This easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole is a cheesy, flavorful, comforting, family-friendly meal that’s easy enough to make on a weeknight! Added bonus: it’s perfect to make-ahead and freezes beautifully.
Table of Contents
- This recipe is…
- Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Chicken Enchilada Casserole Ingredients
- Recipe Variations and Modifications
- Video
- How to Make This Chicken Enchilada Casserole
- Recipe Tip
- How to Serve
- How to Store and Reheat
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Favorite Casserole Recipes
- Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole Recipe
- Recipe Contributors
This recipe is…
Chicken enchilada casserole is one of those dishes that really brings me back to childhood. It was one of my mom’s go-to dishes, which was absolutely fine with us because we loved it so much! The beauty of enchilada casserole is that you get all of the flavor of enchiladas without the work. If you’ve never made enchiladas before – it can be a long process that involves dipping tortillas in hot oil, rolling them around cheese and chicken and hoping they don’t tear, then topping with sauce and cheese and baking.
Instead of going through all of that work (and mess) this chicken enchilada casserole is made lasagna-style! You’ll layer the sauce, add tortillas, chicken, cheese, more sauce, and repeat. For a fun little spin on the traditional casserole, we also topped it with diced avocado, a sour cream lime sauce, and cilantro. That’s the stuff of Tex-Mex dreams!
We love a good casserole over here. If you do too, be sure to check out our Chicken Bacon Ranch Casserole, BBQ Chicken Casserole, King Ranch Chicken Casserole, and Chicken Divan Casserole recipes.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s not fussy – as mentioned above, this recipe is as easy as they come. Traditional rolled enchiladas can be pretty time consuming to make, but this enchilada casserole checks all the flavor boxes without the fuss!
- It’s family-friendly – who doesn’t love the bold Tex Mex flavors here?! This casserole is one that the whole family will ask for more of.
Chicken Enchilada Casserole Ingredients
You’ll make your own enchilada sauce for this dish, so be sure to add those ingredients to your list, plus the chicken, tortillas, and cheese. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Shredded chicken – keep things super simple by shredding a rotisserie chicken for this recipe, or, if you have chicken breasts or thighs on hand already, simply cook and shred about 2 pounds of that instead following one of these easy methods: slow cooker shredded chicken, Instant Pot shredded chicken, or shredded chicken from frozen in the Instant Pot.
- Enchilada sauce – while this recipe calls for a handful of ingredients to make homemade enchilada sauce (and it’s worth the extra effort if you have the couple of minutes it takes to pull it together), you can absolutely buy your favorite store-bought sauce instead, if you’d like.
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
- Change the sauce – salsa verde or a classic Tex-Mex chili gravy are both great options, as is a store-bought enchilada sauce, if you’d prefer.
- Use a different protein – feel free to use any shredded meat you love here! You can absolutely sub the shredded chicken for shredded pork or shredded beef.
- Add beans – mixing a can of black beans in with the chicken would be a wonderful addition.
- Add veggies – if you want to get your daily serving of veggies in with this casserole, you can easily add in some spinach, diced bell peppers, onions, or even shredded zucchini!
- Make it dairy-free – to make this recipe dairy-free, simply sub the regular sour cream for a non-dairy alternative. You can also skip the sour cream drizzle altogether!
- Make it grain-free – to make this recipe grain-free, simply use grain-free Siete tortillas instead of corn.
- Make it gluten-free – as long as you’re making this recipe with corn tortillas (vs. flour), this recipe is gluten-free.
Video
How to Make This Chicken Enchilada Casserole
This recipe is incredibly easy! Follow along below for the full how-to.
Step 1: While you can use a pre-made enchilada sauce, this one comes together super fast with pantry staples and adds tons of flavor. You’ll simply add some tomato paste, tomato sauce, chicken broth, and spices to a bowl and whisk to combine.
Step 2: To start assembly, spoon a bit of the enchilada sauce on the bottom of the dish.
Step 3: Next, break the corn tortillas in half, and spread 10 tortilla halves across the bottom of the dish to cover it.
Step 4: Next, layer on the chicken, then the shredded cheese, then repeat the layers (enchilada sauce, tortillas, shredded chicken, and cheese) to finish. Once assembled, bake the enchilada casserole at 350°F for 30 minutes, until the cheese is browned and bubbling.
Step 5: While the enchilada is baking, add the sour cream and lime juice to a small bowl, and whisk until well combined.
Step 6: Top the finished enchilada casserole with avocado, cilantro, and the sour cream sauce, and dig in!
Recipe Tip
If you have a busy week ahead, consider making this recipe over the weekend and just reheating on the night-of.
This is also a great recipe to make ahead and stock your freezer with. It’s reheats from the freezer beautifully – just pop it in a 350°F oven, covered, for 45 minutes, then uncover it and continue baking for another 15 minutes, or until fully warmed through.
This casserole all makes for an incredible meal train dinner. Pair it with a simple arugula salad and a batch of chewy chocolate chip cookies to round the meal out.
How to Serve
This chicken enchilada casserole is delicious and complete as-is, but if you want to round it out with a green veggie, you can’t go wrong with this lemon arugula salad or, for something festive and different, this Mexican street corn and kale slaw.
How to Store and Reheat
Store your leftover chicken enchilada casserole either in the casserole dish (covered with a lid or aluminum foil) or in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
To reheat, simply pop the casserole back into the oven until warmed through, or microwave one serving at a time for about 1 minute, until warm.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can definitely use salsa instead of enchilada sauce here. You may lose a little bit of that signature “enchilada” flavor without the enchilada sauce, but it’ll still be really flavorful and delicious.
