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    🏠Home » Recipes » Mexican Recipes

    Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole in 60 Minutes

    Mar 4, 2020 | Last Updated Feb 18, 2022 by Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

    Recipe Table of Contents    
    4.42 from 80 votes

    Easy chicken enchilada casserole features homemade enchilada sauce, fresh chicken, plus it is done in 60 minutes. That equals a great Mexican recipe for a healthy dinner "from scratch.” No pre-cooked chicken or canned enchilada sauce is needed.

    Chicken Enchilada Casserole on a plate

    Table of Contents
    • 📋Ingredients
    • ✔️Tips
    • 📖Tex-Mex Casseroles
    • 🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions
    • 📖Recipe
    • 💬 Comments

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    Introduction

    So, are you bored with your New Year's diet yet? I'm here to rescue you from boredom at only 300 calories per serving.

    We all love good Mexican, but it can be evil on the health-o-meter. But it doesn't have to be. By using lower fat cheese, corn tortillas, and well-trimmed chicken, this recipe comes in at about 276 calories and 8 grams of fat per serving.

    My wife will give me hints about what to cook next. Mild hint requires looking at her Pinterest posts. Strong hints I will refer to as "Yum-o-grams," which are emails starting with the Y-U-M phrase.

    The best yum-o-grams will have a link to a blog I usually read anyways. This one linked to Jo Cooks, a blog I have enjoyed. Similar recipes have been around the blogs, and all use canned enchilada sauce. I much prefer my homemade enchilada sauce. So I adapted the recipe to my tastes and made it a little healthier at the same time.

    I usually make enchiladas with a rolled method. Much fussier and messier. This is so much easier.

    My Rating

    My rating system. Great 5 out of 5

    A 5 from my wife. I was between a four and a five, but I'm good with the 5. She even said she might make it herself, so you know it's good.

    📋Ingredients

    Chicken

    I suggest using fresh skinless boneless chicken breast for this recipe. I then trim and simmer the chicken in the homemade sauce until 165°. Shred, and you are ready to proceed with your chicken and sauce, both ready to use.

    You can also use chicken thighs, but that destroys the "low fat" part of the recipe.

    You can use precooked chicken. If you're aiming for low calorie, obviously use chicken breasts. You need about 3 cups, which will be about 1 ½ pounds. If you do the precooked chicken, you only need to simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes before assembly.

    Sauce

    Most similar recipes will suggest canned enchilada sauce - that is disgusting. We are going to make our own with my Homemade Enchilada Sauce, which is as easy as it is tasty.

    One huge positive is that you can cook the chicken in the simmering sauce. I do love a recipe that flows.

    If you insist, you can use the canned sauce, but please don't do that.

    Cheese

    I suggest using lower fat Mexican blend cheese. The lower fat cheese saves about 4 gms of fat per serving, so about 36 calories. That is not a huge amount, but I was aiming for low fat here.

    So, use the cheese you want, non-low-fat is fine. I never suggest fat-free cheese. It never acts right in cooking.

    ✔️Tips

    Tortillas: I suggest corn tortillas, but flour is fine.

    Add-ins: corn, black beans, or whatever you want.

    Storage: Good refrigerated for 3-4 days. It should also freeze well when sealed well for 3-4 months.

    📖Tex-Mex Casseroles

    Easy Taco Casserole

    Easy Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

    Excellent Chicken Enchilada Casserole

    Crock Pot Southwest Chicken Casserole

    Crock Pot Chicken Enchilada Casserole

    This recipe is listed in these categories. See them for more similar recipes.

