Crockpot White Chicken Enchiladas

These white chicken enchiladas in the crockpot are flour tortillas rolled around shredded cooked chicken and Monterey Jack, covered in a sour cream and green chile sauce, and cooked on low for just over 2 hours with cheese melted over the top at the end.

The sauce is a real white sauce, butter and flour cooked into a roux, thinned with chicken broth, and finished with sour cream and a can of diced green chiles. There is no cream of chicken soup anywhere in it.

Starting with cooked chicken is what makes the short cook time possible, and the short cook time is what keeps the tortillas from dissolving.

Expect about 3 hours start to finish, with 25 minutes of that at the stove and counter.

Why You’ll Love It

• Homemade sour cream and green chile sauce, no canned soup
• Uses a rotisserie chicken or any leftover cooked chicken
• 2 to 2.5 hours on low, not an all-day cook
• Oven stays free for the sides
• Serves 6 with 8 enchiladas

Ingredients

For the Sauce

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 cup full-fat sour cream

1 (4-ounce) can diced green chiles, undrained

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

For the Enchiladas

3 cups shredded cooked chicken (one rotisserie chicken, or 1 1/2 pounds poached breasts)

2 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack, divided

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

8 soft-taco-size flour tortillas, 8 inches

2 green onions, sliced, for serving

Chopped cilantro, for serving (optional)

Steps

1. Melt the butter in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle in the flour and whisk with a balloon whisk for 1 to 2 minutes until it smells toasty and looks like wet sand. Do not let it brown past pale blond or the sauce will taste nutty instead of clean.

2. Pour in the broth about 1/2 cup at a time, whisking each addition smooth before the next, then let it bubble for 3 to 4 minutes until it thickens enough to coat the whisk. Pull the pan off the heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.

3. Whisk in the sour cream, green chiles with their liquid, salt, cumin, and garlic powder. The 5-minute wait matters, because sour cream whisked into a boiling sauce can break into grainy curds, and there is no fixing it once it does.

4. In a large bowl, toss the chicken with 1 cup of the Monterey Jack, the black pepper, and 1/2 cup of the sauce so the filling holds together when you roll it.

5. Spread 1/2 cup of sauce across the bottom of a 6-quart oval slow cooker. Warm the tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds under a damp paper towel so they roll without cracking.

6. Spoon a scant 1/2 cup of filling down the center of each tortilla, roll it closed, and set it seam side down in the slow cooker. Six fit across the bottom of most oval inserts. Spoon 1/2 cup of sauce over that layer, then lay the last 2 on top crosswise.

7. Pour the remaining sauce over everything, making sure every bit of exposed tortilla is covered. Any dry edge sticking up above the sauce will turn hard and leathery.

8. Cover and cook on low for 2 hours. Do not go longer. Flour tortillas start breaking down after that, and by hour 4 you have a casserole with no edges.

9. Sprinkle the remaining 1 1/2 cups of Monterey Jack over the top, cover, and cook for 20 to 30 minutes more until the cheese is fully melted and the sauce is bubbling at the sides of the insert.

10. Turn the cooker off and let it sit uncovered for 10 minutes so the sauce tightens. Serve straight from the insert with a wide silicone spatula, sliding it under each enchilada, and top with green onions and cilantro.

Helpful Tips & Substitutions

Be clear about what you are getting. The tortillas come out soft and tender, closer to a layered enchilada casserole than the firm, slightly crisp-edged enchiladas from a 425°F (220°C) oven. They hold a rough shape on the spatula but will not lift cleanly with tongs. A slow cooker cannot brown anything, and most ceramic inserts are not broiler safe, so do not try to fix the top under the broiler unless your manual says the insert can take it.

Shred the cheese from a block with a box grater. Pre-shredded cheese is coated in starch that keeps it from melting into a smooth layer, and it matters more here than in an oven dish because there is no dry heat to force it.

Full-fat sour cream is not optional. Light sour cream has less fat and more stabilizers and is far more likely to curdle in a sauce held warm for 2 hours.

Flour tortillas are the right call for this sauce. Corn tortillas hold up better to long cooking but taste wrong with a sour cream sauce and crack when rolled cold. If you want firmer tortillas, use the thicker burrito-style flour tortillas and cut them down to 8 inches.

A rotisserie chicken gives you about 3 cups of meat once you pull it, and the mix of white and dark is better here than all breast. If you are poaching, simmer 1 1/2 pounds of boneless breasts in salted water for 15 to 18 minutes until they reach 165°F (74°C) on an instant-read thermometer, then shred while warm.

For more heat, use a can of hot green chiles or add 1 finely diced jalapeno to the filling. Mild canned chiles are more flavor than heat and most people will not find the base recipe spicy at all.

Pepper Jack in place of half the Monterey Jack adds heat without changing the texture. Cheddar works but turns the sauce orange and slightly grainy.

Serving Ideas

Serve two per person with a spoon of sauce from the bottom of the insert, since that is where the green chiles collect.

Cilantro-lime rice or black beans warmed with a pinch of cumin are the straightforward sides, and a sharp slaw with lime juice cuts the richness of the sauce.

Diced avocado, pickled red onion, or a spoon of salsa verde on top adds the acid the dish is missing on its own.

If you want the soup version of these flavors, the Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili uses the same green chiles and sour cream finish in a bowl instead of a tortilla.

To cook the chicken itself in the slow cooker the day before, 11 Crockpot Shredded Chicken Dinners for the Week covers the base method and what else to do with the extra.

For the red sauce and taco side of things, 11 Crockpot Mexican Chicken Dinners rounds out the week.

Make-Ahead & Storage

The sauce can be made up to 2 days ahead and refrigerated in a jar. It thickens in the fridge, so whisk in 2 to 3 tablespoons of broth before using it, and stir it over low heat only until it loosens, never to a boil.

The filling can be mixed the day before and kept in an airtight container. Roll the enchiladas right before cooking, not the night before, because tortillas sitting in a wet filling for 12 hours go gummy before they ever reach the cooker.

Leftovers keep 4 days in the fridge in an airtight container. The tortillas will soften further overnight, so expect something closer to a casserole on day two, which still tastes right even if it does not look as neat.

Reheat portions in the microwave at 70 percent power for 2 to 3 minutes, or in a covered baking dish at 325°F (165°C) for 20 minutes.

Freezing the cooked enchiladas is not recommended. Sour cream sauce separates when thawed and the tortillas turn to paste. Freeze the shredded chicken filling on its own for up to 3 months, and make the sauce fresh.

The sauce tightens as it cools in the insert, so if you are holding the finished dish on warm for guests, stir 1/4 cup of broth around the edges after the first hour to keep it from setting up.