I love enchiladas. And fajitas and burritos and chimichangas and nachos and– Okay, I practically worship Mexican food. But I was born in Texas and spent more than half my life there, so I have an excuse for the salsa running through my veins. My kids love Mexican food, too, and this is one of our longtime favorite ways to make enchiladas around here. I copied it down 20 years ago at a college friend’s kitchen table in Lubbock, Texas, and have been playing with it ever since. It’s a really versatile recipe and I make it different ways at different times, depending on what I have onhand, but here is the standard version.
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How to make Sour Cream Enchiladas:
12 corn tortillas
oil
2 cans cream of chicken soup
8 ounces sour cream
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups chicken, cut up
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese (divided)
1/2 cup sliced jalapenos
1/2 cup chopped onions
Fry tortillas for about 30 seconds per side in a small amount of oil on medium-high heat.
I’m using white corn tortillas here. You can use yellow corn tortillas. It doesn’t matter. If you are really fussy about the taste of corn tortillas and don’t like them, you can even use flour tortillas. If you use flour tortillas, you can skip the frying step. The point is to soften up the corn tortillas so they don’t cause you any trouble when you’re folding them. Trust me, you don’t want to have any trouble with your tortillas. I’ve had tortillas before that were trouble. Drove too fast, stayed out late, drank too much. You don’t want to go there. (Sometimes you should just pay no attention to me whatsoever.)
Drain fried tortillas on paper towels.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine soup, sour cream, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and chicken.
Stir it up into a big goopy mess. Notice I’m not actually using chicken here. I substituted turkey for the chicken because it’s just after Thanksgiving and Mexican food is a great way to make leftover Thanksgiving turkey feel new. (I hope you remembered to use your turkey carcass to make Turkey Noodle Soup. Did you?) Sometimes I use turkey in casseroles and I don’t even tell the kids it’s not chicken. They never notice and I’m sneaky that way. (Turkey can be substituted in just about any recipe calling for cut up chicken with no problem. And since there are so many more recipes for chicken than for turkey, this is really helpful right after Thanksgiving.) In this recipe, you can also substitute any other cream soup for the cream of chicken soup and use other types of meat. For example, another great combination that works here is cream of mushroom soup and shredded or ground beef. Cream of celery soup and pork. You can even make this dish all vegetarian–use your favorite sauteed veggies in place of meat. If you don’t like jalapenos, skip the jalapenos and use chopped sweet peppers instead. I have also made this recipe with light sour cream and with fat-free sour cream and it works just fine. Once you’ve got the basic sour cream enchilada recipe down, you can do anything you want with it.
Stir in 1 cup of the shredded cheddar. (Depending on how you decide to vary the recipe, any other type of shredded cheese you prefer will do.)
Spoon a couple tablespoons down the middle of each tortilla. (You will not use all of the sour cream mixture in the tortillas.)
Fold up.
Place seam-side down in a greased 9×11 casserole pan.
Spread the remaining sour cream mixture over the top of the enchiladas.
Top with the remaining 1/2 cup cheese and the jalapenos and onions. You can use less onion or no onion. I leave one end of the pan with no onion because I have an onion-hater in the family. Sometimes I put chopped tomatoes on top, too, or even just pour some salsa on top.
Bake at 350-degrees, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
Muy bien!
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lola fa-la-la-la-la-na says:
Sounds delicious. I will try soon. I bet you mean 30 seconds when frying the tortillas, yes? :purr:
On November 30, 2008 at 4:51 am
Kathryn says:
Fry for 30 seconds! Not minutes. I am sure Suzanne will fix that in a bit.
That recipe looks wonderful. Thank you for sharing it.
On November 30, 2008 at 5:49 am
Suzanne McMinn says:
Yes, I mean seconds!!! Thank you!! (Fixed now.)
On November 30, 2008 at 6:06 am
Kacey says:
That looks yummy! Hey, another way to use up turkey…if we had even a bite left with all the males here devouring it on T-day.
On November 30, 2008 at 8:31 am
jayedee says:
be still my heart! does this look GOOD or what? corn tortillas are definitely going on my grocery list this week!
On November 30, 2008 at 9:19 am
TeresaH says:
I love mexican food too…or should I say tex-mex! Of course I lived in the panhandle for 20 years. I made a chicken enchilada casserole last weekend! Not exactly like yours but close. I cheat a bit, I don’t roll mine up, I layer the corn tortillas on the bottom of the pan and add the meat mixture to that (and I add rice and sometimes beans to my meat mixture,and I don’t use cream soups. My meat mixture consists of shredded chicken, green enchilada sauce,onion, rice and maybe beans) after a layer of meat mixture I add dollops of sour cream on top of it, then cheddar cheese, then another layer of tortillas, and meat mixture then sour cream and cheese, then another layer of tortillas with any meat mixture left on top then cheddar cheese. Then I bake it for about 45 minutes at 350. I got tired of my tortillas breaking so adapted it that way. I usually use 2 cans of green enchilada sauce and one can of red. Yummy stuff! I never thought of using leftover turkey in one, but that would be good too! I like to use beef too but when I use beef I use all red sauce. Ok, now I’m hungry again…the usual thing when I visit this site!!!
On November 30, 2008 at 9:41 am
TeresaH says:
Oh, and sometimes I add a can of drained corn to mine too. With the rice beans and maybe corn it is a complete meal in one dish!
