Serve your enchiladas with rice and cornbread for a satisfying meal.

My neighbor and I cook together one night a week and serve dinner to four to eight people—more towards the smaller number since COVID hit.

Typically, we have both vegetarians and meat-eaters, which is why enchiladas are one of our favorite things to make. They are so versatile.

You can make them with a meat filling, like chicken. Or you can make them vegetarian.

With a few more alterations, they can be vegan or gluten-free.

You don’t even need a recipe to be honest. Think of this as guidelines, but use what you have.

Start by making the enchilada sauce.

Sauce:

Enough for 8-10 enchiladas

• 4 Tbsps. butter
• 2 Tbsps. flour
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 tsps. cumin
• 1 Tbsp. dried, crushed oregano
• 1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste

Melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add flour to make a roux. Cook for 2 minutes.

Whisk in broth. Continue to cook: add cumin, oregano and tomato paste.

Turn heat down to low and let sauce simmer, while you make enchiladas.

Vegetable enchilada filling:

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 1 raw sweet potato, diced
• 1 cup frozen corn
• 1 can (15-23 oz.) black beans, drained
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup Mexican blend shredded cheese

To assemble:

• 10-12 tortilla shells (flour are easier to roll up)
• 1 cup additional cheese
• Sliced black olives for garnish, optional
• Chopped fresh parsley or cilantro for garnish, if desired

In large frypan, heat oil and add diced onion, pepper and sweet potato. Cook until tender. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients and mix together.

Assemble your enchiladas. Cover bottom of 9-by-13-inch cake pan or similar-sized baking pan with sauce. Lay tortilla shells out on counter and spread a generous spoonful of filling mixture in a line down the middle of the tortilla, roll it up, and arrange the enchiladas seam side down in pan. Cover top of the enchiladas with sauce. Sprinkle on additional cheese.

Bake enchiladas in 350 F oven about 30-45 minutes until the enchiladas are cooked through and cheese is bubbling. Garnish with olives and parsley or cilantro if desired.

Chicken enchilada filling:

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 3 cups cooked, shredded chicken
• 1 cup salsa
• 1 cup Mexican blend shredded cheese

In large frypan, heat oil and add diced onion and pepper. Cook until tender. Remove from heat. Add remaining ingredients and mix together.

As I mentioned above, this easy chicken enchilada recipe is extremely flexible when it comes to ingredients.

So feel free to get creative and customize your chicken enchiladas however you like!

In general, you will need:

• Chicken: I typically just use diced boneless skinless chicken breasts. But feel free to use pre-cooked chicken (such as a shredded rotisserie or any leftover baked chicken) if you would like to save time.
• Onion and diced green chiles: Which we will add to the filling for seasoning.
• Beans: Black beans, pinto beans, white beans, or lentils would all work great here.
• Tortillas: Corn tortillas are traditional in enchiladas, but I typically use flour tortillas since they are much easier to roll. Any of your favorite tortillas will work though.
• Cheese: I like to use either Pepper Jack or Mexican-blend shredded cheese for these enchiladas. But cheddar, Monterrey Jack, or other shredded cheeses would also do.
• Toppings: Chopped fresh cilantro, sliced avocado, diced red onion, sour cream, crumbledcotija, or whatever else sounds good!

When it comes to enchilada toppings, the more the merrier. Finally, there is one more very important ingredient we must discuss…

The BEST Enchilada Sauce Recipe

This homemade enchilada sauce is my all-time favorite enchilada sauce, and it is quite literally the secret sauce that makes theseenchiladas the hands-down best.

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE

It tastes a million times better than anything in the can. It’s quick and easy to make on the stovetop while you prepare the rest of the enchiladas. And it’s made with super-simple ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry — oil, flour, a handful of spices, salt and stock.

Thousands of our readers have made this enchilada sauce over the years and agree that it’s the best. So it’s definitely worth the extra few minutes to whip up a batch from scratch.