These salsa verde chicken enchiladas have homemade salsa verde, Monterey jack cheese, and are garnished with sour cream and red onion. The chicken and salsa cook in the slow cooker so when it’s time for dinner you just assemble and bake the enchiladas.
Salsa verde chicken enchiladas that are part slow cooker recipe, part oven recipe and totally delicious, comforting and flavorful with bright salsa verde flavors, tender chicken and, of course, all the melted cheese.
I suppose I could have cooked the chicken and salsa on the stove, but why do that when the slow cooker is so hands-off and, well, just easier? Enchiladas have a tendency to be a little high maintenance, but this slow cooker/oven hybrid makes this recipe just a little more weeknight-friendly.
Ingredients
For this slow cooker recipe, there’s no precooking required – all of the ingredients go straight into the slow cooker. Cook them all on low for three to four hours.
- Tomatillos look like little green tomatoes with papery husks. Remove the husks and give them a good rinse to remove the sticky residue on their skin. Halve or quarter them, depending on how big they are, and toss them in the slow cooker.
- Poblano peppers look like skinny bell peppers and they’re not super spicy. Prep them like you would a bell pepper and cut them into chunks and into the slow cooker they go.
- For some heat, I added two jalapeno peppers to the mix. If you’re not into heat, only add one.
- Quarter one yellow onion and add that to the slow cooker, too.
- Toss in some roughly chopped garlic and that’s it for the veggies.
- Place boneless skinless chicken breasts on top of the veggies. As the chicken cooks it will absorb all of the flavors from the salsa.
Assemble the Enchiladas
After the chicken and salsa have simmered together, remove the chicken from the slow cooker and shred it.
For the salsa, I like to puree it with my immersion blender. You can do this right in the slow cooker.
Roll the shredded chicken in tortillas and place them in a baking dish. Pour the salsa verde all over the top. Add some shredded cheese and that’s it!
Bake the enchiladas at 350°F for 30 minutes or until they are bubbling hot. Garnish them with chopped cilantro, diced red onion and sour cream for serving.
Make Them Ahead
You can assemble the enchiladas up to a day in advance and keep them in the refrigerator to bake later. Since they’ll be cold, you’ll need to add a few extra minutes of baking time.
Make this for dinner with a batch of margarita wine spritzers and some chips and salsa on the side. You won’t regret it, I promise.
Happy enchilada-making!
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Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 8 enchiladas 1x
Description
Chicken enchiladas topped with a flavorful salsa verde, Monterey jack cheese, sour cream and red onion. The salsa and chicken cook in the slow cooker until the chicken breasts are falling-apart tender and once the enchiladas are assembled you can bake them right away or keep them in the refrigerator for up to a day.
Ingredients
For the Enchiladas
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound tomatillos, papery husks removed, rinsed, and quartered
- 2 jalapenos, seeded and roughly chopped
- 1 yellow onion, peeled and quartered
- 1 large poblano pepper (about 5–6 ounces), seeded and roughly chopped
- 2 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, seasoned with salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- Juice of 1 lime
- 8 (8-inch) flour tortillas
- 8 ounces Monterey jack cheese, shredded
Optional Garnishes
- Diced red onion
- Chopped cilantro
- Sour cream (see note)
Instructions
- Drizzle the olive oil in the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the tomatillos, jalapeno, onion, poblano pepper, garlic, and salt in an even layer in the bottom of the slow cooker. Place the chicken in an even layer on top. Cover and cook on low for three to four hours or until the chicken easily shreds with a fork.
- Remove the chicken from the slow cooker and shred it with two forks. Add the cilantro leaves and lime juice to the slow cooker and, using an immersion blender, puree the salsa until smooth. If the salsa is too thick, thin it with some chicken stock or water. Ladle a cup of the sauce into the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish.
- Divide the chicken between the flour tortillas, roll them up, and place them in the baking dish. Pour the salsa over the top of the tortillas. Top with the shredded cheese. At this point, you can cover and keep the enchiladas in the refrigerator for up to a day before baking.
- To bake, cover the baking dish with tin foil. Bake the enchiladas at 350 degrees for thirty minutes, or until they are bubbly hot. If you are baking them cold, you may need to add ten minutes to the bake time.
- While the enchiladas are baking make the sour cream sauce by combining the sour cream, lime juice, cilantro, and salt in a small bowl. To serve, drizzle the sour cream sauce over the top of the enchiladas and garnish with diced red onion and chopped cilantro.
Notes
Sometimes I get fancy and make a cilantro-lime sour cream sauce. Just combine 1/4 cup of sour cream, the juice of 1 lime, 1 teaspoon chopped cilantro, and a pinch of kosher salt. Drizzle over the enchiladas.
Make-ahead tip: You can make and assemble the enchiladas up to a day in advance and keep them in the refrigerator. Since they’ll go in the oven cold, you may need to add some extra baking time.
The nutrition estimate does not include the optional garnishes.
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: Mexican-American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 enchilada
- Calories: 381
- Sugar: 3.7g
- Sodium: 878.7mg
- Fat: 17.3g
- Saturated Fat: 6.7g
- Unsaturated Fat: 8.5g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 32g
- Fiber: 1.8g
- Protein: 25.1g
- Cholesterol: 66.6mg
Keywords: slow cooker salsa chicken, chicken enchiladas recipe, salsa verde chicken enchiladas
The nutrition information in this recipe is an estimate only and was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.
This post has been updated from the archives. First published in December 2017.
Cory says
These were phenomenal! Really easy to make and taste so fresh and delicious. Next time we’re going to try with carnitas.
★★★★★