Home-style recipes from around the world

EN
A plate of baked enchiladas covered in green tomatillo sauce, topped with white crema, crumbled cheese and chopped onion
Prep15 min
Cook55 min
Serves6 servings
CuisineMexican
North America

Enchiladas Verdes: Chicken Rolled in Tortillas with Green Tomatillo Sauce

How to make Mexican enchiladas verdes with a green sauce of tomatillos and chiles, corn tortillas and shredded chicken. Covers the heat that deepens the sauce, softening tortillas so they don't crack, oven time, canned tomatillos and cheese substitutes, and the origin of the name.

Total: 1 hr 10 minLevel: Beginner

Cooking flow

Cooking steps

STEP 11 / 7

Boil the tomatillos and garlic

10 min

Tomatillos and garlic boiling in a pot, the fruit turning a pale green
Turn off the heat while the color has turned pale green and the fruit still holds its shape

Put 900 g husked tomatillos and 2 garlic cloves in a pot, add water to just cover, and bring to a medium to medium-high heat. When it boils, lower to medium and boil for about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat when the fruit changes from bright green to a pale, muted green and is soft through while still holding its shape. If you boil until the skins burst and collapse, the sauce turns watery. If you are using canned tomatillos, skip this step.

STEP 22 / 7

Blend until smooth

2 min

Tomatillos, cilantro and green chiles blended into a smooth green sauce in the blender
Blend until no bits are visible and it is a smooth, bright green

Put the boiled tomatillos and garlic in a blender with 1/2 cup of the cooking water and blend for about 30 seconds into a purée. Add 2 green chiles, 1 cup cilantro, 1/4 cup white onion and 1 tsp salt, and blend for about 1 more minute until smooth. When blending hot ingredients, hold the lid down with a kitchen towel and blend in short bursts. The contents can spurt out.

STEP 33 / 7

Reduce the sauce in oil

6 min

Green sauce bubbling in a pot, its color deepening
Cook until the sauce thickens and turns a deeper green

Heat 1 tbsp vegetable oil in a pot over medium to medium-high heat until just short of smoking. Pour in the sauce all at once (stand back a little from the pot, because it spatters). When it begins to bubble, lower to medium and simmer for about 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. It is done when it has thickened slightly and the green has deepened a shade. Taste, and add salt if needed.

STEP 44 / 7

Pass the tortillas through oil

10 min

Softening corn tortillas in shallow oil in a skillet, turning them over
Take them out when, after about 15 seconds per side, they bend limply

Pour frying oil about 1.3 cm deep into a large skillet and warm it over medium heat for about 3 minutes. Add the tortillas one at a time, turn them after about 15 seconds on each side so both sides pass through the oil, and transfer them to a plate lined with paper towels. The aim is not to fry them crisp but to make them soft enough to fold without cracking. If they turn crisp and stiff, the oil is too hot, so lower the heat a little.

STEP 55 / 7

Roll the chicken and arrange in a baking dish

10 min

Rolling chicken in tortillas and arranging them seam side down in a baking dish
Seam side down and packed with no gaps, they won't open

Start preheating the oven to 190°C. Put 2 to 3 tablespoons of shredded chicken on each tortilla and roll it up from one edge. Arrange the rolls seam side down, tightly packed, in a baking dish, and they won't unroll as they bake. If the tortillas cool and stiffen, brush on a little sauce to soften them again.

STEP 66 / 7

Pour on the sauce and bake

10–15 min

Enchiladas in a baking dish covered in green sauce, baked until the edges bubble
Done when the edges of the sauce are bubbling

Pour plenty of green sauce over the arranged enchiladas so the tortillas are fully covered. Bake in the preheated 190°C oven for 10 to 15 minutes. They are done when the edges of the sauce bubble, the thick sauce clings to the tortillas and they are hot through. If baked too long, the tortillas soak up the sauce and go limp, so do not go past 15 minutes.

STEP 77 / 7

Add the crema and cheese

2 min

Crumbled cheese, sour cream and chopped onion on freshly baked enchiladas
Right after baking, add the cheese, then the cream, then the onion

Take the dish out of the oven and, while it is hot, scatter 1/2 cup crumbled fresh cheese, drizzle 1/2 cup sour cream in thin lines, and top with 1/3 cup white onion chopped into pieces about 5 mm square. The contrast of white and green is the face of this dish, so plate it right after baking. Left to sit, the tortillas soak up the sauce and get too soft.

0 / 0
Ingredients

Ingredients

1 / 2

Green sauce

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Tomatillos 900 g If fresh, remove the husks and rinse. If canned, drain and use them, skipping the boiling step
Garlic 2 cloves Peeled
Green chiles (serrano) 2 If you can't find serrano, use fresh jalapeño or another green chile. Adjust the amount to the heat
Cilantro 1 cup Mostly leaves, lightly packed when measuring
White onion 1/4 cup Roughly chopped. Regular onion is fine
Salt 1 tsp Taste and adjust
Vegetable oil 1 tbsp Safflower or corn oil
2 / 2

Enchiladas

Ingredient Amount Substitutes & notes
Corn tortillas 12 White corn, about 15 cm across. If frozen, thaw first
Cooked chicken (shredded) 2 cups About 300 g. Poached chicken, a ready-cooked chicken breast, rotisserie chicken, etc.
Frying oil 1.3 cm deep Adjust to the size of the skillet
Sour cream 1/2 cup Stands in for Mexican crema. Heavy cream also works
Fresh cheese 1/2 cup Stands in for queso fresco. Cottage cheese or a mild feta
White onion (garnish) 1/3 cup Finely chopped
0 / 0

Peel back the papery husk and a glossy fruit like a small green tomato appears. This is the Mexican tomatillo (also called tomate verde, "green tomato," in Mexico). Boil it, then blend it with fresh green chiles and cilantro, and you get a bright, tangy green sauce. Pour plenty of that sauce over tortillas rolled around chicken, top with white crema and cheese, and you have enchiladas verdes (green enchiladas).

