Stacked Chicken Enchiladas
Your entire family will love these Stacked Chicken Enchiladas, made with chicken, green enchilada sauce, and lots of cheese, so you can throw them together in a few minutes on a busy weeknight!
❤️ Why You’ll Love This Recipe: Part of our 3-for-1 recipe series, these easy green enchiladas are a cinch to throw together, made with store-bought sauce and cheese and with chicken prepped days in advance. With this strategy, you’ll only be a few minutes from a healthy and satisfying lunch or dinner.
I’m always looking for ways to speed up prep time. And one of my favorite strategies is to prep a big batch of diced chicken in the Instant Pot ahead of time. Then I can throw together these cheesy enchiladas for family dinner in minutes.
Other Instant Pot 3-for-1 meals that use the make-ahead diced chicken recipe include our teriyaki chicken bowls and a delicious chicken salad.
The idea for make-ahead chicken and rice came when I was testing recipes for my Instant Pot Baby and Toddler Cookbook because I never had time to prep lunches. Now, I still use this strategy four years later as a smart solution for weeknight dinners and lunches.
INGREDIENTS YOU NEED
Grab these ingredients to prep your chicken and rice for the enchiladas:
- Small tortillas. You can use corn or flour tortillas. (My family prefers the 4-inch street tacos tortillas.)
- Enchilada sauce. Use any store-bought kind you like, or use green taco sauce or salsa verde. (We really love the Frontera Green Enchilada Sauce.)
- Cheese. We like grated cheddar, but you could also use Monterey Jack or queso fresco. I find that the cheese melts better when you shred it fresh, but I usually buy bagged, preshredded cheese for busy weeks.
- Toppings. We stuff these enchiladas with chopped grape tomatoes, sliced olives, avocado, sour cream, and cilantro.
How to Make Chicken Enchiladas in an Instant Pot
First, start with 1 portion of the chicken that you cooked in our Meal Prep Diced Chicken Instant Pot recipe.
NOTE: If you’re starting with refrigerated chicken, the time in the oven to melt the cheese is usually long enough to warm the chicken as well. However, if you’re concerned, you can always rewarm the chicken a bit before starting.
When you’re ready to prepare the green enchiladas, preheat the oven to 400°F and prepare an oven-safe baking dish by spraying it with cooking spray. Cover the bottom of the dish with enchilada sauce.
Place one tortilla on top of the sauce and sprinkle with a thin layer of grated cheese. Add half of the diced chicken, then some sauce, and another layer of cheese. Repeat with another tortilla, chicken, sauce, and cheese.
Bake the dish until the cheese is melted and bubbly, 5 to 10 minutes. Serve your enchiladas with rice and your favorite toppings. Enjoy!
Important Tips for Making Instant Pot Chicken Enchiladas
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when making this recipe:
- You can reheat the chicken for the enchiladas in the Instant Pot, on the stove, or in the microwave.
- If you like your enchiladas a little crisper, bake the tortillas before assembling in the oven until they start to brown, then sprinkle with cheese and return to the oven until melted.
- These also taste great when you use larger flour tortillas and serve them burrito-style.
- When you layer the tortillas, they get really domed if you pile all the chicken in the center of each layer. Try to distribute some to the edge to help them keep their shape.
- After warming the chicken, I recommend scooping it with a slotted spoon to remove some of the excess liquid so it doesn’t make the enchiladas soggy or too messy.
Frequently Asked Questions about Instant Pot Chicken Enchiladas
We prefer green enchilada sauce with this one, but you can use red if you’d like. Either way, make sure to use a flavorful sauce your family enjoys.
Serve this meal with your favorite Mexican sides, such as black beans, refried beans, rice, tomatoes, guac, tortilla chips, etc.
Sure! You could serve the chicken in small tortillas for tacos or wrap it with rice into a large tortilla. This is a very easy-to-customize recipe depending on what your family likes.
Honestly, how high I stack the tortillas depends on how hungry everyone is. More tortillas will help you stretch the chicken to feed more people. You could just put one on the bottom and one on top, or you could layer it three or four layers high.
More 3-for-1 Meal-Prep Recipes
Usually when I make these meals together, I’ll cook the diced chicken and serve the Chicken Teriyaki bowls on the first day. Then I’ll mix together the ingredients for the classic chicken salad and refrigerate to allow the flavors to meld.
Instant Pot Meal Prep: Diced Chicken
MORE Instant Pot Chicken Recipes
We have tons of great chicken recipes for the Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker. Try these next:
- Instant Pot Chinese Lemon Chicken is a bright and citrusy dish that’s better than take-out!
- Chicken Scampi has a delicious garlicky sauce that’s great with pasta.
- Instant Pot Honey Sesame Chicken is coated in a sweet, savory, and nutty sauce. Serve it with fluffy white or brown rice.
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Stacked Green Enchiladas | 3-for-1 Recipe
Use your make-ahead chicken to prepare the filling for cheesy green enchiladas, which are then prepared with generous amounts of cheese and enchilada sauce, ready to go with a quick broil in the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 portion cooked cubed chicken (about 2 cups)
- 12 to 18 small (4-inch) corn or flour tortillas (use more or less as desired)
- 1 cup green enchilada sauce, green taco sauce or salsa verde, plus more for serving
- 2 cups grated cheddar cheese
- 1 cup grape tomatoes, quartered vertically
- 1 small can (2.25 oz) sliced olives, optional
- 1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and diced, for serving
- Sour cream, for serving
- 1 tablespoon chopped cilantro, optional, for serving
- Nonstick cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a small oven-safe baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Spoon a little enchilada sauce on the bottom of the dish.
- Place a tortilla on top of the enchilada sauce, and sprinkle on a thin layer of cheese, followed by half of the remaining diced chicken, then the enchilada sauce, then another thin layer of cheese. Top with another tortilla and repeat the layering process. Top with a final tortilla, the remaining enchilada sauce, and the remaining cheese.
- Place the dish in the oven and cook until the cheese is melted, bubbly, and just starting to brown, 5 to 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes. Serve topped with diced tomatoes, olives, avocado, sour cream, and cilantro.
Notes
When you layer the tortillas, they get really domed if you pile all the chicken in the center of each layer. Try to distribute chicken pieces to the edge to help them keep their shape.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 6 Serving Size: 1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 646Total Fat: 32gSaturated Fat: 15gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 52mgSodium: 1186mgCarbohydrates: 65gFiber: 15gSugar: 6gProtein: 25g
Nutrition information is calculated by Nutritionix and may not always be accurate.
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