These Meal Prep Chicken Enchiladas Verdes are made with a tomatillo-based salsa verde. They’re like an easy and delicious dinner casserole!
Ingredients and substitutions
- Chicken breasts – use store-bought rotisserie chicken, chicken thighs or chicken tenders instead.
- Olive oil – or another neutral cooking oil such as canola or avocado oil.
- Yellow onion – white onion or red onion would also work for this recipe.
- Garlic – freshly minced garlic is best but jarred minced garlic will work in a pinch.
- Lime juice – use fresh or bottled lime juice.
- Chili powder – make your own using a blend of paprika, cumin and cayenne.
- Cumin – double up on the chili powder if you don’t have any cumin.
- Salt & pepper – to taste.
- Cilantro – parsley would also be good.
- Corn tortillas – you can technically use flour tortillas instead, but they’ll get soggy.
- Salsa verde – use a store-bought version or make your own homemade salsa verde.
- White cheddar cheese – use regular orange cheddar, a Tex Mex blend or Monterey Jack.
Optional toppings
- Sliced jalapenos – if you’re not big on spice, use sliced bell peppers or even pickled jalapenos.
- Diced avocado – homemade or store-bought guacamole would also be tasty.
- Pico de gallo – swap out for your favourite jarred salsa instead.
- Red onions – diced white onions would be good too.
- Chopped cilantro – use chopped parsley in place of cilantro.
How to make chicken enchiladas verdes
- Cook and shred the chicken.
- Sauté the onions and garlic.
- Add the chicken and spices.
- Assemble the enchiladas.
- Add the salsa verde on top.
- Bake and then serve.
What to serve with chicken enchiladas
While the base of corn tortillas, chicken filling and green salsa are all the same, the toppings for these enchiladas verdes can vary and that's great news depending on what you already have on hand at home! Try adding on some frozen corn, sliced jalapenos, diced red onion, pico de gallo, salsa, sour cream, guacamole, grumbled feta and more.
Like most traditional Mexican dinners, there are a lot of side dishes that go well with green chicken enchiladas. Some great side dish ideas include:
- Black beans with cilantro rice
- Refried beans or pinto beans
- Spanish or Mexican rice
- Mexican corn on the cob
- Tortilla chips with fresh salsa, bean dip, or queso dip
Frequently Asked Questions
Enchiladas verdes consists of chicken and a blend of spices all rolled up into corn tortillas, topped with salsa verde and cheese and baked in the oven until crispy.
Traditionally, enchiladas are made using corn tortillas, but making chicken enchiladas with flour tortillas works too. The only problem is that soft tortillas are more likely to become soggy as they bake. This also happens with corn tortillas but to a lesser extent. To make corn tortillas more pliable and easier to roll up, warm them up first! I pop them into a microwave for a few seconds before I roll them. As a result, they roll up easier, and they hardly ever crack.
Salsa verde is actually milder than red salsa is. This is because green chiles aren’t as spicy as the red chili peppers are. Chicken enchiladas verdes can be spiced up a little bit by adding jalapenos. I prefer to just add the jalapenos on top since we are using a jarred salsa verde as the sauce but you can also use a spicy fresh salsa overtop as a topping if you're looking to spice things up. The chicken itself is not super spicy (it's just made using a bit of chili powder and cumin, among other seasonings) so if you are cooking for the kids and want a milder enchiladas recipe, enchiladas verdes are where it's at!
While the two are related, they are not one and the same. The term salsa verde is Spanish for green salsa. In comparison, green enchilada sauce is made with, among other things, green salsa. However, you can actually just use green salsa as your green enchilada sauce to make things simple and easy. That's what I have done with this recipe!
Storing and reheating
These enchiladas are so perfect for meal prep because you're batch cooking a ton of food at once and you should be able to pack the rolled filled tortillas separately in glass meal prep containers (the ones I use are linked below). If you do pack them right in the glass containers, all you have to do is take them out of the fridge and microwave them! They should last in the fridge for up to 5 days.
I prefer to pack the toppings separately to add once I have reheated my enchiladas, but you can totally just microwave them along with the rest of the recipe to make things easy. Just 1 to 2 minutes of reheating time will work.
Can you freeze enchiladas verdes?
Chicken enchiladas verdes freeze very well, and they’ll stay good frozen for 3 months. The only tip I have to offer is to make sure they’re at room temperature before you freeze them. Otherwise, they’re likely to get stuck together.
While the tortillas, chicken, sauce and cheese all freeze well, the toppings do not so I would recommend freezing then buying the toppings fresh when you are ready to reheat and serve. The good news is that you may already have most toppings on hand already as condiments in your fridge so no need to run out and buy more items.
Again, glass containers work best here, and you're looking at 5 to 6 minutes of reheating time in the microwave. You can also freeze the cooked seasoned chicken filling separately in smaller glass containers so that you can make these enchiladas fresh in half the time!
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More Mexican-inspired meal prep recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning these enchiladas into your weekly lunches.
- I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
- Get a meat thermometer to make sure your chicken is cooked through.
- Use these Ziploc bag holders if you're marinating the chicken then freezing it.
- Freeze the chicken filling in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months.
Meal Prep Chicken Enchiladas Verdes
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp each salt & pepper
- 2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
- 12 corn tortillas
- 1 jar salsa verde
- 1 cup white cheddar cheese, grated
Optional toppings
- Sliced jalapenos
- Diced avocado
- Pico de gallo
- Red onions, diced
- Chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 F. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil on the stove. Add chicken and cook for 15-18 minutes until cooked through. Drain pot, then shred chicken with a knife and fork.
- In same pot (or new frying pan…I use the same pot to save on clean up), heat olive oil over med-high heat. Add onions and garlic, sauteeing for 2 minutes until onions are softened. Add cooked chicken, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper, cooking another 2 minutes. Stir in cilantro then remove from heat.
- Grease a 9×11 casserole dish with cooking spray. Microwave corn tortillas for 20-30 seconds to make them pliable. Add about 2 tbsp of the chicken and then roll tortillas so that the seam is facing down on casserole dish. Repeat with remaining tortillas and chicken filling.
- Add salsa verde to top of tortillas and top with cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted.
- Remove from oven and garnish with toppings of choice. Serve immediately or pack into meal prep bowls. One serving is 2 enchiladas. Enjoy!
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