Ingredient notes

• Corn tortillas: I highly recommend using corn tortillas in this recipe, they are sturdier than flour tortillas and will hold up better in the casserole with the sauce added. I love flour tortillas for dishes like chicken quesadillas, but I always use corn tortillas for my red chicken enchiladas.
• Shredded chicken: Feel free to use store-bought shredded chicken, or shred a rotisserie chicken for convenience. You can also roast a whole chicken yourself if you catch one on sale – it yields amazing flavor! Or make shredded chicken on the stove.
• Enchilada sauce: I used my homemade enchilada sauce, but canned is perfectly fine!
• Black beans: If you want to cook your own black beans, I highly recommend making them in the instant pot!
• Cheese: I used a Mexican cheese blend, but a cheddar blend or Monterey Jack are also great.
• Onion: White onion is my favorite for this recipe, but yellow or even red both work, too.
• Green chiles: If you have very young children or family members very sensitive to spicy food, I recommend leaving these out (despite being called mild, my 2/4/6 year old children don’t tolerate them well). If you leave them out, I very highly recommend adding 2-3 tablespoons of white vinegar or pickle juice to the enchilada filling, to balance the flavors.

Recipe tips

• Do not skip spreading some sauce in the bottom of your dish, otherwise your enchiladas may come out too dry.
• There may be more complicated/thorough/authentic methods to roll up chicken enchiladas – but I’m usually just too short on time, so I do them quick and dirty like shown in the pictures above. I just tuck the ends a little once they are in the dish, to keep the filling from oozing out. I find this works just fine for this very busy and tired season I am in. Feel free to roll yours more professionally. I will too, once I no longer cook with a toddler glued to me ?
• The enchiladas are very snug in the casserole dish, which is important. That way, they stay rolled up and the filling doesn’t have much space to fall out.
• If you’re using canned enchilada sauce, you’ll be an ounce or two short compared to homemade sauce. I recommend you only spread ⅓ cup (vs ½ cup) of sauce in the dish initially, otherwise you will not have enough left to spread over the assembled enchiladas.

Make ahead tips

Freezer instructions