Although I think home-cooked chicken tastes better than canned chicken, sometimes it is so much quicker and easier to just use canned chicken! I love the Kirkland brand canned chicken, so I don’t really stray from that. I tried a brand at Fry’s at one point and it grossed me out a little bit. 😬 Anyways, all of these recipes can be made with regular cooked chicken – I love chicken thighs because I think they taste better and they don’t dry out as easily – but canned chicken will make these recipes a little bit easier and quicker.
Start with your cooked, shredded chicken and add some Rotel tomatoes and green chiles (I use 2 cans of chicken and 1 can of tomatoes and green chiles). You can add more green chiles if you want a little more spice; or, if you don’t want tomatoes at all, you can just used canned green chiles. I like to add an all-purpose seasoning (THIS one is super yummy, or I usually use Lawry’s seasoning salt and garlic salt). This seasoned chicken is the base of each of these meals, and since the chicken is already cooked, I just cook it on the stovetop for a few minutes to warm it up and let the flavors cook together a little bit.
If you want something super quick, just make that chicken above and throw it in some tortillas for burritos or tacos. Serve alone, or serve with this Mexican-style rice and some refried beans.
I recently wanted to try something new without tortillas, so I made the chicken above and added green enchilada sauce, cream cheese, shredded cheddar cheese (I prefer to shred my own cheese because it’s way yummier, and this cheese grater is the best!), and my Mexican-style rice (I didn’t add green chiles because I was trying to make the casserole a little less spicy). I mixed all of those ingredients together on the stove and then covered it with more shredded cheese and baked it until the cheese melted. SO YUMMY and EASY!!
Now, I also make my enchiladas using that same seasoned chicken. I’ve heard green enchilada sauce (because I don’t like red sauce) is pretty easy to make, but I haven’t tried it yet. I add the chicken to flour tortillas (I like the uncooked ones from Costco, obviously cooked beforehand… the trick is to cook them fast on a super super hot pan). Then I roll each tortilla, but leave the end open. Put green enchilada sauce on the bottom of the pan a little bit, and then lay the “burritos” across the pan and top with more enchilada sauce and shredded cheddar cheese. If you like cream cheese, sometimes I mix that into the seasoned chicken and let it cook together before putting the chicken in the tortillas.
I use a square metal nonstick Pampered Chef pan to bake enchiladas/enchilada casserole in, but it looks like it might have been discontinued… I love that it is nonstick and can go in the dishwasher! I also love these utensils for cooking, especially this one for rice and beans.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of blogs that insert this cute little recipe card here… I’m working on one so you don’t have to read through the entire post if you don’t want to! But in the meantime, enjoy this written out recipe haha. I’m not a goo recipe follower, so I like to skim through and then make it using my own tricks or style, hopefully you can adapt this mess and do the same!
How do you make your enchiladas? Do you like canned chicken, or do you have a trick to make shredded chicken fast? Do you make your own enchilada sauce? Comment below with your answers, or if you make the recipe, let me know how it turns out and how you like it!