    101's Best Recipes, Casserole Recipes, Healthy Recipes, Low Fat Recipes, Mexican Recipes
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    🖼️Step-by-Step Photo Instructions

    raw chicken with ingredients for Enchilada Casserole

    Start by preheating the oven to 350° convection or 375° conventional.

    trimmed chicken breasts cut into chunks on black board

    Trim two skinless boneless chicken breast and cut into three pieces each. These vary a lot in size. Aim for about 1 ½ pound, but anywhere from 1 to 2 pounds total should be fine.

    sauce pan with sauce and chicken

    In a medium saucepan, add one 15 oz. can tomato sauce, one tablespoon chili powder, one teaspoon paprika, one teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon cumin, one teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper. Mix well. Add the chicken and bring to boil over medium-high heat—cover and decrease to simmer for 20 minutes.

    shredded chicken in three piles on white board

    Check the temperature of the chicken to be sure it is 165° or more. Remove to cutting board and shred. Divide into three equal piles.

    adding tortillas to bottom of pan

    Prep an approximately 10X7 baking pan with PAM. Spoon two tablespoons of the sauce over the bottom of the baking pan—layer two 6 inch corn tortillas over the sauce.

    sprinkling shredded cheese over the casserole

    Add ⅓ of chicken. Then ⅓ of the sauce (about ⅔ cup). Then ⅔ cup cheese. Repeat this layering twice more.

    casserole covered with cheese ready for oven

    Bake until a golden brown top - about 20 minutes.

    nicely browned casserole in dish
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    📖Recipe

    image of Chicken Enchilada Casserole on a plate

    Easy Chicken Enchilada Casserole in 60 Minutes

    From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
    Easy chicken enchilada casserole features homemade enchilada sauce, fresh chicken, plus it is done in 60 minutes. That equals a great Mexican recipe for a healthy dinner "from scratch.” No pre-cooked chicken or canned enchilada sauce is needed.
    Tap to leave a Rating
    4.42 from 80 votes
    Print Email CollectionCollected
    Prep Time: 40 minutes
    Cook Time: 20 minutes
    Total Time: 1 hour
    Servings #/Adjust if desired 6

    Ingredients

    US Customary - Convert to Metric
    • 2 skinless boneless chicken breasts
    • 15 oz tomato sauce
    • 1 tablespoon chili powder
    • 1 teaspoon paprika
    • 1 teaspoon onion powder
    • ½ teaspoon garlic powder
    • ½ teaspoon cumin
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • ½ teaspoon pepper
    • 6 corn tortillas - 6 inch
    • 2 cups cheese - Lower fat suggested

    Instructions

    • Start by preheating the oven to 350° convection or 375° conventional.
    • Trim two skinless boneless chicken breast and cut into three pieces each. These vary a lot in size. Aim for about 1 ½ pound, but anywhere from 1 to 2 pounds total should be fine.
    • In a medium saucepan, add one 15 oz. can tomato sauce, one tablespoon chili powder, one teaspoon paprika, one teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon cumin, one teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon pepper. Mix well. Add the chicken and bring to boil over medium-high heat—cover and decrease to simmer for 20 minutes.
    • Check the temperature of the chicken to be sure it is 165° or more. Remove to cutting board and shred. Divide into three equal piles.
    • Prep an approximately 6X9 baking pan with PAM. Spoon two tablespoons of the sauce over the bottom of the baking pan—layer two 6 inch corn tortillas over the sauce.
    • Add ⅓ of chicken. Then ⅓ of the sauce (about ⅔ cup). Then ⅔ cup cheese. Repeat this layering twice more.
    • Bake until a golden brown top - about 20 minutes.
    See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

    My Private Notes

    Click here to save your own private notes only you will see. These will print and be saved for your next visit.
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    Recipe Notes

    Pro Tips

    1. Easy to double in size using a standard large casserole dish or cake pan.
    2. You need anywhere from 1-2 pounds of chicken depending on how much meat you want.
    3. I call for fresh skinless boneless chicken breasts but thighs will work.
    4. You can use precooked chicken. You will need about 3 cups. Don’t add it to the sauce and cut the simmering of the sauce down to 10 minutes.
    5. You could use canned sauce but please don’t do that.
    6. You can add some drained cooked beans or corn.
    7. You can use flour tortillas if you want
    8. Use cheese of your choice.
    9. Will be good refrigerated for 3-4 days or frozen for 3-4 months.

