This One Pan Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Skillet gives you all the flavor and deliciousness of hand-rolled sour cream chicken enchiladas without all the work! It’s cheesy, creamy, zesty and your family is going to love it!
Alright, folks here’s the deal. I love sour cream chicken enchiladas with a giant pink puffy heart, but I hardly ever make them. By the time dinnertime rears its ugly head, the last thing I want to do is attempt to roll up enchiladas (like these delicious green chile and cheese ones) while my toddler plays the part of Godzilla in my kitchen.
Seriously, this kid.
Is it a boy thing? My girls were not climbers and into everything like he is. It’s about all I can do every day to keep him from killing himself, let alone make some dang enchiladas.
So, we make skillet chicken enchiladas. They have all the flavor of your normal enchiladas but take 300% less work! Are you sold yet?
How to Make Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Skillet
Step 1.) Make the Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce
The Sour Cream Enchilada Sauce is what makes this recipe, and it’s basically a thickened chicken broth, seasoned up and studded with green chiles and black olives.
Step 2.) Cook and Shred the Chicken
Once the sour cream enchilada sauce is made, you’re going to cook the chicken right in it! Place your chicken breasts right into the sauce to cook at a low simmer for about 15 minutes. Once the chicken is cooked, you’ll take it out of the sauce, shred it up, stir some sour cream into the sauce and put the chicken back in.
Step 3.) Add Tortillas
Enchiladas wouldn’t be enchiladas without tortillas, right? You’ll cut some corn tortillas into bite-sized squares and add them right into the sour cream sauce and chicken.
Give it a stir.
Step 4.) Add The Cheese!
Top the entire skillet with cheese, cover and cook for another 5-8 minutes until bubbly. Once it’s done, you’ll have something that looks something like this. Not too shabby, right?
Seriously, if you’re a chicken enchilada fan like I am, this One Pan Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Skillet is your new best friend.
Cooking Tips for Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Skillet
I’ve had a few people comment that this recipe doesn’t have enough spice or kick to it. The recipe as written will give you a sauce that is creamy, just lightly seasoned and lets the flavor of the chicken, cheese, and tortillas come through– like the sour cream chicken enchiladas that I grew up eating! 🙂
This mild sour cream sauce is meant to be just that– mild! So if you are looking for a more tangy and spicy sauce, like red enchilada sauce, you can substitute 2 cups canned red enchilada sauce for the chicken broth, flour, and butter.
You can still stir in the sour cream to make a creamy sauce if you’d like. You can even make your own Homemade Enchilada Sauce, or just make one of these awesome recipes– Easy Beef Enchilada Skillet or Chicken Black Bean Enchilada Skillet
Can I Freeze This Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Skillet?
Yes, just like its full-blown enchilada cousin, this skillet freezes and reheats well.
Tools Used for This Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Recipe
- Better Than Boullion: I use a lot of chicken/beef/vegetable broth in my recipes because it adds such nice flavor, but I don’t love keeping cans or cartons of it in my pantry. For this reason (and more) I use this broth base anytime I call for broth in my recipes. It only takes one teaspoon of the base to make 1 cup of flavorful broth and can be stored for quite a while in the refrigerator.
- Anolon Nouvelle Copper Non-Stick Skillet: These non-stick pans are metal utensil safe and last a long time. I’ve been using Anolon’s pans exclusively for the past five years and am still in love with them!
Want More Easy One Pan Meals?
- One Pan Easy Chicken Cacciatore
- One Pan Crack Bean Burritos
- One Pan Smothered Chicken Skillet
- One Pan Cheeseburger Macaroni
One Pan Sour Cream Chicken Enchilada Skillet
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon chipotle chili powder optional
- 1/4 teaspoon oregano
- 4 ounces chopped green chiles
- 4 ounces chopped black olives
- 3 whole boneless skinless chicken breast halves
- 1 cup sour cream
- 12 whole corn tortillas cut into bite-sized pieces
- 2 cups colby-jack cheese grated
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat butter over medium heat until melted. Stir in flour, cook for 1 minute and whisk in chicken broth. Continue stirring until smooth and thickened-- about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir chipotle chili powder, salt, oregano, green chiles and black olives into the sauce and place chicken breasts into pan. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, cover and cook about 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
- Remove chicken from pan, leaving the heat on low, and place chicken on a plate to shred into bite-sized pieces.
