When my husband and I get a chance to go on a rare date night, we frequently choose Mexican. Chimichangas, tacos, burritos, quesadillas, enchiladas...you name it, we love it.
Mexican food is just so flavorful and delicious, that I can't get enough and rarely get tired of it.
I've been dabbling in making my own Mexican at home and slowly I'm getting more skilled in the art of at-home Mexican dishes.
This weekend we had tons of snow and I was craving some chicken enchiladas. Obviously I couldn't get out in the foot of snow to satisfy my Mexican craving, so instead I had to conquer them at home, and I think they turned out pretty tasty if I do say so myself.
This will be my go-to chicken enchilada recipe from now on. They're fairly simple and and are gluten free. If you don't like corn tortillas, feel free to use a flour tortilla if you don't have problems with gluten. Personally I prefer flour tortillas, but I'm trying to reduce wheat a bit in our household this year. If you're looking for a vegetarian enchilada recipe, these black bean, corn and spinach enchiladas are really good as well. If you use corn tortillas and this sauce recipe, that one can be gluten free too.
Recipe note: If you don't already have shredded chicken and chicken stock, boil a whole chicken in enough water to cover the chicken for about an hour or until the leg can be pulled off easily. This will give you your chicken that you can shred and chicken stock. Watch the process of cooking a whole chicken.
Happy eating, friends!
Gluten free chicken enchiladas
Ingredients
- Sauce
- 1 T. olive oil butter or expeller pressed coconut oil
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ⅓ cup tomato paste
- 1 ¾ c. chicken broth
- 1 tsp. cumin
- ½ tsp. sea salt add more to taste if broth is not salted
- Filling
- 1 T. olive oil butter, or expeller pressed coconut oil
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup onion diced
- 2 cups shredded chicken
- 1 tsp. cumin
- ½ tsp. chili powder
- ½ tsp. salt
- 3 T. enchilada sauce recipe above
- 1 c. jack cheese
- 10-12 small organic corn tortillas Food for Life is a decent brand
- 1 additional cup of jack cheese for topping
Instructions
- In a saucepan, over medium heat, saute garlic in fat of choice for a couple of minutes until fragant but not browning.
- Add tomato paste, chicken broth, cumin, and salt. Simmer for about five minutes.
- In a separate pan, saute garlic and onions until onions are softened and translucent.
- Add shredded chicken spices, and 2 T. enchilada sauce.
- Stir in cheese.
- Pour a small amount of sauce in bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.
- Warm corn tortillas to make pliable.
- Place a small amount of chicken/cheese mixture in a corn tortilla and tightly roll.
- Place seam side down in baking dish. Repeat with remainder of tortillas.
- Top with remainder of sauce and 1 additional cup of shredded jack cheese.
- Bake at 350 for 20 minutes until hot and bubbly.
Ada Marie Cooper
This all looks so good. But our family of 4 has gradually changed to 2. I need healthy meal plans just for two. We are retired and find our eating out several times a week is playing havoc with our budget!
Tara Buss
Hi Ada. Thanks for the comment. Of course I'm not cooking for just two so I would have to speculate what I would do in your case and not by experience. I have a few ideas that you could try. Freezing extras would be a great option and would cut down on cooking later in the month. You could use a recipe for four such as these enchiladas but put them in two small 8x8 dishes instead of 1 large 9x13 pan. Cook one and freeze the other for later. You could also freeze leftovers, which would work well if you made a pot of soup/stew and had extras.
My other suggestion would be to split recipes in half. So if a recipe called for 8 chicken thighs and four potatoes, just cut the recipe in half and use four thighs and two potatoes.
You could also always pre-portion your meat when you get home from the store. If you buy a larger package of chicken/beef/pork, separate into smaller portions and freeze in freezer bags.
One last thing is to think about how ingredients can do double duty in your meal plan. For example, you may not be able to eat an entire head of cauliflower or cabbage in one meal with just the two of you, so plan to use it for a couple of meals in the same week.
I have had requests for different kinds of meal plans including those for singles and couples, so hopefully I can make some in the near future. Good luck to you!
Jeanne
This was so good! I added olives (leftover from a weekend meal) to the enchiladas and pan fried zucchini on the side. I didn’t know home made enchilada sauce could be so easy!! I used broth I made from a whole roasted chicken we ate last night. I was worried it would be a lot of work to make the broth and the sauce but it was super easy. Thank you so much!
Natalie
We've tried many of your recipes and I haven't been disappointed yet, but this is one of my favorites! I love mexican food and we don't eat out EVER because it is so expensive and these are easy to make! Thanks a bunch!
Tara Buss
Wonderful, Natalie! Comments like this just warm my heart!
Marti Sanderson
Where's the enchilada sauce recipe? Text says "see above" but I've read "above" & can't find it anywhere!
Tara Buss
Steps 1 and 2 are the sauce instructions. The sauce ingredients are under where it says sauce:
1 T. olive oil butter or expeller pressed coconut oil
1 clove garlic minced
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 3/4 c. chicken broth
1 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. sea salt add more to taste if broth is not salted
Holly Cary
We have made your recipe many times over the past 2 years. Thank you !
Tara Buss
That's wonderful Holly! Thanks so much for sharing.
Holly Cary
Still making this recipe! Yesterday I cooked two home grown chickens in the instant pot and deboned them dicing the meat, cut up the bones and made bone broth last night. Just multiplied the recipe by 5 and making it for my family and a family in need. Hope they like it as much as we do and I did good math 🙂
Tara Buss
This makes me so so happy! <3