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We’re getting our menu ready for Cinco de Mayo, and these Chicken Enchiladas with White Sauce are up first! This easy to prepare meal is always a hit with our family and we’re sure your family will love this too!
This recipe for chicken enchiladas with a creamy white sauce uses our popular Mexican pulled chicken recipe – a versatile, easy and delicious way to prepare chicken for many Mexican-inspired recipes such as this one. The Mexican pulled chicken is perfectly flavored with a spicy blend of tomato and peppers as well as other seasonings, and it’s cooked until fork-tender and then shredded.
And, as you can tell by the name of this recipe, our version of chicken enchiladas uses a white sauce that has the perfect hint of heat rather than the more traditional red enchilada sauce. But while our family prefers a creamy white sauce for this dish, you can easily substitute red sauce instead and these chicken enchiladas will still be delicious!
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Chicken Enchiladas with White Sauce
This dish is delicious served with our Mexican Rice and Refried Beans.
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter (4 tablespoons)
- ¼ cup flour
- 2 cups chicken stock, heated
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne powder
- 8 ounces sour cream
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 ounce can chopped green chilies, drained
- 1 teaspoon or more of Rocket Fuel, or your favorite hot sauce
- 1 cup vegetable oil, for frying
- 6 corn tortillas
- 1 pound Mexican Pulled Chicken, heated
- 6 ounces Pepper Jack cheese, shredded
- 6 ounces Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, melt butter and add flour. Stir and cook for 3-5 minutes or until the raw flour smell is gone.
- Add heated chicken stock 1/3 at a time, stirring with a wire whisk for each third. (This step will ensure no lumps in your white sauce.) Add cayenne and stir again.
- Add sour cream, salt, chilies and Rocket Fuel and stir. If you like it spicy, use more Rocket Fuel. Remove from heat and hold.
- In an 8×10-inch casserole dish or glass baking dish, coat the bottom with a ladle full of white sauce.
- Heat oil in large fry pan to hot. With a pair of tongs, place one tortilla in at a time and fry for only 5 seconds on each side and drain on paper towels. Repeat with remaining 5 corn tortillas. (This step is necessary so that the tortillas don’t get soggy and fall apart when the dish is cooked; it also makes them more pliable to roll.)
- Lay tortillas flat on your cutting board or counter and divide the Mexican Pulled Chicken and Pepper Jack cheese between all six and roll each one tight.
- Place each roll, seam side down, in the sauce lying side by side.
- Cover with all the remaining sauce and sprinkle all of the Monterey Jack cheese on top. (If this seems like a lot of sauce and cheese, it isn’t. The finished dish will come out with the perfect amount of sauce.)
- Bake for 40 minutes. Let set for 10 minutes before serving.
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You may also like these other recipes for your Cinco de Mayo menu:
25+ Fantastic Recipes for Cinco de Mayo
Mexican Lasagna with White Sauce
Rocket Fuel (Homemade Hot Sauce)
just wanted to let you know that we are making these enchiladas for the third time tonight. It is a sophisticated and modern take on classic enchiladas. Whoever came up with the pulled chicken recipe deserves a medal.
Thank you so much! All of the credit for that pulled chicken recipe should go to my husband Jack (I agree – he deserves a medal!). We’re glad you are enjoying the recipes! Thanks for writing to us!
Just made this recipe last night! We made one red (sub a can of red enchi sauce in place of sour cream), and one white. Delicious!! Perfect amount of spice, so caution if you think you want more 🙂 We thought we needed more (adding some habanero cheese and half chopped jalapenos), and the red dish was super spicy, good, but oh boy was it spicy. Thank you so much for the great recipe!!! This is going to be a regular dish for us. (This was also the first time I’ve ever made enchiladas)
Thanks H & C! We’re glad you enjoyed the recipe and thanks for sharing your adaptation!
I’d love to make this gluten free. Any idea how much cornstarch I should use in place of the flour?
Hi Stephanie – This article suggests using half the amount of cornstarch in place of flour. http://celiacdisease.about.com/od/glutenfreecookingtips/qt/Corn-Starch-Tips.htm
Hope this helps!
We made this last week and I’ve been craving them since then, so we made them tonight again. Fairly simple, yet delicious! Totally a keeper! Thanks for sharing Martha!
Thanks Adri!! We are so glad you liked the recipe!! (And now I’m craving them…)
I just made this and it was so delicious! I cut the butter and flour qty in half for the sauce. I also used a flour/corn tortilla – the best of both worlds! The results were fantastic! Thank you for your recipes. I’m so glad I stumbled upon your website.
Thank you so much! We’re glad you found us too!
These were simply awesome. The taste of the Mexican Pulled Chicken was fabulous and the sauce was so authentically Mexican. It was a wonderful dinner. I did use flour tortillas since that is what I had on hand and still fried–they were great. Can’t wait to try some of your other recipes. They all sound do good!!! Thanks so much–Ah, I think I am ready for a nap after that wonderful meal!
Thanks Linda! We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipes! Thanks for visiting and writing to us today!
If I use flour tortillas will I still need to fry them beforehand?
Hi Michelle! The flour tortillas are soft enough that you won’t have to fry them. Thanks!
These are AMAZING!! Especially if you have your favorite hot sauce to compliment this recipe. By far my favorite find on Pinterest!! Well this and your Mexican Chicken. I’ll be cooking a lot of your recipes in the future.
Thanks Dawn! So glad you enjoyed the recipes!
This was awesome! And easy to make!
Thanks Pat!
These were excellent! Do you think these will freeze well all prepared or should I freeze the sauce separately? Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Mechele – Glad you liked the recipe! Since the sauce is made with milk, it might crystallize a bit if you freeze it and the tortillas might also get a little soggy…it will probably taste OK either way but it won’t be quite the same consistency as it was freshly made. We usually don’t freeze this dish ourselves…but let us know how it works out for you if you decide to freeze some! Thanks for visiting our site! Martha