- Stir sour cream into the sauce and return chicken to the pan along with the tortillas. Stir until combined and top with grated cheese. Cover pan and cook for 5-8 minutes until bubbly and the cheese is melted.
Delicious! I didn’t have Chipotle chili powder, so used regular and a little adobo sauce from canned chipotles. I also added black beans instead of the ilives and used crushed Tostitos instead of the corn tortillas. Top with a little fresh Cilantro, sour cream dollops and diced avocados…delish!!!
I decided to skip the tortillas and use chips to scoop it up. I ended up with insanely delicious shredded chicken queso! This is not a bad thing!! Thank you for the inspiration.
Just made this recipe. Easy and delicious. Serve over chips or shredded lettuce top with green onions.
Oh I have to make this! It looks so delicious 🙂 All but the olives, I have to keep the olives out – I cook with olive oil but never acquired a taste for olives. It took me years to finally use the oil haha!
I wonder if yellow rice for the side would go well with this? I mean I know it wouldn’t be a one dish meal at that point tho.
Delish! The whole family loved it. I added corn, beans next time, and erred by adding flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas. Not too bad but will try corn tortillas next time.
I added corn and black beans 😋
I was thinking that would sound good in this
Absolutely delicious !!!
Next time I will add tortillas just before serving.
I served the black olives on the side. My semi picky kids loved it!
My husband really enjoyed this recipe! The only reason I’m giving it such a low rating is that I found the black olives to be EXTREMELY overpowering. If you’re not a black olives person, I would NOT recommend this recipe.
The sauce was yummy. However, my sauce was super runny. It shouldn’t have been with the fat:flour:liquid ration. Not sure why it didn’t thicken well. Probably not the recipes fault, but mine.
My complaint was that the chicken was really bland with no seasoning on it.. next time, I would season the chicken and sear it in the skillet before making the sauce. That might help give it more flavor with the mild sauce.
And people… someone probably pinned it to a keto board and it gets passed around until it shows up when you search keto. Author never claimed it to be keto.
This was really good ! I’m not going to be rude and tell you I added this and that . Thank You for sharing . I’ll be making this again .yummmm
Can I substitute tapioca starch and get the same finished results and keep it gluten free?
It was really tasty. Will make it again.
The nutrition info for this recipe is way off. If you use 12 corn tortillas at 13 grams of carbs per tortilla, that would mean each serving has 26 carbs.
I was wondering about this as well. I’m planning to use low carb tortillas and will try to use less.
I agree! Maybe try using coconut or almond flour and whole wheat, low carb tortillas. (small are 4 net grams each). Tostitos also makes Simply Tostitos bean tortilla chips. Yes carbs, but really for the amount (12 net grams per 11 chips) you could use some of these crushed on top for a bit of texture and leave out the other tortillas. 44 tortilla chips divided into six servings would net the 8 grams of carbs noted here.
Wow! Thank you so much for your insight. Thank heavens you were paying attention. No one wants an extra gram of carbs.
Corn is a great addition too!
Let me tell you about my happy accident with this one. Planned to use 2 chicken breasts because that is what I had thawed plus a can of black beans and also flour tortillas because I usually don’t care for corn ones and don’t have them on hand. When I put the chicken to simmer, to my horror discovered I only had ONE flour tortilla left. So while the chicken simmered, I boiled up a box of farfalle (bowtie) pasta and served it over that! Turned out great, will make again! I also added onion and garlic.
