Freezer Chicken Enchiladas Recipe (So Easy)
I love this freezer chicken enchiladas recipe! This recipe is from when I was a young girl and my grandparents brought an exchange student from Mexico to our house. She made this recipe for us! You could certainly make these enchiladas with flour tortillas but I love them with corn tortillas. The secret to nice corn tortillas is to lightly cook them in a little oil before filling and baking them.
How to Make (and Freeze) Chicken Enchiladas
Consider doubling or tripling the recipe so you can freeze more for later!
1. Make the Enchilada Sauce Mixture:
- Start by combining the cream soup, vinegar, sour cream, 1 1/2 cups cheese, chilies, and chicken broth. I use this homemade cream of chicken soup recipe!
- Set aside 1 cup of this enchilada sauce mixture for later.
- Add chicken (check out this cool method for how to shred chicken) and cilantro to the remaining mixture.
2. Fry Your Tortillas:
I like to soften my tortillas by lightly frying them in vegetable oil. If you use a large pan and small corn tortillas, you can do three at a time. I recommend this when you are making multiple recipes because it will save you a lot of time. If you are only doing one recipe you can conserve oil by using a smaller skillet. If you do not have a good one already, I recommend this T-fal skillet.
3. Let Your Tortillas Cool:
Use heat resistant or metal tongs to remove the corn tortillas from the hot oil and let them cool and drip off between paper towels. If you’re in need of a good pair of heat resistant tongs, this is a great pair!
4. Fill Your Tortillas:
Once the tortillas have cooled enough to handle, you can start filling them with chicken mixture and rolling them up, carefully arranging in the pan.
5. Add the Enchilada Sauce and Cheese:
After pouring the sauce evenly over the enchiladas, top them off with more shredded cheese. Use cheddar, Mexican blend, Colby jack, or any other similar type of cheese.
6. Freeze Your Chicken Enchiladas:
There are two good methods for freezing your enchiladas:
- For best results, freeze the sauce, cheese, and tortillas (not fried yet) separately in freezer bags, then thaw and assemble enchiladas when you are ready to serve them.
- Alternatively, use any 9×13 pan you have on hand to put in the freezer. But if you are going to need the pan again soon I recommend using a disposable aluminum pan. Assemble the enchiladas, cover with foil, and place in the freezer.
The freezer bags conserve a little more space in the freezer. But the pan method saves more time on the hectic cooking day.
7. How Long to Cook Frozen Enchiladas:
Bake frozen enchiladas for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees. Or let the chicken enchiladas thaw, then bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove the foil for the last 5-10 minutes.
8. Add the Finishing Touches:
Garnish enchiladas with avocado, sour cream, cilantro, and lime.
Your Chicken Enchiladas Are Done!
I hope you love these frozen enchiladas! The fact that you can cook up a quick batch and then have a great freezer meal that lasts for days is just so great.
More Easy Make Ahead/Freezer Meals:
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Freezer Chicken Enchiladas Recipe (So Easy)
Ingredients
- 1 can cream of chicken soup or homemade recipe
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1 cup sour cream
- 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
- 4 ounce can diced green chilies
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- ¼ to ½ cup milk
- 4 cups cooked shredded chicken
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro optional
- ¾ cup vegetable oil
- 10 to 12 corn tortillas large or small
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. (Unless you will be freezing them for later.)
- Mix together the cream soup, vinegar, sour cream, 1 1/2 cups cheese, chilies and chicken broth.
- Set aside 1 cup of sauce to put on top of the enchiladas. Add 1/4 to 1/2 cup milk to the sauce to thin it out to your desired consistency. You could also use additional chicken broth instead of milk. Add chicken and cilantro to remaining sauce.
- Lightly fry corn tortillas in oil over medium heat on the stove. Just enough to soften the tortilla.
- Fill tortillas with chicken filling and arrange in a 9 x 13 pan. If using 12 tortillas, use about 1/3 cup filling for each. Cover with the sauce that was set aside and sprinkle remaining shredded cheese on top.