On November 30, 2008 at 9:43 am
Suzette says:
Mmmmm! I love chicken enchiladas. I haven’t made them in years. Perhaps it’s time!
Thanks for the recipe! Looks like a winner.
On November 30, 2008 at 9:55 am
Claudia W. says:
I have a similar recipe for leftover turkey, except I don’t wrap up the mixture, I layer it in a crock pot! It also has diced chiles in it, I write up the recipe and share with you all. Hm Hm good!
How long will Coco have to be confined for her safety sake? Poor thing!
On November 30, 2008 at 10:46 am
Leah says:
Coco does look like one sad puppy, give him a turkey leg!
On November 30, 2008 at 11:17 am
Tami says:
:bananadance: I am not real sure how I came across your blog, but oh my…I am making a grocery list as soon as I print this recipe up! Oh, I know. I was looking for snow ice cream and came across this. I am SO bookmarking you! Yum!
Tami
[email protected] :weather:
On November 30, 2008 at 11:39 am
FringeGirl says:
These look WONDERFUL! I love mexican food too.
On November 30, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Susan says:
Suzanne, how do you stay so fit while eating all of these fantastic dishes?!
On November 30, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Sunnid755 says:
this looks absolutely yummy, can’t wait to try it!
On November 30, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Tammy says:
I just whipped these up using some cooked ground beef from the freezer and the cream of mushroom soup. I also added black olives on top, and next time I will sprinkle some chopped green onions on each serving. They made a delicious Sunday lunch, and after 3 non-stop days of turkey, the red meat was welcomed. :hungry:
On November 30, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Brandy says:
I’m there! Well, except for the cream of chicken soup. Do you mind if I fiddle with your recipe? *G*
On November 30, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Estella says:
They look really good, but my husband won’t eat sour cream.
On November 30, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Jaymi B. says:
Oh gosh. My husband (who is from Jalisco) would divorce me for serving this ‘white’ version of enchiladas! hahah We aren’t even allowed to use that sort of cheese on our food. Sigh. I grew up eating these versions, I think they’re yummy and he’s missing out! (30 minute tortilla’s would be chips!!! hah)
On November 30, 2008 at 5:09 pm
catslady says:
Sounds like something even I can make. I’ve been known to just heat them up in the microwave which means less fat but heck, who’s counting lol.
On November 30, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Dana Lou says:
Suzanne, I love this recipe. I used to get a montyly magazine from Kraft foods and this recipe was in there (or one just about the same). It is one of my kids favorites!!!
I had lost the recipe (I am not sure how I did that), but now I have it again…
Thanks!!!!
Dana
On December 1, 2008 at 12:50 am
MaryLundShu says:
Suzanne,
I seriously want to know how you stay so fit eating all these scrumpsous looking dishes. Is it really the farm work? Do you do it for the kids? Can you actually practice portion control? Most of your yummy looking recipes have such dangerous ingredients for the likes of me. I wish I could try all your recipes but quite frankly I do a search on Cookinglight.com to see if I can find any equivalent recipes to those showcased on your site.
Sad, sad, me.
On December 2, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Pete says:
Looks pretty close to the “stacked enchilada” dish some friends make, generally using Monterrey Jack cheese to keep it all within the color scheme. Still made in a 9×13 pan, just layer with unheated tortillas, some cut in half to fill in the sides.
On December 30, 2008 at 3:04 pm
Pete says:
Am trying this. It’s in the oven now. Used canned chicken. Didn’t have any cream of chicken, so using cream of mushroom soup – one large can, because that’s what we have. (Got sour cream, tortillas and cheese at the store yesterday, forgot the soup!) We like onions, so mixed some in the meat mixture.
We shall see how this does…
PS Had a devil of a time finding this recipe again. Finally remembered that the link for it was in the “turkey use-up” section instead of under chicken…
On January 1, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Suzy says:
Wow !! This is making my mouth water!!
Gotta try it real soon!
On February 20, 2009 at 11:16 pm
JennK says:
Hi, Suzanne! I know you posted this recipe awhile ago, but I just came across it today. It looks fantastic, and I’m definitely trying it this week. The best part is that it’s naturally gluten-free, so I don’t have to change anything for my kids. Thanks!
On April 20, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Donna says:
LOVE sour cream chicken enchilladas..but think I had them with flour tortillas…my mother made wonderful ones, but I don’t have her recipe, darn it. LOVE THEM!
On June 1, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Tina says:
Just had to tell you that I made these today and they were a huge hit! I’m going to be trying a lot of your recipes! Thanks for all your hard work.
On September 22, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Sarah in Sanford says:
I found this recipe on your site yesterday. I just stumbled across it while browsing around. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I invited my parents over for dinner and they both loved it. My dad doesn’t like traditional enchiladas but loved this version.
On October 28, 2009 at 6:19 am
Carol Langille says:
This is like the umpteenth time I’ve made this recipe and it is my husband’s favorite. I’ve made it for all my company from out of town and they love it, too. I do nothing different from the recipe as it is here except I do use flour tortillas.
Now I’m making it for my office Potluck this coming week. Have to quadruple it to feed those hungry people but I know they will love it as much as I do.
There’s a similar recipe in the Farm Bell recipes but i really thought I would find Suzanne’s recipe there so I could put it in my recipe box.
I know you’re busy, Suzanne, but I love your recipes…maybe stick a few in the Farm Bell place?
Have a beautiful day!
On May 13, 2010 at 11:07 am