Rotisserie chicken is one of the easiest ways to get a real dinner moving without starting from scratch.

For these Chicken Verde Enchiladas, the chicken gets mixed with green chiles, sour cream, cheese, and a few simple seasonings, then rolled into tortillas and covered with green enchilada sauce and more cheese.

The whole thing goes into a 9 x 13 pan and bakes until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese starts browning around the edges.

It is simple, filling, and a good way to turn one rotisserie chicken into a full family dinner.

Chicken Verde Enchiladas

Oven: 375°F
Pan: 9 x 13-inch baking dish
Makes: About 12 flour tortilla enchiladas, or 14 to 16 smaller corn tortilla enchiladas

Ingredients

1 rotisserie chicken, meat pulled and shredded, about 4 cups
12 medium flour tortillas, or 14 to 16 corn tortillas
2 cans green enchilada sauce, about 28 ounces total
3 cups shredded Monterey Jack, Mexican blend, or pepper jack cheese
1 small can diced green chiles
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Salt and black pepper, to taste
1/2 diced onion, optional

For Serving

Put a few toppings on the table and let everyone finish their own enchiladas:

Sour cream
Salsa
Avocado
Cilantro
Sliced jalapeños

How to Make Chicken Verde Enchiladas

1. Make the Chicken Filling

Heat the oven to 375°F.

In a large bowl, combine:

Shredded rotisserie chicken
Diced green chiles
Sour cream
1 cup shredded cheese
Garlic powder
Cumin
Salt and pepper
Diced onion, if using

Stir until everything is evenly combined.

The filling should be creamy enough to hold together without being wet.

2. Start With Sauce in the Pan

Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish.

Pour about 3/4 cup of the green enchilada sauce into the bottom of the pan and spread it around.

This gives the tortillas some sauce underneath while they bake and helps keep the bottoms from drying out.

3. Fill and Roll the Enchiladas

Place roughly 1/3 cup of the chicken mixture down the center of each tortilla.

Roll the tortilla fairly snugly around the filling and place it seam-side down in the prepared baking dish.

Continue until the pan is full.

If you are using corn tortillas, you will probably fit more enchiladas into the pan because they are usually smaller.

4. Add the Verde Sauce

Pour the remaining green enchilada sauce over the rolled tortillas.

Pay attention to the exposed edges. Make sure they get some sauce too so they do not dry out in the oven.

5. Add the Cheese

Cover the enchiladas with the remaining 2 cups of shredded cheese.

Monterey Jack keeps the flavor fairly mild and creamy. Mexican blend works well too. Pepper jack is an easy way to add a little more heat.

6. Bake

Cover the pan loosely with foil.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the foil and continue baking for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is melted with some light browning around the edges.

Let the enchiladas rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

That short rest gives everything a chance to settle and makes them easier to serve.

Keep Most of the Sauce Outside the Filling

One thing that makes this version work better is keeping the verde sauce mostly outside the enchiladas.

It can be tempting to mix a bunch of enchilada sauce directly into the chicken filling.

I would not.

The chicken mixture already has sour cream, green chiles, and cheese giving it moisture and flavor. Adding too much sauce inside can turn the filling loose and make the finished enchiladas mushier.

Keeping the filling creamy and putting most of the sauce over and under the tortillas gives you a better balance.

You still get plenty of verde flavor, but the filling holds together.

Flour Tortillas or Corn Tortillas?

Either works.

Flour tortillas are easy to roll and give you larger enchiladas. About 12 medium tortillas should work well with this amount of filling.

Corn tortillas make smaller enchiladas and bring a more traditional corn flavor. Plan on roughly 14 to 16.

If your corn tortillas are stiff or cracking when rolled, warm them briefly before filling them so they become more flexible.

A Good Use for Rotisserie Chicken

The rotisserie chicken is doing most of the heavy lifting here.

Instead of cooking and seasoning chicken separately, you can pull the meat from the bird, shred it, and move directly into making the filling.

You need about 4 cups.

That makes this particularly useful when you already have a rotisserie chicken in the refrigerator and need to turn it into something different enough that dinner does not feel like leftovers.

The chicken becomes the base for an entirely new meal.

Easy Ways to Change It

This is also the kind of recipe you can adjust based on what is already in the kitchen.

You could add:

Black beans
Corn
A little salsa verde
Extra green chiles
Pepper jack instead of Monterey Jack
Diced onion
Jalapeños for more heat

I would keep additions reasonable, though. There is enough filling here already, and overloading the tortillas makes them harder to roll.

What to Serve With Chicken Verde Enchiladas

These can easily be the main part of dinner.

Simple sides work best:

Mexican-style rice
Black beans
Refried beans
Corn
Salad
Chips and salsa
Fresh fruit

For a busy night, beans and a bowl of chips and salsa are plenty.

A Simple Dinner Built Around What Is Already Cooked

This is the kind of recipe that fits Big Family Cooking well.

You are not starting dinner by cooking every component from scratch.

The chicken is already cooked.

The filling takes a few minutes to mix.

The enchiladas go into one big baking dish.

Then the oven finishes the work.

That is often the difference between a recipe that sounds good and one that actually gets made on a normal weeknight.

When there are already plenty of other things happening, having a few meals that start with a rotisserie chicken is worth keeping in the rotation.

Recipe at a Glance

Mix about 4 cups shredded rotisserie chicken with one can diced green chiles, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1 cup shredded cheese, 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon cumin, salt, pepper, and optional diced onion.

Spread about 3/4 cup green enchilada sauce in a greased 9 x 13-inch pan.

Add about 1/3 cup filling to each tortilla, roll, and arrange seam-side down.

Cover with the remaining green enchilada sauce and 2 cups shredded cheese.

Cover loosely with foil and bake at 375°F for 20 minutes. Remove the foil and bake another 10 to 15 minutes.

Rest for 5 minutes before serving.

Chicken Verde Enchiladas With Rotisserie Chicken