- Cover with foil, bake for 20-25 minutes, removing the foil for the last 5-10 minutes. Serve with your favorite enchilada toppings: avocado, sour cream, salsa, cilantro, guacamole, olives, etc.
TO FREEZE:
- For best results, freeze the sauce, cheese, and tortillas (not fried yet) separately in freezer bags, then thaw and assemble enchiladas when you are ready to serve them. Bake as directed above.
- Alternatively, use any 9x13 pan you have on hand to put in the freezer. But if you are going to need the pan again soon I recommend using a disposable aluminum pan. Assemble the enchiladas, cover with foil, and place in the freezer.
TO PREPARE FOR SERVING:
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Remove enchiladas from freezer, leave foil on pan and cook for about 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook additional 15-20 minutes, until bubbling and cheese completely melted.
- Or thaw enchiladas in the refrigerator, then bake as directed above (for enchiladas that are not frozen).
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This is one of my families favorite recipes. We like it using corn tortillas and instead of rolling them just rip the tortillas into pieces and assemble in layers. I also use whole chickens boil them and break up the meat and use. I stock up on whole chickens when they go on sale boil several at a time and then freeze the meat so I have it on hand to use in this type of recipe.
Andrea,
We have a crockpot recipe that we use for freezer group called Chicken Ole that uses a similar recipe to this one with alternating layers of corn tortillas (stripped) & the chicken mixture. It cooks on low for 5 hours & is DIVINE. I’d love to share if you are interested!
I would love to have your chicken ole recipe!
Would like the chicken ole recipe for crockpot.
I think this is the recipe she’s referring to: https://fabulesslyfrugal.com/recipes/chicken-ole/
Please share where do you get your disposable pans for a good deal? Thank you.
Staci,
We get them at the dollar store!
I buy mine at Family Dollar. 3 pack for $1.00
I get my pans at Sam’s Club. A pack of 30 casserole pans (9×13) is $6.
Stacy, instead of buying disposable baking pans, I simply put the prepared food in my baking dish and freezer it just long enough so that it holds it’s shape, a couple hours. Then remove from the freezer and wrap well. I use Ziplock freezer bags. When you’re ready to bake it later, just unwrap and place the it back into the dish and you’re good to go.
In addition to casserole-type dishes, this works great with soups and other dishes that are liquidy. For soups I freeze in the same pan that I would cook it in.
I have not had a problem with the food sticking to the pan making it difficult to remove and wrap, but if you do, just line your pan or baking dish with foil or Saran wrap and then add the food.
If you think the food may stick to the pan
Amber ~ I’d LOVE to have your crockpot recipe!!!
BTW, just thought I’d share I also make my enchiladas similar to this except that I use Cream of Chicken instead of C-o-Mroom soup and I add a jar of salsa rather than the chiles…plus, I top it with black olives. Like Andrea, I try to boil several whole chickens atleast oncea month so that I have broth and shredded chicken on hand. Sooo convenient and easy!
I’m so new to this freezer meal thing I haven’t even tried it yet! This may be a silly question, but did I understand correctly that you don’t thaw the enchiladas before you bake them? If so, that would be awesome! Anyone have an answer for me?
I’m wondering the same thing… do they go straight from freezer to oven?
Right from the freezer to the oven is fine! It has been taking about 1/2 an hour longer to cook straight from frozen.
You can do either.
It will take longer in the oven if frozen (I believe this recipe stated 45-50 min for frozen)
I’m new to freezer meals! I’m expecting a baby with 3 other little ones at home and I want to start making some meals to freeze. I have a couple questions. how long can a meal be in the freezer? how do you keep it from getting freezer burn? is covering it with foil good enough to keep it “good”??? Thanks for the help!!
