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I have a quick and easy weeknight chicken enchiladas recipe made just for YOU. The real difference-maker? It’s made in a single cast iron skillet for less cleanup. You can sauté the chicken in a cast iron skillet, transfer to a bowl, assemble your enchiladas, and then throw those hot tamales back in the skillet for baking.
Enchiladas are a cheesy, gooey favorite of ours. They’re typically made with chicken or beef, but for me, “real” enchiladas are made with chicken. Lastly, they go exceptionally well with guacamole and classic margaritas.
Skillet Enchiladas
To create the enchilada filling, I drew inspiration from my go-to chicken chimichanga recipe. All wrapped up in a flour burrito-sized tortilla. The enchilada filling consists of:
- Diced seasoned chicken
- Low sodium black beans (rinsed)
- Chopped green chilies (canned)
- Green onions
- Mexican blend of cheeses
- Mild or hot (your call) red enchilada sauce)
Chicken Prep Is Important!
It’s so important so dice the chicken into small bite-sized pieces. I shoot for the size of playing dice. Too large, and the enchiladas will the chewy and gross. You ultimately want them to melt in your mouth.
We’ll fully cook the chicken first in the skillet, then add chiles, green onions, and spices.
From here I transfer everything out of the skillet and assemble each enchilada burrito with the chicken, black beans, cheese and enchilada sauce. Tightly roll and transfer back to the skillet on top of a layer of enchilada sauce.
Topping It All Off
Enchiladas are finished with more mild red enchilada sauce (this is important), a heaping layer of cheese, and a generous dollop of guacamole just before serving. The guacamole is a recent addition of mine, I’ve paired guac with just about everything except enchiladas. Why? I don’t know—but it’s insanely good and I recommend you give it a try.
Skillet Chicken Enchiladas Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 25 mins
- Total Time: 35 mins
- Yield: 2–3 1x
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
Spicy chicken enchiladas made in a cast iron skillet with seasoned chicken, black beans, chopped green chilies, green onions, and a Mexican blend of cheese.
Ingredients
- 5 large burrito flour tortillas
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced small
- 2 10 ounce cans mild or hot red enchilada sauce
- 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
- 1 15.5 ounce can black beans, rinsed
- 4.5 ounce can chopped green chilis
- 1/4 cup green onions, plus 2 tablespoons for garnish, chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chile powder
- salt and pepper to taste
- Guacamole or sour cream for topping if desired.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F.
- Cut chicken breasts into small bite sized chunks. I typically cut into half inch cubes.
- Bring a 12 inch cast iron skillet to medium-high heat and add olive oil. Sauté chicken, green onions, green chilis, cumin, salt, and pepper until chicken is fully cooked. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
- Add 1/2 a cup of enchilada sauce to the now empty cast iron skillet, set aside.
- Spread 2 tablespoons of enchilada sauce down the center of each tortilla, spread 1/2 cup of chicken mixture, sprinkle with 1-2 tablespoons black beans, and top with 1-2 tablespoons cheese. Wrap tortillas tightly and place seem down in the cast iron skillet on top of the enchilada sauce.
- Top with remaining enchilada sauce and sprinkle with a cup of cheese.
- Bake 20 to 25 minutes, garnish with green onions and guacamole when serving.
Notes
My only tip would be to not skimp on the enchilada sauce. It’s what makes enchiladas tender, creamy, and delicious. Look for mild enchilada sauce for less heat.
Keywords: chicken enchiladas, skillet enchiladas
Found your recipe on Pinterest when I was looking for something to grill on our Traeger using a cast iron skillet. The recipe looked scrumptious and I had everything at home so looked no further. It turned out delicious and so easy to make. The only other thing I added was sliced black olives and then topped with sour cream instead of guacamole.
Thanks Deb! Glad you found me 😉
You don’t need to cover with foil before baking?
Nope!
This recipe was fantastic! I just purchased my first cast iron skillet and this was the first thing I made with it – I used rotisserie chicken (because I’m super lazy and love the pre-handpulled version from Costco…ha!) and this was the easiest recipe for an impromtu dinner party. Thanks for posting!!
★★★★★
Thanks Sarah – good idea with the rotisserie chicken! That’s perfect. Will have to try that myself.
Once again, you nailed it Shawn! Absolutely delicious, and so easy! Our new favorite!
We prepared the chicken enchiladas tonight. This recipe turned out beautifully and tasted delicious. We made our own enchilada sauce and it lends itself nicely to this dish. We forgot to take a picture of the finished result (we were really hungry). . This is definitely going to be in our dinner recipe rotation. Can’t wait to try more of @kitchenswagger recipes.
Just want to point out the flour is misspelled in the recipe..
You mean you’ve never heard of flower tortillas?! Good call – thanks for the note.
You have totally won me over!!! I stumbled upon your blog via Pinterest in my search for a filet mignon recipe….and have been no further since Sunday. “Black Iron” has never seen so much use in all his tenure with us, (we’ll just say years). Steaks were to perfection, Monday saw us devouring the Chicken Pesto Panini, Tuesday’s Chicken Parmesan would make one want to smack your mama and these here enchiladas with the guac…YES, YES AND YES!! To top it all off, clean up has been a breeze, my 15 year old son is appreciative he is definitely a fan of the name. Beautiful blog, photography, story telling and easy meals, I have enjoyed every minute! Many thanks!
★★★★★
Thanks so much for the kind note Karrie – so glad you’re cruising your way through the blog. Bring that cast iron back to life – I love mine. Glad to hear your son appreciates the name! Thanks again.