Wow delicious delicious emphasis on the word delicious. I loved it I put it with extra sliced olives. Another cup of sour cream and on the side made Spanish rice and beans. My company loved it and asked for the recipe. Thznks
Thought it to be tasty and quick and easy with only one dish to wash
I did however sprinkle fresh cilantro and sliced spring onions as the dish needs color big time plus it added a spot of “fresh”
Hubby loved it – we’ll be having it again and again
Made this last night and the flavor was great, however mine turned out a bit too saucy, and remained thin even when I added more flour twice. The chicken, tortillas, and cheese just sunk down into it like a soup and it didn’t look at all like what is pictured here. What do you suppose I did wrong?
Hmmm, I’m not sure. The tortillas soak up a lot of the sauce as it sits. What kind of tortillas did you use?
Especially thanks for this article because before that i also try it but not get proper taste. I learn Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas to follow your article and also get the amazing taste and enjoy the dish with my family they also loved .
I made this tonight. I added cayenne and a littler more Adobe chili powder. I sprinkled cilantro and fresh jalepenos on each serving. My hubby said, “this is a keeper,” We both thought it was great! Easy too! Thanks so much!
This was supposed to be five stars! The fifth one wouldn’t click! It’s definitely a five star recipe.
How can this be low carb with so many tortillas?
Huh?? No where in this entire article does she say it’s Keto-friendly…
It’s unfair to rate a recipe you didn’t even make with one star, then leave a comment that’s completely false. 🤨🙄
I know where Wade is coming from. I entered ‘ keto recipes’ in the Pinterest search bar, and it brought this recipe up.
I was also searching on pinterest for keto recipes when I came across this one. The issue would be that the nutrition facts on the recipe only show 8 carbs which is impossible with one tortilla. Maybe if you’re able to change that it won’t come up in keto searches. Looks delish tho.
If you use Mission Carb balance tortillas and you use the net carbs, it’ll be much lower.
I agree –
It’s not low carb. I don’t know why it’s being brought up in Keto Searches. Sorry about that!
Made this tonight and it was great. I subbed black beans for the olives, added a can of diced tomatoes, more chili pepper, a little cayenne and onion powder and a package of pre-made Spanish rice. Served it over top of the cut-up tortillas instead of adding them to the sauce so they won’t get soggy in the leftovers.
I made this tonight! It was great! I added a few drops of ghost pepper sauce and some cumin as well for some spice, but the flavors are wonderful! Definitely making again.
Upped the spice and only used about 5 tortillas because that’s all I had. We enjoyed it and it definitely took less time than my usual toasted poblano sour cream chicken enchiladas. Thanks for a great idea!
So easy and tastes fantastic! I used canned chicken breast and flour tortillas–they worked great.
How did you get the nutrition information for this recipe? I put it into multiple recipe builders and everything is much higher, even at 6 servings. Thanks!
I think it looks delicious but I think the carbs have to be WAY off. There is no way there are only 8 carbs with all those corn tortillas and flour. I may modify to try to make it more keto friendly.
This was great. I made a half recipe as there are only two of us. Actually I put half of each can of the chilis and olives in the sauce and put the other halves together and put them in my freezer. As far as determing the amount of chicken for half of the recipe, I used part of a rotisserie chicken and just sort of guessed at how much. I did serve this over rice as someone mentioned and we really liked it that way. This would also make a great dip to use with taco chips. You could leave out the corn tortilla pieces…or not. Great keeper recipe. Thanks.
This was fantastic! I added some chipotle and poblano to the sauce and used flour tortillas since my husband is not a corn tortilla fan. Two bits in he was telling me it was a do over!!!
This recipe turned out fanulous
I made this last night and both my husband and mom really liked it. I used a can of Rotel instead of the green chilies just for color. My adult kids will also love this. Thanks!
I made this last week to take on vacation. Made a few tweaks, flour tortillas, no chillis. Freezes really well.
A lot of compliments.
WHAT IS IN THIS THAT MAKES THE SODIUM SO HIGH?
Chicken Broth I would imagine is the majority of it. The chicken breasts themselves are going to have salt content and so will the cheese.
Please be aware that the nutrition info is for informational purposes only. If you have specific dietary needs, please calculate the nutrition facts yourself.
