan. Won't change anything else. Will be making again!

Great! Kids loved this recipe. Used precooked chicken.

Could not get the corn tortillas to work for me. What's the secret?! Was incredibly frustrating.

Taste was very good, but way too labor intensive. My shortcuts: canned diced tomatoes, jarred diced jalapeños ( 1T), frozen diced onion (1/2 c), 3/4 jar of Trader Joe's verde sauce. Next time, I will try poaching chicken in vegetable broth, skipping carrot, celery, etc., and adding 1-2 cups broth to verde sauce, without boiling it down, before adding cream. Flavor comes from filling rather than broth add-ins.

So good! Little long on the prep, but really good!

This is my favorite chicken Enchilada recipe! The best enchiladas I've ever had!

This was really good. I did change up this recipe a bit and used rotisserie chicken.

Excellent flavor! You do end up with a lot of sauce, and quite thin, so I added a tablespoon of cornstarch to thicken it before I poured it over enchiladadas and baked. Perfect blend of seasonings. Will definitely make it again!

Could I make this ahead and bake later? If so, how far ahead?

Really great authentic Mexican flavor! ( I live in a west Texas border town so I should know).... I will definitely be making this one again...I put the chicken veggies and broth in the pressure cooker...saves a little time, meat was moist and tender...finish prepping the other veggies while it's cooking... I had quite a lot of broth.. only reserved 2 cups for my sauce and it worked out fine. I used a 15oz can of green enchilada sauce and only 3 oz of the Philadelphia cream cheese.... it made 12 total. AMAZING FLAVOR!!!!

I have made this recipe at least a dozen times now and it is always outstanding. My family's favorite dish. We love the spice, it is a warm heat that compliments the other ingredients but is probably too spicy for really young ones.

This is a great recipe. Will definitely make again. I don't even like enchiladas ,but really enjoyed this and so did everyone who ate them. I made some fresh salsa and served the enchiladas with the salsa and some marinated avacados on the side. It will take a full hour to make the sauce, but it's a simple recipe. Just do other prep work while you wait and give yourself plenty of time. I was not sure what "fresh" tortillas were..I assume they are the kind that is in the refrigerated section, but those are the only ones we buy so I had no problem with the corn tortillas falling apart. I did have to figure out the correct stuffing amount otherwise the tortillas would not stay closed, you have to slightly overstuff them. One complaint (despite the 5 stars) is that I was only able to make 10 enchiladas, I used 2 big chicken breasts. No idea how you would get 22 out of this ..wouldn't you also need 2 baking dishes for 22--unless you are supposed to layer the enchiladas on top of each other

These were excellent! Allow yourself more like an hour to reduce the sauce.

If you get rid of some of the broth before you add it to the green salsa, the time it takes to reduce gets closer to the 30 min stated in the recipe. Just don't get rid of too much because the sauce is delicious! This recipe is amazing!

The sauce took a long time to reduce (over the half hour mentioned in the recipe) so it's not a quick meal. But, there were fantastic once they were done.

I have made this recipe at last 5 times. I absolutely love it! Everyone I have made it for is surprised the enchiladas are so low in calories. They are very flavorful and fresh tasting. I don't seem to mind the prep time. Several times I made the enchiladas and put them in the refrigerator, baking them later or even the next day. The picture on this recipe does not do it justice - it makes the enchiladas look quite dry!! Mine come out very moist and look much more appetizing than the photo shown!

Loved this recipe. Very tasty and easy to make.

These were the best enchiladas I have ever had! They are time consuming to make, but very worth it!

We thought these were very good. My hesitation in making this dish again is the amount of time this dish took to prepare. I'd say it took about 2.5 hours from start to finish. It wasn't difficult to prepare, just long. My sauce also took over half an hour to reduce down. I followed the recipe as written, except I omitted the jalapeños from the cooking liquid because of my heat intolerant husband. The chicken was super tender and moist, the enchiladas were really flavorful. Maybe I just convinced myself to make it again, but definitely on a Saturday afternoon. : )

I thought these were great. I poached 2 bone-in skinless breasts for 20 minutes otherwise followed recipe to a T. Take out the membrane and seeds of jalepeno if you don't want the heavy spice/heat. that's what i did and very tasty. I couldn't get the sauce to reduce as much as i would have liked so i was worried the casserole would be too soupy and didn't use all the sauce...big mistake! the fresh corn tortillas soaked up all the sauce so next time i shall use all the sauce. very good. fresh corn tortillas but they wanted to unroll. this is a keeper for me.

I used whole grain tortillas and had no problem with them falling apart. Substituted can of green chilis for the jalapeno and used half and half instead of heavy cream. We LOVED the recipe!

This recipe was okay. I wasn't thrilled with it, and the men in the house thought it was too spicy. The only change I made was that I used flour tortillas instead of corn, I'm not a fan of corn tortillas.

This were incredible - great flavor! I won't try another enchilada recipe - these are a sure thing!

I'm not a fan of enchiladas, but these changed my mind. These were full-flavored so that you couldn't even tell they were "light." I followed the directions exactly and they were perfect.

Fantastic! Loved the flavor the aromatics give the poached chicken. I used large, 8-inch corn tortillas, but they fell apart in the sauce like other reviewers noted, so I ended up just microwaving them to soften a bit before filling. I used Herdez brand salsa verde and, to save time, substituted one can of Mexican style (with lime and cilantro) Ro-tel in place of the fresh tomato and cilantro.

