White Chicken Enchiladas

If you are on Pinterest, chances are you have seen this recipe for White Chicken Enchiladas. It is everywhere and it seems like everyone and their brother can't say enough good things about it. With such glowing reviews. I felt I should give them a try as well.  I saw this recipe for white chicken enchiladas as a pin from Joyful Momma's Kitchen, so I'm going to use that blog as a reference.  I have no idea who pinned/posted it first, so don't get upset if you are the creator of this recipe.  I would give you credit if I knew who you were!

This might be a case of the dish not living up to all the hype, but we all found these enchiladas to be rather bland.The only flavor in this dish comes from one itty bitty can of green chilies.  No salsa and no other spices of any kind.  We've had lots of different types of enchiladas (Chipotle enchiladas, ranchy benchiladas, and cranchiladas), all of them very very flavorful.

I thought maybe the creaminess of the sauce would make up for the lack of spices.  The white sauce was good, just not enough to make up for the lack of seasoning. 

Because I wanted a little bit more hearty of a dish I added about a cup of frozen, defrosted corn and 1 1/2 cups of black beans.  I also thought that the tortillas turned out a bit soggy.  I would suggest adding about a 1/2 c of the sauce to the meat mixture.  This will cut down on the amount of sauce on the top of the enchiladas, and also help the meat stick together a bit better.  I had a hard time getting the filling to stay inside the tortillas as I rolled them up. That could be due to the fact that I used corn and beans.  Those little guys kept jumping out the ends of the tortillas.

Even though this didn't turn out as good as other enchilada dishes, there are lots of things you could to to increase the flavor: add taco seasoning to the filling, add a chopped up chipotle in adobo to the filling, add green chilies to the filling, add salsa to the filling or even swap out the monterey jack cheese for pepperjack cheese.

I do understand why these were a huge sensation on the web.  Most kids are picky eaters, and won't eat food with strong flavors.  This is a mild dish that I think even the pickiest kid would gobble up.  Sometimes a peaceful dinnertime makes the meal taste that much better. 


Chicken enchiladas with green chili sour cream sauce from Joyful Momma's Kitchen
10 soft flour tortillas
2 c cooked, shredded chicken (I used turkey)
1 c defrosted frozen corn (optional)
1 can (or 1 1/2c cooked) black beans (optional)
2 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese
3 T butter
3 T flour
2 c chicken broth (I used turkey stock)
1 c sour cream
1 (4 oz) can diced green chillies

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x13 pan. Mix chicken, corn, beans and 1c cheese. Roll up in tortillas and place in pan. In a sauce pan, melt butter, stir in flour and cook 1 minute. Add broth and whisk until smooth. Heat over medium heat until thick and bubbly. Stir in sour cream and chilies. Do not bring to boil, you don't want curdled sour cream. Pour over enchiladas and top with remaining cheese.
 Bake 22 min and then under high broil for 3 min to brown the cheese.