A tortilla dish named for "coated with chile"

Green enchiladas with a plate of beans and rice on the table of a Mexican eatery

Enchilada is the past participle of the Mexican Spanish verb enchilar, "to add chile." The English-language Wikipedia presents this as the Royal Spanish Academy's explanation, and the name itself says that this is a dish dressed in chile sauce. In Nahuatl (the language of the Aztecs) it is called chīllapītzalli, said to combine the words for "chile" and "flute," a name that likens the rolled tortilla to a flute.

The habit of wrapping food in corn tortillas is very old. The people who lived on the shores of the lakes of the Valley of Mexico are said to have eaten small fish rolled in tortillas. The name enchilada already appears in the 1831 cookbook El cocinero mexicano and in Mariano Galván Rivera's 1845 Diccionario de Cocina. It began as street food, reportedly nothing more than a tortilla dipped in chile sauce, with no filling rolled inside.

Good to know

Even among enchiladas, the sauce changes the name. Those made with a white sauce of milk or cream are called enchiladas suizas ("Swiss-style"), a name said to come from the Swiss immigrants who began dairy farming in Mexico. Enchiladas potosinas from San Luis Potosí are made with a chile-flavored dough stuffed with cheese.

Among that family, green enchiladas are a dish especially loved in homes and eateries. The classic form is a white corn tortilla rolled around boiled chicken breast, covered in salsa verde (green sauce) and topped with queso fresco (fresh cheese). Compared with red chile sauces, it has a lighter taste in which the tomatillo's tartness comes forward, and each household adjusts the heat with the amount of green chile.

Ingredients (serves 6)

Tomatillos, green chiles, cilantro, garlic, white onion, corn tortillas, shredded chicken, crema and cheese laid out as ingredients

Based on a recipe (serves 6 to 8) by the Mexican-born cook Pati Jinich, with substitutes for ingredients that can be hard to find.

Fresh tomatillos can be hard to find outside Mexican and Latin American markets. The easiest to get are canned tomatillos, which are already cooked, so you can drain them and blend them as they are. Pati Jinich, replying to readers who can't find fresh ones, recommends canned as "very good."

Tip

Corn tortillas can be bought frozen or shelf-stable at Latin American grocers or online. Flour tortillas will roll too, but the aroma of corn is what makes this dish itself, so choose corn if you can.

Allergy note

Fresh cheese and sour cream are dairy. Flour tortillas contain wheat. If you have an allergy, check the ingredient label before choosing.

How to make enchiladas verdes

Prep (husking the tomatillos, preparing the onion and cilantro, shredding the chicken) takes about 15 minutes. Cooking totals about 55 minutes (10 minutes boiling the tomatillos, 2 minutes blending, 6 minutes reducing the sauce, 10 minutes preparing the tortillas, 10 minutes rolling while the oven preheats, 15 minutes baking, 2 minutes finishing), for about 1 hour 10 minutes overall.

Caution

Step 4 involves hot oil, even though it is shallow. Tortillas have little moisture, so large splatters are rare, but use tongs and don't walk away. Take care of splatter, too, when you pour the sauce into hot oil in step 3.

Tip

The heat comes from the amount of green chile. If you don't like spicy food, start with 1, taste after blending, and add more if needed. Removing the seeds and pith lowers the heat while keeping the aroma.

From a Mexican kitchen to a home kitchen

Preparing to make enchiladas at home with canned tomatillos and store-bought tortillas

In the ingredient list, tomatillos are the only thing with no substitute. Replying to a reader, Pati Jinich says there is nothing close to tomatillos and that green tomatoes will not do. By contrast, chicken and cheese can be substituted without trouble. Her recipe says the chicken can be boiled at home or be store-bought rotisserie chicken. If you buy ready-cooked chicken breast, you only need to shred it, with no poaching.

There is also range from household to household in how it is made. The recipe from the eatery La Flor de Lis, presented by the Mexican travel and culture magazine México Desconocido, fries the chicken-filled tortillas in oil, dips them for about a minute in warmed green sauce, plates them, and serves them with refried beans, crema and cheese. Since it skips the oven, the time in the sauce decides how soft they get.

For sides, as in Pati Jinich's recipe, rice, beans and a light green salad go well. Leftover sauce can also be used for chilaquiles or taquitos.

FAQ

Putting leftover green sauce in a lidded container and storing it in the refrigerator

Can I use bell peppers or green tomatoes instead of tomatillos?

I don't recommend it. Pati Jinich also says there is nothing close to tomatillos and that green tomatoes will not do. If you can't find fresh ones, use canned tomatillos.

What if I don't have an oven?

You can make them in a toaster oven or a skillet. In a skillet, put the chicken-rolled tortillas into warmed sauce, heat them over low heat for a few minutes, plate them, and spoon sauce over the top. The result is softer than when baked in the oven.

Can I make it the day before?

Only the green sauce can be made a day ahead. If you leave rolled tortillas sitting under sauce, they soak it up and fall apart easily, so roll and bake just before eating.

I'd like to keep the heat down.

Use 1 green chile, or remove the seeds and pith. A generous topping of sour cream at the end softens the mouthfeel further.

Sources