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This Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole is creamy, cheesy, and flavorful. It’s an easy recipe that’s perfect for feeding your family on busy weeknights.
For a complete meal, serve this enchilada casserole with Refried Beans and Instant Pot Mexican Rice!
Table of Contents
Chicken Enchilada Casserole Ingredients
- Corn tortillas – Any brand will do. Do not use flour tortillas as they will just become mushy.
- Green enchilada sauce
- Chicken – Shred up leftover chicken or use meat off of a rotiserrie chicken.
- Cheddar-jack cheese – The best melting cheese will be freshly grated off the block. If you prefer pre-shredded you are welcome to use that but keep in mind that pre-shredded cheese has a starch coating that prevents proper melting.
- Cream cheese – The block style, full fat cream cheese will have the best melt and creaminess, but I have used whipped cream cheese with good results.
- Sour cream – Full fat; I have not tried Greek yogurt but I’m sure that it would be a fine substitute.
- Green chiles – One small can.
- Sliced olives – For topping; optional but highly recommended.
How To Make Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Make the filling. Combine the shredded chicken, green chiles, sour cream, and cream cheese. I like to use a stand mixer to make easy work of the mixing.
Build the casserole. Layer the ingredients in a casserole dish as follows: sauce, corn tortillas (break them up to fit in your dish), chicken filling, and cheese, then repeat the process until you’ve used up the ingredients or until your baking dish is full.
For a cheesier casserole, add an extra layer of just cheese and sauce. Top with more tortillas and then repeat the meat mixture.
Top layer. For the top of the casserole, layer corn tortillas, sauce, lots of cheese, and sliced olives.
Cover with foil and bake at 350℉ for about 50-60 minutes.
Make Ahead and Storage
This delicious casserole is an easy make-ahead dish, and it also freezes beautifully. Put one in the fridge to bake later that day, and put one in the freezer!
- Refrigerator: For leftovers, cool completely, then cover tightly and refrigerate for up to 3-4 days.
- Freezer: Cover with plastic wrap and foil to protect from freezer burn. Leftovers should be used within a couple of months, unbaked 3-4 months.
- Reheating: Easily reheat individual portions in the microwave.
- Make Ahead: Prepare the casserole, then cover tightly with plastic wrap and foil. Freeze for up to 4 months or refrigerate for up to 2 days before baking. If frozen, thaw before baking.
Time Saving Tips
Building a casserole like this is simple, but can take some time. I’ve got a handful of great tips to help!
- Use store-bought Rotisserie Chicken. Not only is it more flavorful, it’s also a huge time saver.
- Use a stand mixer or hand mixer to not only shred the chicken, but to blend with the sour cream, cream cheese and green chiles.
- Use whipped cream cheese instead of the block. Not a money saver, but will save the step of bringing the cream cheese to room temperature.
- When layering the ingredients, don’t worry about spreading the chicken mixture. Just plop several spoonfuls down and let the next layer of tortillas spread the mixture as you press down.
- Don’t forget the olives. Now, you can definitely make this casserole without them if you like, but they do add a nice saltiness and texture to this already amazing Chicken Enchilada Casserole.
- If you like your enchiladas saucier, use more sauce. Cheesier? Use more cheese! You can make this your own and customize the amounts as you like.
- Before covering to bake, stick some toothpicks about halfway into the top, then cover loosely with foil. This will keep the cheese from sticking to the foil when you uncover it.
More Mexican Recipes
Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients
- 12-16 Corn Tortillas
- 1 28- ounce Green Chile Enchilada Sauce
- 2-3 cups shredded chicken Rotisserie works well
- 8- ounces Cheddar/Jack Cheese shredded
- 4- ounces softened cream cheese
- 8- ounces sour cream
- 4- ounces green chiles
- 4 ounces sliced olives optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine chicken, sour cream, cream cheese and green chiles.
- In an 11″x7″ or 13″x9″ baking dish, pour a thin layer of the enchilada sauce. Layer with tortillas, breaking to fit as necessary to form a single layer. Spoon a third of the chicken mixture over the tortillas, then a third of the shredded cheese and a third of the remaining enchilada sauce. Repeat with two more layers, finishing with a layer of tortillas, then sauce, then cheese. Top with sliced olives, if desired.
- Cover baking dish with nonstick foil. If you don’t have nonstick foil, stick several toothpicks into the casserole to keep the foil from touching the cheese. Bake, covered, for about 40 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove foil and bake 10 minutes more, or until cheese is completely melted.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
All I have is flour tortillas. Do you think I should just use less of the enchilada sauce since they tortillas are soft?
I wouldn’t personally use flour tortillas because they will kind of melt into the casserole. But you could of course try it with maybe half of the sauce and see how they turn out.
We were looking up recipes to use up some tortilla shells (we fry ours, so rolls and such were out) and stumbled on your site. The only thing we don’t have is the green enchilada sauce. Do you think Rotel would work instead? Maybe mixed with the leftover 4 oz of cream cheese (blocks come in 8 oz blocks here)?
The sauce is what softens the tortillas, so maybe if you blended the Rotel to more of a sauce?
This was really good! Did 2 thicker layers of the chicken mixture instead of 3 so I only needed 9 corn tortillas. Can’t wait to make again and hopefully I will remember to buy the ingredients to make your Authentic Mexican Rice to go with this as well!
This looks delicious, and simple to put together. Thank you!