Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile
Chicken enchiladas rolled with green chile sauce, smothered in Monterey Jack and more green chile, baked, then blanketed with a pint of sour cream and baked again until bubbling.
The American Southwest's creamy enchilada skips Mexico City's crema and tomatillo for roasted green chile and a whole pint of sour cream. This version is "Chicken Sour Cream Enchiladas" from New Mexico Magazine's cookbook A Taste of New Mexico Kitchens, built on the same book's simple green chile sauce: garlic and onion softened in oil, a spoonful of flour, water and chopped green chile, simmered 5 minutes.
It is also the enchilada a lot of Americans grew up on at home. J. Kenji López-Alt of Serious Eats remembers his mother's enchilada casserole as chicken thighs with canned green chiles, a tub of sour cream, grated jack cheese and tortillas, layered and baked. Put a plate of these next to enchiladas suizas and you see two answers to the same idea: cool dairy to soften a green sauce.
Why it works the kitchen science
Sauce inside and out
Mixing a cup of green chile sauce into the chicken flavors and moistens the filling, so it doesn't dry out under the cheese.
Sour cream last
Added for only the final 10 minutes, the sour cream warms into a soft, tangy blanket without baking long enough to split.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cook the garlic and onion 3 to 4 minutes, until soft. Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon and cook 1 minute. Add the water, green chile and salt, bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Step 2
Heat the oven to 350°F. Heat a griddle or comal over medium-high heat and warm the tortillas 20 to 30 seconds per side; keep them under a kitchen towel.
- Step 3
Mix 1 cup of the green chile sauce with the chicken. Spoon 1/4 cup onto each tortilla, roll it up and lay it seam side down in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish.
- Step 4
Cover the enchiladas with the grated cheese. Stir the onion into the remaining sauce, season and pour it over the top.
- Step 5
Bake 20 minutes. Spread the sour cream over the top and bake 10 minutes more, until hot and bubbling and the center of the middle enchilada reads 165°F.
- Step 6
Serve immediately.
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas with Green Chile
Serves 6 · 12 enchiladas · 1 hr 5 min total
Green chile sauce (about 4 cups)
- 1/2 cup vegetable or olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 cup minced onion
- 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 2 cups water
- 2 cups chopped roasted green chile (fresh-roasted and peeled, frozen or canned)
- Salt
Enchiladas
- 12 corn tortillas
- 3 cups minced cooked chicken
- 1 lb Monterey Jack, grated
- 1/4 cup minced onion (optional)
- 1 pint (2 cups) sour cream
Method
- Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cook the garlic and onion 3 to 4 minutes, until soft. Stir in the flour with a wooden spoon and cook 1 minute. Add the water, green chile and salt, bring to a boil and simmer 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Heat a griddle or comal over medium-high heat and warm the tortillas 20 to 30 seconds per side; keep them under a kitchen towel.
- Mix 1 cup of the green chile sauce with the chicken. Spoon 1/4 cup onto each tortilla, roll it up and lay it seam side down in a 13 by 9-inch baking dish.
- Cover the enchiladas with the grated cheese. Stir the onion into the remaining sauce, season and pour it over the top.
- Bake 20 minutes. Spread the sour cream over the top and bake 10 minutes more, until hot and bubbling and the center of the middle enchilada reads 165°F.
- Serve immediately.
Adapted from New Mexico Magazine's A Taste of New Mexico Kitchens (Project Gutenberg eBook 63283): "Chicken Sour Cream Enchiladas" (serves 6: 12 corn tortillas, 4 cups green chile sauce, 3 cups minced cooked chicken, 1 lb jack cheese, 1/4 cup onion, 1 pint sour cream; bake at 350°F about 20 minutes, add the sour cream and bake 10 minutes more) and "Green Chile Sauce" (1/4 cup oil, 1 garlic clove, 1/2 cup onion, 1 tbsp flour, 1 cup water, 1 cup chopped green chile, simmered 5 minutes), which we double. The griddle time for the tortillas and the 165°F check are ours. gutenberg.org. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (2)
Tips
- New Mexico Magazine also allows frying the tortillas briefly in oil and draining them instead of warming them on a griddle.
- Hatch-style New Mexico green chile gives the classic flavor; canned chopped green chiles work.
- Use rotisserie chicken to save 30 minutes.
- Leftovers reheat covered at 350°F until the center reads 165°F.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Sour cream enchiladas are Americanized enchiladas suizas. Folklore: both soften a green sauce with dairy, but no source we read traces one to the other.
- Bake the sour cream or add it cold. Documented: New Mexico Magazine bakes it on for 10 minutes; many cooks spoon it on cold at the table.
- Canned green chile is fine. Documented: the same cookbook's salsa recipe allows fresh, frozen or canned chiles.
- The sauce needs tomatillos. Folklore: New Mexico's green chile sauce is chile, onion, garlic, flour and water; tomatillo sauces are the Mexican verdes.
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