Finally, an enchilada recipe that is easy to prepare and one the entire family will love.
These slow cooker chicken enchiladas may be one of the easiest recipes you’ll ever make. All you need to do is turn on your crockpot. Create savory layers by alternating whole wheat tortillas, shredded chicken, spicy enchilada sauce, and melty cheese. Three to four hours later, you can enjoy a deliciously filling meal. You won’t believe that it has less than 300 calories!
I love using the slow cooker any chance I get because it frees me up to do other tasks. For this recipe, I can go run some errands, catch the kid’s baseball game, or even go to a movie while the slow cooker chicken enchiladas are cooking. I must admit though, that I don’t always have the time (and sometimes I’m not patient enough to wait). You can always bake the enchiladas in a 375-degree F oven for about 30 minutes instead. Use a 13×9 casserole dish (and spread a thin layer of enchilada sauce on the bottom to keep the tortillas from sticking). When everything is nice and bubbly, they’re ready to serve!
Making the Chicken
You can use any leftover shredded chicken you have on hand for these slow cooker chicken enchiladas. If you have the time, we like using skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts to make it fresh. You’ll remove the skin before you shred them – so don’t worry about any added fat there. Using this type of chicken breast really results in the juiciest chicken. You can absolutely use boneless skinless chicken breasts if that’s all you can find, but do keep an eye on the cooking time so they don’t dry out.
Feel free to make things quicker and easier by baking the chicken breasts in advance. They can be cooked a few days ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator until you’re ready to cook the enchiladas. It’s much easier to shred the chicken when it’s cooler, and you’ll also avoid burning your fingers.
Another make-ahead option is to use our Slow Cooker Everything Chicken recipe! Again, the slow cooker will do all the work for you (and you’ll end up with delicious, moist, easy-to-shred chicken!)
It might be cleaner to shred the chicken with a fork, but it’s infinitely easier to shred them with your fingers. After washing your hands, use your index finger and thumb to pull the chicken off the bone. Then, you can shred the pieces into long strands. You can avoid all the mess altogether by chopping the chicken into bite-sized cubes, but the texture of the slow cooker chicken enchiladas will be different from chopped chicken.
Bring on the Flavor
Finally, a word of caution about the seasonings. You might think that one teaspoon isn’t a lot of cumin, but it packs a powerful punch. It has a really strong flavor that can become bitter if you use too much. So, make sure you go easy on the cumin and chili powders – one teaspoon of each is just about perfect!
This is one of those recipes that people find themselves making, again and again, so don’t be surprised if this becomes a regular to your dinner rotation. The whole family will love it – even the picky eaters. You also might find that people want the recipe, so be prepared to share these slow cooker chicken enchiladas! To make this a fully complete meal, serve the enchiladas with this Skinny Mexican Rice.
There’s More Where that Came From!
Want more of these incredible southwest flavors? Try our Skinny White Chicken Enchiladas, these Skinny Burrito Bowls, or our super popular Skinny Bell Pepper Nacho Boats, next!
Our “Flush the Fat Away” Lentil and Vegetable Soup is also loaded with awesome flavors and nutrients! It was created as a stovetop recipe, however, you can cook it in your slow cooker if you prefer! Simply set it to high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours.
See How to Make Them!
Slow Cooker Chicken Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 2 chicken breast filets with skin remove skin before adding to enchiladas
- 16 ounces red enchilada sauce jar, no sugar added
- 4 ounces jalapenos can, optional green chiles
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese reduced-fat, shredded
- 8 ounces sour cream container, fat-free
- 6 whole-grain tortillas medium (corn tortillas are not recommended as they tend to fall apart)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breasts in a covered baking dish. Bake until juices run clear when pierced with a fork, after about 35-45 minutes. Remove skin and discard. Shred chicken or cut into bite-sized cubes.
- In a medium mixing bowl add chicken, garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, black pepper, and salt to taste. Add to seasoned chicken: green chile peppers, 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce, 1/2 cup sour cream, and 1 cup cheese. Mix well. Place 1/2 cup chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla. Leave about 2" in the bottom without filling and fold up. Continue until all tortillas are filled.
- Stack enchiladas in the slow cooker, add a little of the sauce on top of each layer as you stack them. There should be 2 layers of 3 or 3 layers of 2, depending on the size of your slow cooker.
- Combine the remaining enchilada sauce and 1/2 cup sour cream. Pour over the enchiladas. Cover and cook on low 3 to 4 hours, or until hot and bubbly. Cut between each enchilada, and carefully remove them, one at a time, with a large spatula. Pour liquid from slow cooker over enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining cheese. Garnish with diced tomatoes and shredded lettuce.
Nutrition Information
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- Slow Cooker Vegetarian Enchiladas
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Editor’s Note: Originally published Sep 14, 2012
Whoops!! Add both with the chicken when you add the other spices. 🙂
When you say 2 half chicken breasts that means both sides of the breast correct? So that would really be the whole breast of the chicken?
Yes, cut in half!
What do you mean when you say leave about 2” at the bottom without filling and fold up lengthwise?
Crystal, When you’re folding the tortilla…don’t put filling on the last 2″.
