My 21 Day Fix approved Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas were awe-some! I loved how rich and creamy they tasted! I know, I know…you see cottage cheese listed as one of the ingredients, but TRUST ME. YUM!! Back in the early days of our marriage, I would make chicken enchiladas with a bunch of canned and pre-packaged items. Canned cream of chicken, a packet of taco seasoning and canned enchilada sauce…highly processed and MSG laden ingredients. There are worse things I guess, but these no longer make the cut at our house.
I had some of my Easy Enchilada Sauce on hand as well as some shredded chicken I had made earlier in the day, so this recipe went pretty quickly! If you don’t have these things on hand, allow a little bit of extra time to prepare them. You can boil and shred the chicken and it won’t take long at all! These would also keep in the freezer if you wanted to pre-make them on the weekend for the week ahead. Cover them with a layer of press and seal and foil and you should be good to go.
I have had Chicken Enchiladas on my ‘to-make’ list for quite awhile now after seeing my friend, Jamie Callahan post about making them. Between traveling and family being in town, I haven’t been cooking at home as much as usual, but I AM BACK!! I was inspired by Jean Reed’s Alfredo sauce recipe which uses cottage cheese instead of heavy cream. I wanted to incorporate that into more of my dishes because it was amazing! I had a lot of fun experimenting with this one and I think it turned out pretty darn good. 🙂 I hope you enjoy it, too!
I blended the cheese mixture with my immersion blender. You can opt to do this, put the mixture into your blender or just mix well with a spoon. I just wanted it to have a nice, creamy texture. If you want to thin it out a little, you can some almond milk.
- 1 T Olive Oil
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts, boiled and shredded
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 1/2 orange bell pepper, chopped
- 1 (7oz) can chopped green chili peppers (optional - I omitted these)
- 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 1 1/2 cups lowfat cottage cheese
- 1 2/3 cups shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
- 12 (6 inch) corn tortillas
- 1-2 cups Easy Enchilada Sauce
- 1 T chili powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp oregano
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 9x13 baking dish, set aside.
- In a 12" skillet, heat oil and combine shredded chicken breast, onion and bell pepper (and/or chili peppers, optional). Stir in taco seasoning, reserving 1 tsp for the cheese mixture. Saute until chicken is browned and onions are translucent.
- In a small sauce pot, over very low heat, combine plain Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, 1/3 cup Monterrey jack cheese and 1 tsp taco seasoning. Stir until cheese melts. I used my immersion blender to make this into a smoother sauce, this is optional.
- Heat tortillas until soft. In each tortilla, place a spoonful (each) of the cheese and meat mixtures. Roll tortilla and place in the prepared baking dish. Repeat for all 12 enchiladas. Top with any remaining meat and cheese mixture, Enchilada Sauceand remaining shredded cheese.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.
- 1/2 Green, 1 Red, 1 Yellow, 1 Blue, 1 Spoon (for 2 enchiladas)
Let me tell you I am (was) very skeptical using cottage cheese but o my gosh this stuff has so much flavor and deliciousness it is unreal!! Thank you so much for this recipe! It’s so hard trying to find recipes that are 21 day fix approved and then when you do it doesn’t tell you what containers they use, so thank you thank you for this recipe. I see more on your blog that look amazing and I will let you know how my family enjoys them. 😛
Thanks Crystal! I have to say, I was skeptical at first too (I didn’t tell Basili what was in it until after he approved! haha). I am SO happy you enjoyed it. 🙂 I love that you took the time to come back to my site and leave such a sweet note. 🙂 Have a wonderful day! Angela
I will be making this this weekend. I am very excited to try this recipe as I have tried my hand and many other 21 day fix approved enchilada recipes and so far have not been very impressed. I will come back and let you know how my family and I liked them. I am sure they will be a huge hit! Thank you for putting time into creating these great recipes for us “cooking challenged” folks. haha
Hi Teresa! I hope you liked them!!! I know they are more time intensive, but (in my opinion) I think they are delicious! A good weekend recipe, for sure! 🙂
Angela
Loved it! Used fixate tomato sauce instead of canned.:)
Oh yum! Happy you liked it!! 🙂 Thanks for letting me know 🙂
These are fabulous!! Never thought I could have such a cheesy dish on 21DF! Thanks for all the great recipes, I come here a lot!
Oh good! I am so happy you love the recipes! 🙂
If you eat 2 wouldn’t that count as 2 yellow? Sorry, Just trying to figure out containers 🙂
Hi Jesica! 2 corn tortillas equate to 1 yellow! Happy dance! 🙂
Getting together with a girlfriend to stock up on freezer meals and want to give this one a try. Can u assemble this and then freeze it without baking? Or do u cook it and then freeze and then reheat?
I think if you assemble all of the pieces of this one and then freeze, that would be good. Then thaw and bake. The only thing that would concern me is the sauce as it may separate a bit.
OMG!!! This was amazing my whole family loved it!!! I have 5 children (10,9,8,7&1 1/2) and they all love and soo did the hubby!!!
Amazeballs!! I would have never thought I would be eating this good on 21 day fix!! Made this tonight with sautéed summer squash!! Absolutely delicious and will be added to our permanent dinner rotation.