This Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas recipe is super simple to make and a total crowd-pleaser for any tailgating gathering during football games this season.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Mission®. All opinions are entirely my own

Family Football Night

To say we’re a football family is putting it lightly.

With coaches, players, and avid fans in the family, every child learns how to spiral a football shortly after they know how to walk.

We also have our team allegiances, too, and whenever we get the chance it’s fun to get together with family and friends to watch the game and eat some great food. It’s an opportunity to connect and enjoy each other’s company without the hubbub of the holidays or the pressure of a more formal get-together.

On family football nights, I like to keep the food straightforward and simple, but always delicious. I want to spend my time enjoying conversation with friends and family – not hunkered down in the kitchen, toiling away over the food.

These Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas made with Mission® Super Soft Corn Tortillas are a staple in our football nights. Everyone loves them, they are simple to make, and the recipe makes two large casserole dishes worth of enchiladas with minimal effort, so there’s plenty to share. If you have a smaller gathering, they also make great leftovers (but we rarely have any of those).

Mission tortillas are soft and made with the highest quality corn flour available. They are perfect for any dish including this Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas recipe. With low-fat, no lard, and no cholesterol, you can dive in without any guilt. The tortillas are also gluten-free, so rest assured this will please just about anyone.

I’ve spent years perfecting this recipe with little flavor tweaks and tricks, like warming the Mission tortillas in the oven before filling and rolling the enchiladas to help them be extra pliable and less prone to cracking under the weight of the filling. After all of the effort it took to develop this recipe, I love serving up this recipe to friends and family – and I’m equally excited to be sharing it with you today!

While I strictly use Mission Soft Corn Tortillas for enchiladas, I did put their flour tortillas to good use by incorporating them in raspberry-cheese quesadillas for the kids and baking them and tossing into a crunchy Southwestern salad.

We rounded out the menu with fresh corn on the cob and football-shaped snack cakes for dessert. Oh, and I picked up some cute football-shaped glasses for the kids to drink chocolate milk out of! Everything was simple, easy and incredibly satisfying.

I just put everything out on the table family-style and let everyone self-serve. I find this is a great way to get kids to be curious about some of the food that is on the table and they are more likely to request to try it versus if the food is all kept in the kitchen.

Speaking of children: a great tip for family entertaining is to use a table runner like the one seen above. It adds a nice touch and makes the lay-out of the food seem polished and pretty, but you are less likely to experience spills and stains than with a full tablecloth because the cloth is not directly underneath their plate. (However, if your crowd is super messy, a pretty outdoor tablecloth is an easy solution.)

Chipotle Chicken Enchiladas Recipe

This Chipotle Chicken Enchilada recipe is a slightly spicier and smokier take on a classic chicken enchilada. I love the depth of flavor added with just a couple new ingredients, and clearly my guests do too, because they never leave me any leftovers!

If you’ve never had enchiladas, they are basically a soft chicken taco that has been baked in a seasoned tomato sauce and topped with cheese, but that simple explanation does no justice to conveying just how delicious they are.

For this recipe, I also made my own adobo seasoning:

• 2 Tablespoons coarse salt
• 1 Tablespoon smoked paprika
• 2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
• 2 teaspoons dehydrated onion or onion powder
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 1/2 teaspoons oregano
• 1 teaspoon dehydrated garlic
• 1 teaspoons ground chipotle pepper

Making this adobo seasoning once makes enough for 18 batches of this enchiladas recipe. It’s also delicious in dips and soups. I keep all of my homemade spice blends in small mason jars near the stove and they get used daily.

Some people like their enchiladas super saucy and soft and some like to have a bit of the crispy baked corn tortilla peeking through, so I made each tray slightly different to allow guests to have their enchiladas exactly the way they like them.

There are a few ways to make this recipe even easier on the day of your get-together:

• you can toss all of the enchilada filling ingredients in a slow cooker or pressure cooker rather than watching it on the stove
• you can pre-make your filling and freeze until the night before the get-together (thaw in the fridge)
• you can even fully prepare the enchiladas to the point of baking, and then place in fridge or freeze in freezer-safe containers – thaw overnight to bake the next day (give at least 24 hours to thaw)

The whole point of this recipe is to entertain and feed your family a delicious meal with ease. It’s also naturally gluten-free, which is great if you have guests with that dietary need or preference.

Check out our chipotle chicken enchiladas recipe video to see just how easy these are to make and then don’t forget to scroll down below to grab your free printable recipe:

This easy chicken enchilada recipe is a delicious party recipe or a fun family night option that can be prepared in advance. Since the recipe makes 16 enchiladas, it’s also great for making one to enjoy this week and freezing one for future use.

 

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