Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

This is a dish I have been making for a few years now but have never blogged about for some reason.  Mexican restaurants abounded where we lived in Texas, and our favorite thing to order was sour cream chicken enchiladas.  I had eaten at plenty of Mexican restaurants in the Midwest, but didn't recall ever seeing those on the menus there.  Sour cream chicken enchiladas are really good; a rich creamy filling inside and bold tomato-y sauce on the outside.  After moving away from Texas, I really missed this dish and tried to recreate it in my own kitchen.  My version is not nearly as rich as the restaurant version, but it satisfies the craving.


Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas


Ingredients:
1½ cups chicken, cooked and diced or shredded
¼ onion, finely diced
1½ cups low fat sour cream
1½  cups Mexican cheese blend, shredded, divided
8 taco-sized tortillas
2 cans enchilada sauce


Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°.  


Combine chicken, onion, sour cream, and 1 cup of the cheese in a large bowl.  If tortillas are not pliable, soften by placing in a clean kitchen towel and microwaving for 30 seconds.  Place a couple of spoonfuls of chicken filling inside each tortilla and roll up.  Pour a thin layer of enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.  Place the enchiladas in the dish, side by side, seam side down.  Top with the remaining enchilada sauce.  Cover dish with foil and bake for 25 minutes.


Uncover, sprinkle with remaining cheese, and bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.


Makes 4 servings, 2 enchiladas each.

This is a really easy dish to throw together.  You can use canned chicken, but most often I use the chicken I have picked off the bone after roasting a whole chicken.  I have also made it when I didn't have any cooked chicken on hand.  I simply poach a couple of chicken breast cutlets in a combination of chicken stock and tomato sauce and then shred.

This is similar to my other chicken enchilada recipe, Enchiladas Hermanas, but without the cream cheese and a little bit simplified since you don't have to cook the filling before stuffing the tortillas.

A note on the enchilada sauce: I had a hard time finding the right heat level.  The mild didn't have enough, and the medium (or hot, depending on the brand) had too much.  So I buy a can of each and mix them together before pouring over the enchiladas.  Perfect!

 Naked enchiladas.  I had more than eight because I made too much filling.

 Covered in sauce and ready for the oven.

Not the best lighting here, but this is what they look like coming out of the oven.

I like to serve them with my Sweet Corn Tomalito.  The sweetness of that is perfect with the spicy of the enchilada sauce.

Erin at Dinners, Dishes, and Desserts chose to make this recipe when she was assigned my blog for the Secret Recipe Club in February 2012.  Click on the button below to check out her post!