Sure! This enchilada casserole can be made with either corn or flour tortillas – you pick whichever you like best. Do note that flour tortillas tend to get a little bit soggier than corn tortillas, but the end product is still really delicious.
This may surprise you (because restaurant enchiladas are often not the healthiest choice), but if you can tolerate dairy, this recipe is actually a pretty balanced, well-rounded meal. With corn tortillas, shredded chicken, and cheese, you’ll get a healthy dose of carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats.
More Favorite Casserole Recipes
Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole
Ingredients
- 2, 8- ounce cans tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 cups shredded chicken*, or about 2 pounds chicken breast, cooked and shredded
- 10 corn tortillas, torn in half
- 4 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ cup lime juice
- 1 large avocado, diced, for garnish
- ¼ cup fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Whisk together the tomato sauce, tomato paste, chicken broth, salt, chili powder, cumin, oregano, and pepper, until smooth.
- Spread ½ cup enchilada sauce in the bottom of a 3-quart, 9×13 inch pan, then layer 6 tortilla halves over the sauce, until it is fully covered. Layer 2 cups shredded chicken over the tortillas, then pour over 1 cup of enchilada sauce, and 2 cups shredded cheese.
- Repeat step 3 to build the next layer, using up the rest of the tortillas, enchilada sauce, and cheese, then bake the casserole at 350°F for 30 minutes, until the top is browned and bubbling. Remove the casserole from the oven and let cool.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice and sour cream, then drizzle it over the casserole. Garnish with the avocado and cilantro, then serve!
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
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Cassy Joy Garcia
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This is a family favorite and never disappoints!
One of my very favorites too! Thanks for sharing!!
This was good! I halved the recipe and added pinto beans and shredded zucchini to the chicken layers. I squeezed the shredded zucchini in a paper towel to remove some water but the bottom of the pan had a ton of liquid after I scooped out a portion. Is that typical with the sauce normally? Or have you added shredded zucchini before and have other tips to avoid that next time?
That isn’t typical with this recipe, Heather. I think it was probably excess moisture from the zucchini. We haven’t actually added zucchini here before, though, so I can’t say for certain!
This is so good! We topped it with lots of lettuce as some easy extra veggies in for the kiddos. They asked for seconds!
Amazing! We’re so glad to hear it, Megan! Thank you for sharing this with us.
How do you recommend freezing this? Bake then Reheat?
Yes, that’s what I’d do!
Wow! I totally picked this last second as family was coming over unexpectedly for dinner and this was a HUGE hit for all of us! I love that you get to make your own enchilada sauce for this and it was better than store bought through and through. I ended up only using one 8 oz bag of shredded cheese and it was perfect and only put in 1 Tbs. plus 1 tsp. of the chili powder since we had eaters of all ages. This is now printed out and in my go-to recipe binder.
Amazing! So glad you all enjoyed it so much, Sarah. Thank you for sharing this with us!
My husband who is EXTREMELY picky and limits dairy ate this two nights in a row. My 8 year old liked it as well. I think making my own enchilada sauce and Instant Pot chicken that remains supper moist are the keys. We are trying verde sauce next.
Yay, that is so amazing, Nicole! Thanks so much for letting us know!
A huge hit for a small crowd and makes excellent leftovers. We loved it!
So glad everyone enjoyed it, Andrea!! Thank you for sharing this with us!
Quick, easy & delicious! Perfect weeknight meal.
Yay! So glad to hear that, Barbara!
We make this almost every week. Such a huge hit! And so easy❤️
So great! We’re glad you love it, Janice!
There isn’t any milk in this recipe, Maddy, but you can totally leave out the cheese + sour cream to make it dairy-free.
I was confused with the tortillas. It’s 10 in total, making it 20 halves, so each layer will have 10 halves (5 tortillas)? I only used 5 total, so I’m not sure it’s going to turn out well!
I m also super confused about the tortilla sizes and the halving of the tortilla on each layer.
Hi Chelsea + Michele! We updated the recipe to fix the amount of tortillas used. You’ll need 6 corn tortillas (regular corn tortilla size) torn in half, making 12 halves total. You’ll use 6 of the halves for the first tortilla layer and the other 6 halves for the second tortilla layer. I hope this helps!
We made this tonight and it was absolutely delicious. This recipe felt cleaner and lighter than other Mexican casseroles in our rotation – and I LOVE how easy it was to make homemade enchilada sauce! Thank you, Amber!!
So glad you loved it, Annie! Thank you for sharing this with us!
Very simple, tasty recipe. I misread the recipe and used “chili pepper” instead of “chili powder,” so it was too spicy. I’ll try it again with the Chili Powder which is a blend of spices instead of just red pepper.
I noticed other reviews that also said it was too spicy… maybe they made the same mistake?
Thanks for the recipe!
Oh no! So sorry…I bet that was spicy!!
I loved this! I added a grated zucchini, a handful of kale and a diced onion. Loved the veggie edition 🙂 i also cheated and used canned enchilada sauce because it was what i had on hand. I had extra enchilada sauce so i just added it in the last layer and it was still great ! Love how customizable this is! I also made the tortillas into quarters so i could get the corners of my casserole pan. Can’t wait to make this again! Maybe with pulled pork?!
Oooh, great veggie additions! Shredded pork would be SO YUMMY!
If I want to make this in bulk and freeze should I freeze before or after baking it?
Bake it first, Elizabeth! Enjoy!
Made this recipe last night and it was really good and super easy! I didnt have chicken so I used ground venison (it’s what we have) and I had canned green enchilada sauce and I added black olives and onions! Will definitely make again!
Great sub, Jessie!! Thanks for sharing!