Can you substitute shrimp??
Oh! That sounds like such a good idea! I think shrimp would taste really good with the sauce!
Definitely!
I love this recipe! My kids and husband loved it too!
I added 1tsp of cumin cuz I like my enchiladas to have that taste. Thanks for sharing 🙂
This looks amazing! Adding it to next weeks list! Thanx
This was so so good!! I added corn and some sauteed bell peppers, super yummy!! Next time I want to add black beans!!
Great suggestions!
Im turning this keto no flour and no torillas
2Table spoons of Almond Flour
Keto Tortillas
How did the almond flour work?
Definitely needed the color from sauteed peppers, corn and black beans. Otherwise, not very appealing to the eyes. Tastes great and is easy to prepare. Serve is colorful platter.
I just loved it.
Great recipes!! thanks
Yes boys are just like that!!!
Im sorry you have to go thru that but remember love them all you can even thru the mess cause one day they will have their one little ones and will realize just exactly you went thru and love you even more!!
I raised boys…my youngest is now a proud papa of 3…2 girls and 1 boy….and he just cant believe it!! Yesterday i took my grandson back and had to meet at the bowling alley …… the only way i can describe my son’s look is a deer inthe headlights look. I just had to chuckle.
You will get thru this with many stories to tell.
Thanks for taking the time to share your recipes and thoughts.
Ah! Boys are little monkeys!
I just made this for dinner and it was a hit!!
This turned out sooo good, but I made A LOT of it! How would you suggest heating this back up?
Heather likes food is a very cute name.
I made this, delish, it will be a family favorite!
I just made this for dinner, and we both loved it! Thanbks for the tasty and innovative recipe!
My kids are so excited watching me make this after they saw the picture. LOL – they are kind of drooling. Thank you for the recipe. This looks amazing.
Can’t wait to make this! If you use a gluten free flour it will be gluten free! I have yet to find a gluten free red enchilada sauce in stores.
I was looking for something quick for dinner tonight with ingredients I had on hand and this fit the bill. Followed recipe with the following additions: seasoned three large chicken breasts with seasoning salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin and pepper. Subbed can of rotel for green chiles and added 1/2 cup enchilada sauce while simmering chicken. Omitted the olives. Also only used 9 tortillas. The whole family loved it!! Thanks for the yummy recipe!!!
Really good! I used precooked chicken because I had it on hand. I didn’t have any tortillas, so I used Doritos Nacho chips instead and they gave it the needed flavor kick.
This recipe is PHENOMENAL!!! I made a few tweaks to the recipe. I added 1/2 tsp of cayenne and added corn and black beans. As well as Taco style shredded cheese. Oh my goodness, probably became one of my favorite meals of all time.
Is there a way I can use soft tacos instead of what you used?
I use soft corn tortillas but if you prefer you can use soft flour tortillas.
This looks sinfully delicious!!! I cannot wait to try! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Since it’s only my hubby and I , started with olive oil and sauteed, covered 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs til cooked. Made it’s own broth, removed the chicken, which then I added diced red onion, 2 minced cloves garlic, and an adobo chili, cooked for a few minutes, added. 1 tbs flour 1 cup water. Stir. Added back the chicken shredded….3 tbs sour cream, chips. Stir. Topped w 1 c grated cheddar and chopped green onion. Covered cooked til bubbly. Served w additional flour tortilla and lettuce greens. Yummy!
This was absolutely delicious! My fiancé requested this become a once a week dish!
Thank you!
In your note about substituting enchilada sauce for those who wanted a more spicy dish, you said to use 2 cans. What size cans do you use? I am a bit of a kitchen rookie and didn’t want to assume the small cans. I worry about not having enough liquid to cook the pasta.
2 Cups
Pasta!?!?
Delicious & so quick,inexpensive & easy to make! Husband loved it! Thank you for sharing.
Do you use soft or crunchy tortillas??
Soft Corn Tortillas
Great googly moogly, this is almost 850 calories per serving!
I looked at the recipe and where it has the nutrition facts the calories it says 351. Where did you see 850?
