Easy Chicken Enchiladas (Red Sauce, Rotisserie Chicken, 40 Minutes)

These easy chicken enchiladas are the dinner I make when I want something that feels like a Friday-night treat but actually takes 40 minutes on a Tuesday: shredded rotisserie chicken gets tossed with a little red sauce, cheese, onion and cumin, rolled into flour tortillas, smothered in more sauce and baked until the cheese is bubbling and browned at the edges. Eight enchiladas, 38g of protein a serving, and the leftovers are better the next day. They sit right next to my ground turkey taco skillet and chicken burrito bowls in the Tex-Mex rotation, and the casserole version is what I make when I do not even want to roll.

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Why this chicken enchiladas recipe is the one I keep coming back to.

• Rotisserie chicken does the heavy lifting. A store-bought rotisserie chicken gives you about 4 cups of seasoned, already-cooked meat, which means the only real work is mixing a filling and rolling. If you have leftover crockpot chicken or air fryer chicken breast in the fridge, that works just as well — this is a chicken dinner idea built around whatever cooked chicken you already have.
• Sauce goes inside the filling, not just on top. Most chicken enchiladas with red sauce are dry in the middle and soggy on the outside. Stirring half a cup of sauce into the chicken with the cheese keeps the filling juicy, and a thin layer of sauce under the tortillas keeps the bottoms from sticking. The result is saucy all the way through without falling apart.
• 40 minutes, one baking dish, 38g protein. Ten minutes to mix and roll, 25 minutes in the oven, and dinner for four is done in one dish. Two enchiladas a person lands at 38g of protein, which puts this squarely in the easy dinner recipes I lean on for a family that wants comfort food and a protein target at the same time.

Here's what you'll need.

Ten ingredients, all from a regular grocery store: a rotisserie chicken (or 4 cups cooked shredded chicken), a 28-ounce can of red enchilada sauce, Monterey jack and sharp cheddar, flour tortillas, a small onion, ground cumin, garlic powder, cilantro, sour cream and a lime.

Here's how it all comes together.

STEP 1 — Mix the filling.

Shred the chicken into a big bowl and stir in 1/2 cup of the enchilada sauce, half the cheese, the diced onion, cumin, garlic powder and a pinch of salt. Taste it — this is the only chance to season the inside.

STEP 2 — Sauce the dish and warm the tortillas.

Spread about 3/4 cup of sauce across the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish. Warm the tortillas in a dry skillet or wrapped in a damp towel in the microwave for 30 seconds so they roll without cracking.

STEP 3 — Fill and roll.

Spoon about 1/2 cup of filling in a line down the center of each tortilla, roll it up snugly and set it seam-side down in the dish. Eight should fit in a single row with a little nudging.

STEP 4 — Smother with sauce and cheese.

Pour the rest of the sauce over the top, making sure the edges of every tortilla are covered so nothing dries out, then scatter the remaining cheese from end to end.

STEP 5 — Bake until bubbling.

Bake uncovered at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese is melted and spotted brown and the sauce is bubbling at the edges. If you want more browning, broil for the last 2 minutes.

STEP 6 — Rest, then garnish.

Let the dish sit 5 minutes so the sauce sets and the enchiladas lift out cleanly. Finish with chopped cilantro, diced red onion, a zigzag of sour cream and lime wedges on the side.

If weeknight dinners that feed a family with almost no work are your kind of cooking, the slow cooker chapter of the Ultimate Slow Cooker Mediterranean Diet Cookbook.

Things I learned while testing this recipe.

• Flour tortillas hold up better than corn for beginners. Corn tortillas are traditional and taste wonderful, but they crack unless you fry them briefly first. Soft taco-size flour tortillas roll clean straight from the package after a 30-second warm-up, which is why I use them on a weeknight.
• Do not skip the sauce under the tortillas. The thin layer on the bottom of the dish is what keeps the enchiladas from welding themselves to the pan. I tested a batch without it and lost half the bottoms to the spatula.
• Shred your own cheese. Pre-shredded cheese is dusted with cellulose that keeps it from melting into that glossy, stretchy top. A block of Monterey jack and a block of sharp cheddar take 3 minutes on a box grater and melt noticeably better.
• Taste the sauce before you commit. Canned enchilada sauces vary wildly in salt and heat. If yours tastes flat, stir in a teaspoon of cumin, a pinch of sugar and a squeeze of lime before it goes in the dish.

Why these are my favorite make-ahead weeknight dinner.

• Assemble now, bake later. Roll and sauce the enchiladas up to 24 hours ahead, cover and refrigerate, then bake straight from the fridge with 5 extra minutes added. I do this on Sunday for Monday night more weeks than not.
• They freeze beautifully. Assemble in a foil pan, wrap tightly and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake covered at 375°F for 40 minutes, then uncovered for 15. It is the dinner I bring to friends with new babies.
• A real protein number for a comfort dinner. Two enchiladas deliver 38g of protein, mostly from the chicken and cheese. Swap in high-protein tortillas and you can push it past 45g without changing anything else.

Here's what I'd serve with this.

• Cilantro-lime style rice — my chicken fried rice method, minus the chicken, with lime and cilantro stirred in at the end
• Cowboy caviar — a cold, crunchy bean and corn salad that balances all that melted cheese
• Smashed cucumber salad — something cold and sharp on the side is exactly what enchiladas want
• Roasted cauliflower — toss it with a little chili powder and lime and it fits right in
• Air fryer steak — today’s other new recipe — for the night you want something fast and seriously high protein

Just in case you have leftovers.

Storing: Cool completely and refrigerate, covered, for up to 4 days. The flavor actually improves on day two as the tortillas soak up the sauce. For the freezer, wrap individual enchiladas in foil and freeze up to 3 months.

Reheating: Cover with foil and warm in a 350°F oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or microwave a single portion for 90 seconds to 2 minutes with a spoonful of extra sauce or salsa on top so it does not dry out. Frozen enchiladas go straight into a 375°F oven, covered, for about 35 minutes.

More easy dinner recipes...

Cheesy chicken enchilada casserole Ground turkey taco skillet Chicken burrito bowls Slow cooker chicken tacos

Also new today: air fryer steak with garlic herb butter — a 1-inch strip steak with a real crust and a pink center in 12 minutes, the fastest 45g-protein dinner on the site.

More family dinners that practically cook themselves

If dump-and-go dinners like this one are what gets you through the week, the Ultimate Slow Cooker Mediterranean Diet Cookbook is full of the same kind of hands-off, feed-everyone recipes with real protein numbers.

Get the cookbook on Amazon

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