Trinity – we most often bag our meals in Ziploc freezer bags. But for the Enchiladsas, you’d want to freeze them in a foil pan and use good foil (nice and thick and good for freezing). I think the longest I’ve gone before eating was almost 3 months and they were still great! And the best way to prevent freezer burn is to keep them sealed as best as possible. Super easy to do when you’ve got stuff in Ziplocs! I just leave a little part of the “zipper” open, and suck the air out! I only do this on my own of course. Ha ha! 🙂 But it’s cheaper than buying a machine to do it for you!
This recipe sounds great; I make a similar chicken enchilada dish using low-carb tortillas, chicken mixed with 1 pkg cream cheese, rolled up; cover with 1 c. salsa and 1 c. sour cream. Bake for a few minutes, add 2 cups shredded cheddar – a much lower-carb version of chicken enchiladas!
Fab gals, I just commented about this earlier today … the comments of many of your current posts are very outdated, as if you’re just recycling old posts instead of creating new ones. Again, I just replied to a comment that was four years old! I find a lot of value in comments and I wish they were current.
Why does it matter if the comments are current? I find the comments are still valuable despite their age. Thanks for the great recipe!
This is my favorite enchilada recipe. I originally posted it 3 years ago without any images to go along with it. So today I updated this freezer meal recipe with my latest techniques and ideas and photos from me making it in my own home kitchen. So yes it is an updated recipe blog post. I hated to delete comments from our readers. We love their feedback and idea. So I left the older comments I think they add to the content.
I like to combine the idea of easy ‘busy weeknight’ freezer meal but also do not have enough pans to keep in the freezer….this is what I do, I line a pyrex pan with plastic wrap but i do not cut it yet. I line it with large pieces of aluminum foil….this is when I place the rolled enchiladas in the pan. I fold the foil over it, place remaining sauce in zip lock bag as well as zip lock with shredded cheese….i wrap the whole thing with the plastic wrap. I place in the freezer and within a couple of hours when it is frozen I pop it out and stick it back in the freezer…..on a busy weeknight I just take it out, remove plastic and place it in the pan from my pantry…
Tali- That is an awesome tip! Thank you for sharing.
I really like this idea. Thank you for the tip.
I didn’t have any tortillas so I mixed the filing with noodles. Delicious! Like chicken tetrazzini, but better.
What a great idea! Thanks for sharing.
Do you have to use vinegar? What is it suppose to do for the recipe?
You do not have to use it. It gives it a little more flavor and thins out the sauce a little. I am sure the enchiladas would still turn out good with out it.
LOVE chicken enchiladas. Freeze them all the time. Great tip on the dollar store disposable pans. Didn’t even think about that!
May be a dumb question, but are refrigerator freezers and deep freezers the same temp? If not then will these meals work in a deep freezer and not freezer burn? Thank you!
It’s not a dumb question! very smart actually! YES, they will work in a deep freezer.
The difference is a refrigerator freezer is opened regularly, a deep freezer is opened far less, so food stays good, longer!
Question, could you guestimate the amount of filling you put into each tortilla? I made everything as directed and ended up with 24 enchiladas using probably 1/4 cup of filling per tortilla. In your single family quantities, you write that this would make 10-12. Not that I’m complaining, I have a family of 6 I’m feeding, but am concerned I’ve done something wrong.
How long is the cooking time straight from the freezer? Thanks in advance!
1 hour
I thikn there is a typo – in the “TO PREPARE FOR SERVING:” section it says the below. it should be “or you can thaw enchiladas in the fridge and bake them…”
Preheat oven to 350. Remove enchiladas from freezer, leave foil on pan and cook for approx. 30 minutes. Remove foil and cook additional 15-20 min, until bubbling and cheese completely melted.
Or you can thaw enchiladas in the freezer and bake them at 350 for 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake an additional 5-10 minutes.
Sounds like a great recipe…do you use white vinegar or cider vinegar?
I use white vinegar!
We prefer flour tortillas. Had anyone made it with flour totally & frozen it? Work well?
I’m a flour tortilla girl too and you can free them! Just don’t put the sauce on until you bake. Otherwise it makes the flour tortillas soggy.
Frozen in the middle. 425 for 40 mins