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These white Chicken enchiladas are a cozy, easy weeknight dinner with rotisserie Chicken, melty Monterey Jack, and a buttery sour cream green chile sauce. They’re simple enough for a busy night, but they don’t taste like you gave up. You’re going to love how creamy, cheesy, and unfussy they are.
Why You’ll Love It
- Rotisserie chicken shortcut — dinner is halfway handled with 3 cups of shredded chicken.
- Creamy, mild sauce — sour cream and green chiles make every bite cozy without much heat.
- Minimal prep — no chopping onions, browning meat, or mountain of dishes.
- Flexible and filling — serve with Mexican rice, tortilla chips, or a bagged salad, and enjoy the leftovers the next day.
Ingredient Notes
Rotisserie chicken is the easy choice, and I usually pull the meat while it’s still a little warm because it comes apart faster. You need 3 cups shredded. If you already have cooked chicken breasts around, by all means use them instead. No need to make life harder on purpose.
For the tortillas, small flour tortillas are my preference because they roll without throwing a tantrum. Corn tortillas work too, though they can crack if they’re cold and stiff. Give them a quick warm-up in the microwave first—about 15 seconds for the stack—and they’ll behave much better. Usually. Nothing is guaranteed in this world, including tortillas and cable repair appointments.
Monterey Jack is lovely here because it melts like a dream and has that mild, creamy flavor. I’ve used a Mexican Cheese blend in a pinch, and it was perfectly good. Cheddar changes the look and flavor a bit, but it will still get eaten, believe me.
Use low-sodium chicken broth if you can. Between the rotisserie chicken and cheese, there’s plenty going on in the salt department already. The sour cream needs to go in after the sauce cools for a few minutes—don’t skip that little pause, or you may wind up with a grainy, separated sauce. I have done it. I was in a hurry. Naturally.
The diced green chiles are mild and mostly bring flavor, not heat. Extra jalapeños work well over individual portions, while I prefer to keep the pan gentle and let people add heat at the table. I say I don’t like spicy food, which isn’t entirely true—I just don’t enjoy crying into my dinner.
Ingredients
- 8 to 10 small flour tortillas, or corn tortillas if that’s what you have
- 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
- 3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, divided
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken broth, preferably low-sodium
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 ounces diced green chiles
- Cooking spray for the baking dish
- Optional for serving: sliced green onions, cilantro, diced jalapeños, Tomatoes, salsa, whatever your people like
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350°F and spray a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, mix the shredded rotisserie chicken with 1 cup of the Monterey Jack cheese. It will look a little plain at this stage, but hang in there. The sauce is coming.
Fill each tortilla with some of the chicken-and-cheese mixture. Keep the filling near the bottom third of the tortilla and use a sensible amount—about 2 to 3 tablespoons for regular small flour tortillas. Don’t overstuff them. I know it’s tempting. But then they split open, the filling escapes, and you’re standing there trying to tuck chicken back into a tortilla like it’s a tiny sleeping bag. Roll each tortilla up and place it seam-side down in the prepared baking dish.
Make the white sauce. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Sprinkle in the flour and whisk it together. Let it cook for 1 minute. It should smell warm and a little nutty, not browned. We are not making gravy here.
Turn the heat down to low and slowly whisk in the chicken broth. Keep whisking until the sauce is smooth, then let it cook until bubbly. It will thicken as it heats. If you walk away to answer a text or see why the dog is barking at the mail carrier again, just come back and whisk it well. It’s forgiving, but not infinitely forgiving.
Take the skillet off the heat and let the sauce cool for 3 to 5 minutes, until it’s closer to room temperature than piping hot. This matters because the sour cream can get unhappy if you stir it into boiling sauce. Add the sour cream and diced green chiles, stirring until everything is smooth and the sour cream is completely blended in.
Pour the sauce evenly over the rolled enchiladas. Get it into the little spaces between them too—that’s where the good stuff happens. Sprinkle the remaining 2 cups of Monterey Jack cheese over the top. Yes, two cups. We are not pretending this is spa food.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly. I like to let the pan sit for about five minutes before serving because the filling is lava-hot straight from the oven. I rarely wait the full five minutes, though, so do as I say, not as I do.