    To adjust the recipe size:

    You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

    Nutrition Estimate

    Calories : 276 kcal (14%) | Carbohydrates : 17 g (6%) | Protein : 20 g (40%) | Fat : 15 g (23%) | Saturated Fat : 8 g (40%) | Cholesterol : 64 mg (21%) | Sodium : 1071 mg (45%) | Potassium : 493 mg (14%) | Fiber : 3 g (12%) | Sugar : 4 g (4%) | Vitamin A : 1255 IU (25%) | Vitamin C : 5 mg (6%) | Calcium : 308 mg (31%) | Iron : 2 mg (11%)
    Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
    Course : Main Course
    Cuisine : Mexican

    © 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.

    Originally Published February 3, 2015. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

    Molly and Lilly at Play in the yard
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Michelle

      February 03, 2017 at 4:50 pm

      Hi. If I use shredded rotisserie chicken instead, would you suggest I just warm the chicken in the sauce before assembling the casserole? I just always find that rotisserie chicken is so much more moist, tender and flavorful than whole breasts that have been simmered in anything. Thank you! Going to make this and your spicy taco meat for super bowl Sunday!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        February 03, 2017 at 7:05 pm

        Yep, just toss it in near the end of the 20 minutes. I will say that the chicken cooked this way is moist and tender. You can also sub in skinless chicken thighs if you want.
        Dan

    2. Leslie

      January 25, 2017 at 11:10 pm

      Thanks, I will make your cheesy chicken broccoli instead. My cooking skills have greatly improved with the help of your blog, however I don't want to experiment on my company!

      Reply
    3. Leslie

      January 24, 2017 at 10:58 pm

      I have made this before really good and easy, 5 star recipe. Do you have a arroz con pollo recipe? I am having coming this weekend, I am planning to make your crock pot ribs Friday (look delicious), but they love arroz con pollo and I would love to make it for them this Saturday. Thank you, leslie

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 24, 2017 at 11:13 pm

        Hi Leslie,
        No, I don't have a recipe for Arroz Con Pollo. I have seen recipes and it looks like a recipe I would do and like but have never tried it live so I generally like to try a classic recipe at a restaurant before doing it so I have a comparison.

        Dan

    4. Sandra

      January 20, 2017 at 8:57 am

      Home made enchilada sauce is the way to go. Delish.

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 20, 2017 at 9:06 am

        It does make a huge difference.
        Thanks for the note.
        Dan

    5. marms

      January 19, 2017 at 5:49 pm

      I haven't made it yet, but I *know* I'm a-gunna love this. Too bad about the low calorie and low fat count I'll have to fix that, since I'm on a low carb diet that means I use full fat everything, sometimes when it's not even in the recipe. Yeee haw. I have lost 26 lbs.

      I just knew when I saw your site I would love everything here. I don't see anything I wouldn't make,with above amendements of course.

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 19, 2017 at 6:27 pm

        Hi Marms, Yes you can modify it... Get some of those low carb tortillas and cheese it up.

        Welcome to the site, and I believe there is a low carb category.
        Dan

    6. laurajay

      January 19, 2017 at 4:19 pm

      That dish looks yummy I cannot wait to try- likely next week. Its a Dr Dan cook fest, ham and bean soup tomorrow, flourless chocolate cake Saturday and I am sure more!. Thanks for the recipes and cooking real food!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 19, 2017 at 7:07 pm

        Thanks for the note. You picked some winners there. Leave some cake for me.
        Dan

    7. Lexy

      November 20, 2016 at 10:39 pm

      5 stars. It was very tasty!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        November 20, 2016 at 10:52 pm

        Thanks so much for the comment. This is my go to for healthy easy Mexican.

        DrDan

    8. Ken Sullivan

      January 24, 2016 at 4:58 pm

      This looks great, but I don't care about healthy and would rather use ground beef and roll the tortillas. My mother used to make it ages ago and it was great but the recipe has been lost since she passed.
      I was wondering if you would have a recipe for it.
      I could eat the whole pan

      Reply
      • DrDan

        January 24, 2016 at 8:25 pm

        I'll check but it seems like my spicy taco meat would do.