Please don’t trust the nutrition info here, the recipe sounds delicious but carb counts are WAY off. My daughter is a tyoe 1 diabetic and we always break recipes down by carbs/ingredient for her insulin dose. Just 3 T of flour alone has 18 carbs. Even leaving that out, a general google search says that corn tortillas have 13 carbs EACH, of course depending on the brand used that could vary, I’m sure, but still, not even close. I wish they would leave off nutritiin info aktogether rather than underreport carb counts, for a diabetic it’s life threatening, which is why I break down every singke ingredient for a toral carb count, not wveryone does, which is scary.
Sorry, posted from my phone and had a hard time seeing this to edit before posting, didn’t mean to post twice, I’m leaving any other errors as is. Lol
Laura, I’m hoping some way you will see this still even though it’s months later. I’ve just been diagnosed with diabetes and completely lost. I would love your tips or anything else you may be a le to provide 😀 Hopefully you will see this and repsond so I can provide my email address
Yes, it is a boy thing. My son is 3 and you don’t know how many times I’ve had to call poison control in the last year despite the baby proofing. Baby proofing doesn’t work of the kid is smarter than it.
How much chicken do you use for this? I see it says 3-4 boneless breasts but was wondering by weight what that might be. I have a package of 3 boneless breasts that is almost 2.5 lbs which looks like a lot for the recipe. Thanks!
Love this! Easy and delicious! Added in 1/4tsp of :garlic powder, onion powder, paprika to make it pop!! Also sunned 2 c crushed tortilla chips for half tortillas. Turned out delicious! Thank you!
Made this for the first time this evening since our oven is on the fritz. I tweaked a few things in the recipe. Sauteed onions and garlic, used rotisserie chicken, a dash of Cayenne pepper and whisked in red enchilada sauce. Absolutely delicious! Thank you for this concept. We will be using again and again.
When I make my enchilada casserole I add a can of Campbell’s Fiesta Nacho cheese soup and a can of Rotel. They give it that pop of flavor! So delicious!
I wanted to make this to recipe but didn’t have enough base left to make two cups. I did however have two cans of enchilada sauce in the cupboard, one medium one mild, so I went that way. I had left over rotisserie chicken to use so that made it even easier. Everything else was as you wrote it. I really enjoyed it, taste and ease of making. My daughter liked it as well and the jury is still out with the wife(but she’s a picky eater anyway). So thanks for the post, I will be making it again. And now if you’ll excuse me I’m going back for seconds!
Made this tonight. It was great and everyone loved it. I added a can of corn. Will make again. Thanks for the recipe.
I wonder if adding a can of chile would make it pop???
Has anyone tried this w/O the flour? Or do you think the flour can be substituted for a gluten free flour? Hubby doesn’t like enchilada sauce and is gluten free. But I love enchiladas. I’m hoping I can figure out the gf thing and this would be a good middle ground, since many reviews say it’s on the bland side.
I’m trying it today without the tortillas. My kids can wrap theirs in a tortilla but my husband and I can go low carb. I may cook some rice for the kids too. Would be really good over rice.
Hi Anne! What did you eat it with? I’m doing a low carb diet, so I can’t use the tortillas. (I can make the rice for the kids) but was it too soupy without the tortillas? Thanks!
I used cornstarch instead of flour., and used corn tortillas. Would also be good served over rice if gluten is a problem.
This would also be great with low carb tortillas (Flour) for low carbers. Mission and La Banderita both make very good ones.
This is delicious…I used taco seasoning instead of the chipotle powder & oregano…I also added a blend of sharp & tex mex cheddar…I omitted the olives too (personal preference)…this was enjoyed by our entire family…so good, hearty and easy to make. Hubby and I spiced ours up with a little Valentino hot sauce but the heat was just perfect for our daughter. I also transferred it to a baking dish and broiled the cheese…mmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Thanks for a great recipe.
Everyone in my family lived this – which is a rarity! However, it is very rich and I’m going to add a little cayenne pepper to cut the richness. Thanks for the recipe!