Serve with green onions, cilantro, diced jalapeños, tomatoes, salsa, or nothing at all. Mexican rice and refried beans are nice alongside, but a bagged salad will do just fine. Some nights, a dinner plate with enchiladas on it is enough of an accomplishment.
Variations
Corn tortillas and diced jalapeños in the sauce make a spicier variation. A little salsa verde drizzled over each serving is good, though it does bring serious heat.
If you need to leave out the green chiles for picky eaters, you can. The enchiladas will still be creamy and cheesy, just a bit milder in flavor. I’ve made them that way for a child’s sleepover once—there were six girls in my kitchen watching some Disney Channel show and using approximately every clean cup we owned. Nobody complained about dinner, which is basically a standing ovation from children.
I tried adding black beans once, thinking I was being practical and stretching the meal. It wasn’t bad, exactly. But the filling became too bulky, and the tortillas didn’t roll as neatly. So I don’t usually bother. You certainly can if you want to, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when one decides to burst at the seam.
Storage & Reheating
Leftover enchiladas keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 or 4 days, covered tightly in the baking dish or moved into an airtight container. They may look a little less glamorous on day three, but so do most of us, and they still taste good.
To reheat the whole pan, cover it with foil and warm it in a 350°F oven until heated through. For one or two servings, the microwave is easier—usually a minute or two, depending on how powerful yours is. Mine has three buttons that seem to do the exact same thing, so I just press “reheat” and hope for the best.
You can freeze these before or after baking. Assemble them as directed, cover tightly with plastic wrap and foil, and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bake at 350°F until hot. If you’re making them ahead, I prefer rolling the enchiladas and keeping the sauce separate until baking day, just so the tortillas don’t sit around soaking up too much liquid. Although once I made the entire thing ahead anyway, forgot about it, and it was still fine. So there you go.
Final Notes
There’s something about a pan of enchiladas that makes the kitchen feel occupied in the best way. Cheese bubbling, somebody wandering in asking when dinner will be ready, the dog stationed hopefully by the counter as if a piece of chicken might fall. It takes me back to those loud years when the kids were all home at once, backpacks tossed by the door and homework spread across the table.
The house is quieter now. Not silent—thank goodness, I don’t think I’d care for silent—but different. Sometimes I make this recipe for just the two of us and have enough leftovers to last half the week. Other times the kids show up, or a friend stops by, and suddenly that 9-by-13 pan seems barely adequate.
Funny how food does that. Makes room. Even when the table is crowded, even when nobody agrees on what to watch afterward, even when you’ve had one of those days where you’d rather crawl under a blanket and let everyone fend for themselves.
Make these when you need dinner to be easy. Make them when you have leftover chicken. Make them because creamy sauce and melted cheese can improve a bad mood—not fix it, exactly, but soften the edges a little. And some evenings, that’s plenty.
White Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 8 to 10 small flour tortillas or corn tortillas if that’s what you have
- 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken
- 3 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese divided
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken broth preferably low-sodium
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 ounces diced green chiles
- cooking spray for the baking dish
- sliced green onions, cilantro, diced jalapeños, tomatoes, or salsa optional, for serving
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and spray a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl, mix the shredded rotisserie chicken with 1 cup of the Monterey Jack cheese.
- Fill each tortilla with about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the chicken-and-cheese mixture, keeping the filling near the bottom third of the tortilla.
- Roll each tortilla up and place it seam-side down in the prepared baking dish.
- Melt the butter in a skillet over medium-low heat, sprinkle in the flour, whisk together, and cook for 1 minute until warm and slightly nutty but not browned.
- Turn the heat down to low and slowly whisk in the chicken broth until the sauce is smooth, then cook until bubbly and thickened.
- Take the skillet off the heat and let the sauce cool for 3 to 5 minutes, then stir in the sour cream and diced green chiles until smooth and fully blended.
- Pour the sauce evenly over the rolled enchiladas, getting it into the spaces between them, then sprinkle the remaining 2 cups of Monterey Jack cheese over the top.
- Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly.
- Let the pan sit for about 5 minutes before serving, then garnish with green onions, cilantro, diced jalapeños, tomatoes, salsa, or serve as is.