Exactly. Thank you
Is there any way to find out what all is on the plate in the picture…its looks wonderful and would love to have all the recipes.
Jenny, Sure…it's just a taco with shredded lettuce, diced tomato, 2% Mexican style cheeses…all this on top of (1/2 lb) cooked ground turkey which is seasoned with (1 tsp) cumin and (1 tsp) chili powder. Enjoy!!! 🙂
What size tortillas???
Kristen, 8" is what the nutritional data was calculated with.
Was the nutritional info calculated off of 8 or 6 servings? The instructions reference both.
ML, It's based on 6 servings. Where do you see 8? Thanks.
The flavor is great!! But next time I will do it in the oven for an hour— turns out to be a mucky but tasty mess!
Anna, That will work!
Did you use corn or flour tortillas? I'm planning to use corn, but if flour tortillas turn into mush, that might be a tragic mistake on my part. LOL
Jen, I used whole wheat flour tortillas and they worked fine. I haven't tried corn tortillas in the slow cooker yet. Keep us posted!
Any recommendation on how to keep the layers from sticking to each other? They are very tasty but it ends up being more of an enchilada lasagna because I can’t separate the layers.
Kristen, You could try adding a sheet of nonstick foil, then add sauce and top with enchiladas. Hope this helps!
Has anyone tried this using corn tortillas? That's what I'm used to making enchiladas with.
Jen, Corn tortillas work well too!
I used the corn and prefer them over the wheat, they held up fine and for me the texture was better.
This recipe sounds delicious! I am confused as to how to actually assemble them. The ingredients list (6) 8" tortillas; instructions say to roll the tortillas lengthwise; ingredients say there should be three layers (of rolled enchiladas?); and the instructions also say for a total of 8 tortillas. Can you please clarify the discrepancies? Thanks so much–I look forward to trying these!
Yes, it’s layers of rolled enchiladas. The number of layers, I assume, would vary depending on the size of your crockpot. I’m not sure if the recipe is meant for 6 or 8 enchiladas, but I’m making them tomorrow and I figure I will just fill tortillas until I run out of filling and then put them in the crockpot. The total number of tortillas used would probably vary depending on how full you want them too 🙂
Jen, Good answer! 🙂 Thanks.
Stacy, You're right…I must have been falling asleep when typing my recipe. Here it is with corrections: 🙂
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place chicken breast on the bone, with skin, in a covered baking dish, bake until juices run clear when pierced with a fork, about 45 minutes. Chicken should have reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees. Allow to cool. Remove skin and bones, discard. Shred chicken or cut into bite size cubes.
In a medium mixing bowl, add chicken, garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, black pepper and salt to taste. Add to seasoned chicken, green chile peppers, 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce, 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup cheese, mix well. Place 1/2 cup chicken mixture in the center of each tortilla, leave about 2” at the bottom without filling and fold up…continue until all tortillas are filled.
Lightly spray the bottom and sides of the slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Lay enchiladas seam side down in the slow cooker, add a little of the sauce below to each layer as you stack them. There should be 2 layers of 3 or 3 layers of 2, depending on the size of your slow cooker.
Combine the remaining enchilada sauce and 1/2 cup sour cream. Pour over the enchiladas, cover and cook on low 3-4 hours, or until hot and bubbly. Cut between each enchilada and carefully remove, one at a time, with a large spatula. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and any liquid still in the slow cooker, after removing enchiladas. Garnish with diced tomatoes and shredded lettuce.
WOW… new family fav for sure! Our store had NO fat free sour cream so I had to use low fat, other than that I stuck to the recipe. I had planned to use corn tortillas, but they kept breaking when I tried to roll them and I'm frankly not patient enough to make stuff work, so I went with the flour.
The only glitch I had is that I didn't put nearly enough enchilada sauce between the layers so they really stuck together. I think next time I will put a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan and put the enchilada sauce/sour cream mixture between the layers of enchiladas.
I've already been requested to make a double batch next time because everyone was very disappointed that the leftovers were gone so quickly 🙂
THANK YOU for this recipe! So easy and delicious.
For a side dish, I mixed some vegetarian refried beans with a little taco sauce, 2% shredded cheddar, and brown basmati rice. Great!!
Microwave the corn tortillas for 20-30 seconds before trying to roll them. It makes it more flexible
Another option that I love is layering the corn tortillas with the meat and sauce. It will end up more like a enchilada casserole then traditional enchiladas. I also sauteed shredded yellow squash, zucchini, and thinly sliced onions and added the veggie mix to the chicken/sauce mixture. This adds color and fiber to the meal.
Imani, Thanks for the tips!
This recipe sounds AMAZING! I'd love to know if it would work with corn tortillas!
Great flavor, but like others…it's a bit soggy in the slow cooker
after seeing this recipe, if i dont win a cookbook…i may just buy one! lol
WOW, my new fave. I LOVE tex-mex, and this more than satisfies all my cravings, plus I don't have to heat the kithcen!
my family loved when I made these enchiladas last week! An easy recipe to get a realy good mexican meal that is healthy!! We loved it and it will go on my "make again list"!
it will just put the corn one in micwave first then they wont fall apart