Enchiladas have been a staple in our family for as long as I can remember. They happily feed a crowd. You can prep them ahead and just bake them right before they’re needed. They also make terrific leftovers (especially with eggs for breakfast). These salsa verde chicken enchiladas are one of my personal favorites! They’re filled with shredded chicken and smothered in a bright, tangy tomatillo salsa.
What Are Tomatillos?
Do you ever cook with tomatillos? They look like little lanterns, with their green papery husks. Sometimes people mistake them for green tomatoes (doesn’t help that their Spanish name is “tomate verde”); they are nightshades, like eggplants and peppers, and therefore distant cousins of tomatoes, but the taste is quite different.
Making Authentic Enchilada Salsa Verde (Green Sauce)
The tomatillos I grow in my garden here in Northern California ripen in September and October, but most of the tomatillos we get from the market come all year round from Mexico. When my tomatillos are ripe, I make a large batch of Mexican salsa verde, perfect for tortilla chips, great with eggs, and awesome in these enchiladas. For these chicken enchiladas, we are boiling the tomatillos to make the sauce, but you could easily roast or pan fry them. (Here’s a recipe for that method.)
How to Make Enchiladas Verdes
To make these enchiladas, we start by poaching and shredding chicken thighs for the filling; the deeper flavor of the dark meat holds up much better to the chili and tomatillo sauce than chicken breasts. We make the salsa verde by cooking tomatillos and puréeing them with chilis, onion, garlic, cilantro, and lime juice. You could also use already prepared bottled salsa verde. Next, we fry yellow corn tortillas to soften them and to bring out their flavor. Then it’s just rolling up the tortillas with some salsa tossed shredded chicken inside and lining up the rolled tortillas in a casserole dish. Cover with salsa verde and bake! That’s it. Scatter with plenty of toppings—cotija cheese, red onion, cilantro, and sour cream to serve.
More Enchilada Recipes to Try!
Red Chili Chicken Enchiladas Texas Stacked Enchiladas with Corn and Black Beans Creamy Cheesy Turkey Enchiladas Classic Enchiladas Turkey Black Bean Enchiladas
Packaged tortillas vary in their thickness and quality. Thicker corn tortillas will hold up better to frying than thin ones, which can tend to fall apart. Bring to a simmer, reduce the heat to very low to maintain the heat at just below a simmer, and cook, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the chicken is just barely cooked through. (Here are the step-by-step instructions for how to poach chicken.) Remove chicken thighs to a separate bowl and let cool enough to touch. Purée until blended, 15 to 30 seconds. Taste for heat. If not spicy enough add another chili pepper (it doesn’t have to be cooked). Add more salt to taste if necessary. You should have about 3 cups of salsa. Shred the meat with a fork or knife. Put the chicken in a bowl and add 1/2 cup of the tomatillo sauce to the chicken. Taste the chicken; if it needs salt, add a little. You can keep going, stacking corn tortillas on top of the tortillas that appear to have excess oil. This way the new tortillas absorb some of the excess fat from the other tortillas. When the tortillas are heated through, remove them to a plate lined with paper towel. Add a more oil to the pan as needed, and continue to heat through and soften all of the tortillas. Let some of the sauce go between the rolled up tortillas so that it gets to the bottom of the pan. Thin the sour cream with a tablespoon of water and drizzle all over the top of the enchiladas. (Don’t skip the sour cream! It’s essential to balance the sharp acidity of the salsa verde.) Serve immediately.