This is a good recipe but we love spice so to kick up a notch I added more Chipotle, a pinch of Cayenne “hot” green chile’s and fresh Garlic. To add a bit of freshness I topped it with Scallions served with Chipotle black beans and Tortilla chips for a crunch.
I’ve made this multiple times now and wanted to share an update. I’ve made it with the boneless chicken breasts and rotisserie chicken: both turn out well. I’ve made it with and without black olives, it doesn’t make much difference in my opinion. My fiancé doesn’t like them so I omitted them after the first time and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Now, the changes I would make: if you want any spice to this add more Cumin and Chipotle chili powder. It’s completely necessary in my opinion. Also, cutting back just a tad on the tortillas was better for us, so I’d just say use your judgement, but I do not recommend using flour tortillas in place of corn.
What size tortillas? 8″, 12″?
Corn tortillas not flour tortillas. I used the smaller ones and added a lot more Chile powder. It was amazing. Oh, I also sauteed onion and garlic for more flavor.
After reading the reviews I made this with more spices. I made it with 2 tsp Chili powder and 1/4 tsp cumin and kept everything else the same. With those changes I thought this was a really good recipe and will make it again.
Thank you for listing how much you added. I kept seeing the comments of “more” but was unsure how much more I needed!
This was delish! Thank you. It’s similar to a Mexican dish, chilaquiles. I topped it with some cilantro & green salsa. It gave it an extra kick! My family loved it. They suggested that the tortillas be fried next time.
I could tell by looking at the ingredients list that the spices were on the weak side…also I like enchilada sauce not just basic sauce ….will take the concept of this dish but will dr heavily to a more enchilada-ish sauce..thanks for the basic concept
This was terrible, don’t waste your time or money on this! ?
Made this last night and hubs & I both loved it! I used a whole chicken which I had cooked beforehand, and the broth from that, with chicken bouillon added. Also increased the chili powder. Made it in our big cast iron skillet and put the whole thing under the broiler for a few minutes to melt the cheese and crisp it up a bit. It was heaven! Thanks for giving us an alternative to the boring, time-consuming & messy job of softening tortillas! A+++++++++
I made this recipe to the T. It was bland not sure what I did wrong. Won’t be making it again.
You could always add more spices to adjust to your flavor level. It’s a recipe. It’s a basic guideline for how to make this dish. Nothing is set in stone.
Can’t wait to make this tonight and i just so happen to have all the ingredients! Win!
Great recipe! It was delicious.
I have never heard of it but I am going to make it one day.
I made this with rotisserie chicken like someone else mentioned, just because I needed a quick meal one night and it turned out well. The only thing I didn’t like was that it had really no spice to it like I thought it would, so I added more (kind of a lot more) chipotle chili powder than it calls for. That being said, it was perfect for us adjusted to my desired amount of spice. Next time I’ll probably leave out the black olives just because my fiancé is not a fan and I don’t really think they’re necessary for me, but if you like them they were not bad in there by any means. I do plan on making it again!
Sounds great! How can I print off the recipe?
Great Grandma Afton would be proud. You have a very nice site. I want to try this recipe.
Thanks Will! 🙂
I made this today but used pork loin and flour tortillas because that’s what I had on hand, it was really good! Needs some more spiciness tho!
Absolutely amazing! I used leftover turkey and now I will do Thanksgiving just for this afterwards! ????
That’s so great! Thanks for sharing.
Made this last night and it was to die for and so easy to prepare! I used rotisserie chicken since I found this at lunch and didn’t have any chicken thawed. Served with black beans and Knorr taco rice! Yummy!
Sounds great! I love using rotisserie chickens.
This looks amazing! Everything on your post sounds exactly like me except that 3 of my 4 children sound like your son. It’s exhausting to even think about dinner let alone try and rangle them long enough to get anything on the table besides cold cereal. I am looking forward to one of those days I manage to find some sanity (or perhaps be just insane enough) to prepare this! Thank you for sharing…yum!