This is amazing. Like Lick the plate and cooking dish clean amazing. I used green enchilada sauce instead of salsa verde and RF cheese, but otherwise I made it the same. Amazing. Next time I will make two and freeze one.

a little time consuming, but not difficult at all. Delicious, though. My husband doesn't like corn tortillas but loved this since the filling and sauce is so good. I probably added a little more cheese, but it really didn't need much as all the flavors were so good already. Definitely a keeper.

This is the best enchilada recipe I have tried. I at first baulked when I saw the prep and cooking time but it is definitely worth it. I would rate these as good as any chicken enchiladas from a Mexican restaurant. I would recommend not using whole grain tortillas as they fell apart easily after dipping in sauce.

I agree that the result of this recipe tasted good, but the prep instructions leave quite a bit to be desired. Firstly, rather than waste fresh vegetables I simply used 4 cups of vegetable broth. Second, I had the liquid on a hard boil for an hour and still had 3 cups, so I simply thickened it with some cornstarch (1 tsp in a little water) and used all it as-is. Thirdly, I used an 8-oz. chicken breast but still had only enough filling for 11 tortillas - some of which I had to fit sideways in the 7"x11" dish to get them all in. Like some of the other reviewers I noticed the tortillas would fall apart after being dunked in the sauce, so I had to roll them up dry. Finally the enchiladas disintegrated during baking so that I couldn't tell how many I had on my plate (although this was likely due to the extra liquid). I imagine CL has better chicken enchilada recipes, but IF I tried this again I would cut the amount of liquid in half and assemble it as a layered casserole.

Really tasty! I made them with ground beef instead; just made the sauce omitting the chicken and browned ground beef separately. They were awesome. Will make them with the chicken next time! They do take a little more time but super easy to make and homemade is always better.

Too much prep!! Used a rotisserie chicken and boxed broth (boiled down to the required amount. We really loved it!

These were very good. My husband asked me to add the recipe to my "regular rotation." You definitely need fresh corn tortillas, though, or they will fall apart when you fill them.

This was wonderful the only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is it took me 2 hours to make.

These were a big hit at our house. I was a little daunted by the amount of prep involved but they actually turned out to be easier than expected. I didn't bother with the celery or the carrot in the sauce because I didn't happen to have either on hand. I used a mild salsa (Trade Joe's salsa verde) and left out the jalapeno, so they did not seem overly spicy to us. I didn't want to buy cream (because I would have no use for the rest of it), so I used 2% Greek yogurt instead. I added it at the very end after removing the sauce from the heat, to try to keep it from separating. It still separated a bit but since the tortillas soaked up most of the sauce, it wasn't a problem (next time I might try 2% millk or FF half and half). I used flour tortillas for some of the enchiladas and light jarlsberg cheese (it's what I had) instead of cheddar. I like the versatility: I put extra cheese on my SO's half and next time I think I might use a crab and shrimp filling for my half.

This recipe was sooo good. It is worth every minute of prep time. My husband requests these enchiladas every week. The sauce is out of this world.

This was good, but very time consuming when there are simpler CL recipes out there.

My sister and I made this tonight. The chicken was really flavorful. I would make this again. The only part that didn't work too well was dipping the tortillas in the sauce. They kept falling apart. So we just filled them with the chicken mixture without dipping them first. We poured the sauce over them and it turned out just fine. Yummy!

Yum! Tasty and not too hard to make. It looks more intimidating than it really is. You could probably cut the prep time if you didn't poach the chicken but it was very nice and moist as written.

I am still thinking about how yummy these are. Yes, the prep time seems a little intimidating, but it didn't seem like it really took that long, and the results are worth it. The leftovers were great as well. If you have kids be forewarned -- they are spicy (my son wouldn't eat his because of this) -- but for adults I would totally recommend them! Oh, and I also only made 10 enchiladas.

This recipe was delicious! I made it with mexican rice and the spicy black beans also found in this issue. The enchiladas were full of flavor and much healthier than any other enchilada recipe! I will definitely keep this one on hand. The recipe took a bit of time to make but was well worth the effort, great weekend recipe!

These enchiladas were SO tasty but definitely time consuming. My boyfriend and I both loved them, in fact, he proclaimed them the best enchiladas he has ever eaten. We ended up making only 10 enchiladas with the filling which bumped our calories up to about 300 for two enchiladas. I'm looking forward to eating these again.

These enchiladas changed my husbands mind about "diet food." I will serve them again, next time we have company. Very impressive flavor, time intensive recipe, but the pay off was huge.

The flavor is fantastic, and as we're trying to lose weight after the holidays, the calorie count is surprisingly light considering how rich these are. They took a lot of time, but I think I can adapt it next time to shorten the prep. I'm going to streamline it by cooking the chicken (or using rotisserie chicken) on the grill or in the oven and cutting out the water so the sauce doesn't take so long to boil down. I think the same results can be achieved in half the time, and it's well worth it. It could use more sauce, so I may increase that by half next time. I used Pace Salsa Verde, btw, and the flavors blended perfectly.

Although I love the poaching method used to cook the chicken in a flavorful broth, I found that the sauce overall was not rich tasting enough. I did, however, like the cream cheese and fresh tomato addition to the chicken filling. For the time required in making this recipe, I think there are better ones for enchiladas to devote your time too and get a better result.

Much lighter than most recipes. The time involved makes it a weekend recipe. Very satisfying for the calorie count.