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Green Enchiladas with Chicken and Cheese (Enchiladas Verdes)
To make the filling for these enchiladas, use leftover roasted or grilled chicken or meat from a store-bought rotisserie bird. You also can poach your own chicken. To do so, place 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts in a medium saucepan, cover with water or chicken broth, bring to a simmer over medium-high, then reduce to low, cover and cook until the thickest part of the meat registers 160°F, about 20 minutes. Let the chicken cool in the liquid until just warm to the touch, then finely chop the meat. Our homemade green chili and tomatillo sauce is especially good here, but any bottled hot sauce that's not too vinegary (such as Tapatío or Cholula) will work. Chopped white onion and sour cream or Mexican crema are great garnishes.
4
Servings
Tip
Don't skip the step of brushing the tortillas with oil and briefly warming them in the oven. If the tortillas are filled and rolled straight from the package, they will crack and tear. But take care not to overheat them, which will dry them out and make them too brittle to roll.
45 minutes
Ingredients
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3
tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
-
3
medium poblano chilies (about 12 ounces), stemmed, seeded and chopped
Directions
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01Heat the oven to 475°F with a rack in the middle position. In a large pot over medium-high, combine 1 tablespoon of the oil, the poblanos, tomatillos, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are well-browned and beginning to soften, 5 to 8 minutes. Stir in the cumin and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the broth and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables have softened, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
Reviews
December 31, 2025
Better than the restaurants
This is so good. Worth the effort to make.
March 13, 2025
Excellent Enchiladas
I made this with Mexican rice (arroz rojo) and refried beans, everything homemade, so it took north of two hours. But it exceeded expectations. Topped the enchiladas with chopped onion and sour cream.
April 15, 2023
FANTASTIC!
This is an excellent recipe from start to finish! I had leftover baked chicken thighs that I finely minced versus chicken breast. I also doubled the verde sauce so as to freeze for additional meals. The poblano peppers I purchased were huge so I ended up with 3 x 2 cups of sauce that I froze individually in ziplock quart freezer bags. The other small changes I made were to quickly fry the corn tortillas in small amount of oil to make them pliable versus using the oven method (as I know this technique works beautifully for me without fail). I also used my Vitamix Blender to make cooked sauce super smooth (in batches) then added salt & pepper and a small amount of Knorr Chicken granules to taste. Wonderful, light and delicious!
March 28, 2023
Excellent!
Am not a huge Mexican cooking fan, but this was fantastic. The sauce was tasty and fresh. I had a great roast chicken that already was full of flavor. We ate this up in one sitting!
January 26, 2023
Really good but a lot of work
A ton of work for the sauce. We love the meal but I have found a good cheat on a busy night. Use a large jar of Salsa Verde instead and make the real deal on a better planned evening. A fresh rotisserie chicken can also speed up the evening. Grab a pair of gloves and swiftly shred and dismember it directly into the bowl. If you are sensitive to high amounts of salt just add about half. White corn tortillas are better than the yellow ones. Honestly and unfortunately, both versions I've mentioned are better than any of the dozen Mexican restaurants available to us. As a Minnesotan, even with the heat of the dish it is a regular meal in our house...it's so good and honestly it's like comfort food. Serve with sour cream and pico!
"...any bottled hot sauce that's not too vinegary (such as Tapatío or Cholula) will work..."
So are Tapatio and Cholula examples of hot sauce that's too vinegary, or examples that will work since they're not too vinegary?
I made this last night with the last of this season's tomatillos and really liked it...and it was 60 minutes from walking into the kitchen to serving this dish accompanied by a sauté of zucchini, corn and black beans and lime. One point: because I had cooked the sauce vegetables too long, they dried out a little so I ended up adding twice as much broth than was called for in order to make the sauce loose enough. My partners prefers flour tortillas so I made some of each; that worked fine, though the arrangement in the baking dish was a challenge. Thanks for the recipe!
I made this last night with the last of this season's tomatillos and really liked it...and it was 60 minutes from walking into the kitchen to serving this dish accompanied by a sauté of zucchini, corn and black beans and lime. One point: because I had cooked the sauce vegetables too long, they dried out a little so I ended up adding twice as much broth than was called for in order to make the sauce loose enough. My partners prefers flour tortillas so I made some of each; that worked fine, though the arrangement in the baking dish was a challenge. Thanks for the recipe!
How long would the green sauce last if made ahead and stored in the refrigerator? Or can it be frozen?
Hi Amy -
We probably wouldn't recommend making it more than a day or two ahead, otherwise the garlic could get overpowering. You should be able to freeze it, though. Just make sure to bring the sauce to room temperature before using so the cold sauce doesn't affect the cooking time and dry out the tortillas.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
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These were quite tasty. I've never been a huge fan of cumin but obviously it's a big part of Mexican cooking. It was good in this verde sauce. I'm just wondering what might be a good substitute for cumin in dishes that call for it?