        DrDan

    9. Dea Varner

      July 02, 2015 at 7:34 pm

      5 stars
      This casserole was fabulous!!! My husband who has been on a health kick for the last year and has lost weight and become quite fit, deemed it worthy of a repeat performance!!! He told me I'd better keep it in the rotation of recipes! The only thing I changed was to add some black beans to the casserole.. the hubby is all about plenty of protein and the added beans did that. We don't usually eat corn tortillas but after eating this we've decided they are waay better than the flour! This makes the third or fourth recipe of yours that we've added to our repertoire, so thank you for your awesome recipes!!!

      Reply
    10. JoAnne

      June 25, 2015 at 4:43 pm

      5 stars
      Made this for supper tonight - SO GOOD. My husband, who is beyond picky, loved it. Glad I made an extra-large batch!

      Reply
      • DrDan

        June 26, 2015 at 10:25 pm

        Thanks for the comment and rating... Molly and Lilly say thanks also.

        Dan

    11. JoAnne

      June 25, 2015 at 12:41 pm

      This looks delish, and I'm making it for supper tonight. Molly and Lilly are just gorgeous, by the way. :-)

      Reply
    12. Bridget

      June 10, 2015 at 12:11 pm

      4 stars
      I made this for the first time last night. I don't know what I did wrong but there wasn't nearly enough sauce, and it was super thick . So it was hard to spread out. I did double check the recipe afterwards AND checked the size of my tomato sauce can. Any ideas? It was still really yummy! I happened to have a premade enchilada sauce in my pantry, so I just heated it up and some of us added it on top.

      Reply
      • DrDan

        June 10, 2015 at 6:01 pm

        Hummm....
        There should be just over 2 cups of sauce. You add 15 oz of tomato sauce and the chicken releases a little. So your liquid went somewhere. I have two possibilities that come to mind. First the chicken being "dehydrated" to begin with. Frozen a little to long somewhere could do that and of course freezer burnt chicken. Second would be you lost moisture during simmering. The lid was too loose or burner temp too high. Opps almost forgot my most common cause of this sort of thing, measurement error.
        Try it again... my sauce is much better than the canned stuff.

        DrDan

      • Bridget

        June 12, 2015 at 5:12 pm

        I will definitely try again! As I said, it was really good- all leftovers got eaten too. Thx

      • Dan

        February 12, 2016 at 12:22 pm

        Super thick? Did you get the chunky spaghetti sauce? Just use plain old tomato sauce. It's just blended up tomatoes with nothing fancy added.

    13. Audra

      June 08, 2015 at 10:52 pm

      5 stars
      Delicious! If you're in to food prep (I am about to have a baby so food prep is my life right now), I suggest doubling the recipe and making two separate batches, one to eat right away and another to freeze. I also added black beans for some extra nutritional value. It would be easy to add other vegetables, too- I may throw some corn in next time. Easy and turned out great!

      Reply
    14. jeneva

      May 18, 2015 at 5:56 pm

      So we're cooking the chicken in the sauce? did you use a slotted spoon to get the chicken and then a ladle to pour the sauce?

      Reply
    15. Brenda Biggars

      March 11, 2015 at 2:33 pm

      5 stars
      I doubled this and made it in a 13X9 pan since we like leftovers and it is Delicious! Tastes just like chicken enchiladas and so much easier. I made it on Saturday and my son took the last piece for lunch on Tuesday. Will definitely make again!!

      Reply
    16. Tracy

      February 17, 2015 at 10:58 am

      Cant wait to try this recipe! I am a sucker for Mexican food and this looks delicious! And its Healthy too!

      Reply
    17. Chris

      February 13, 2015 at 9:33 am

      I'm with you. First, I love enchiladas. Second, I much prefer making my own sauces, red or green.

      Reply
    18. Caitlin

      February 09, 2015 at 11:48 am

      Thank you; this looks delicious! I'm wondering about how it stores in the fridge. I would like to make a batch and take to work over the week. Do you think this would work well?

      Reply
      • DrDan

        February 09, 2015 at 12:36 pm

        We do lots of leftovers but usually in 1-2 days. Day 3 is "iffy". I would freeze individual servings for anything past 2 days.
        DrDan

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