Recipe: Lighter Freezer Friendly Creamy Enchiladas

Finally a way to enjoy delicious creamy enchiladas with a lighter spin. This classic dinner recipe is delicious without all the calories of the traditional recipe.

Creamy enchiladas are not the prettiest of foods but they are one of my favorite types of comfort food. I’ve used a few recipes over the years and while delicious they were LOADED with fat and calories.

I wanted to adjust that a little. So while these are by no means diet food, they are much lighter than most of the recipes for creamy delicious enchiladas I’ve come across.

For example I cut 4 cups of cheese and swapped full fat sour cream for fat free greek yogurt. And as an extra perk these freeze up perfectly.

Lighter Creamy Chicken Enchilada Recipe

• 8 flour tortillas
• 1 1/2 C fat free Greek yogurt
• 1 can cream of chicken soup
• 1-2 chicken breast, cooked and chopped
• 1 4oz can diced chilis
• 1 1/2 C shredded cheese, divided
• 1/2 C milk
• 1/4 onion chopped and sauteed (or 1/2 tsp onion powder)
• 1 tsp taco seasoning
• salt to taste

How to Make Enchiladas

1. Mix yogurt, milk, chilis, soup, onion, taco seasoning and salt.
2. Set aside 8 spoonfuls of mixture. 
3. Add chicken and 3/4 C cheese to the larger amount of the mixture.
4. Divide equally between the tortillas.
5. In a greased pan place rolled enchiladas secured with a toothpick.
6. Spread a spoonful of yogurt mixture on top of each enchilada and top with remaining cheese.
7. Remove toothpicks before baking.
8. Bake at 400 F for 45 minutes or freeze until ready to use.

Serves 4. Enjoy.

Enchilada Variations

I love that these enchiladas are so easy to change up. This recipe is such a good base that you can easy play around with it.

Swap the Chicken – Feel like a big change swap the chicken for pork, beef, or even some seasoned chicken. I love this barbacoa meat, or leftover 3 ingredient rib meat or even try a simple ground beef cooked with some taco seasoning.

Corn Tortillas – I typically make these with flour tortillas but every once in a while I swap out corn tortillas when I do this I prefer doing a casserole style enchilada. The corn tortillas in and of themselves add a slight sweetness and softer texture which is a delicious swap. You could roll them but you’ll probably want to pan fry the tortillas first to keep them pliable and I don’t love the extra work or calories so layering is my go to.

Casserole Style – to do a casserole style enchilada you would layer the ingredients more like a yummy lasagna instead of rolling them. Then you just scoop out servings, easy peasy!

Red Enchilada Sauce – sometimes I like to use a small amount or red enchilada sauce. I don’t remove any of the creamy sauce. Instead I just pour a bit of read sauce on the top of the enchiladas and finish with cheese and it just adds another depth of flavor (and each change) that’s so tasty.

And of course you can change up how you cook these. Below I share the steps for making enchiladas in the slow cooker or instant pot but I have also made them on my Blackstone griddle with a cover and that turned out great!

Can I Make Enchiladas In the Crock Pot or Instant Pot

Yes! Want to make these in your slow cooker? No problem. Feel free to just assemble them like normal and instead of putting them in an oven safe baking dish place them in your slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 45 minutes to 1 hour for easy delicious and oven free crock pot enchiladas!

Alternatively if find positioning the rolled up portions difficult you can jut do more of an enchilada casserole by placing a bit of sauce on the bottom of your pot (after giving it a good spray of pam or spray oil). Then layer some filling and continue until you’ve finished your ingredients. Cover and cook on high for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Now if you want to make this in the Instant pot I recommend using a spring form pan with a sling that fits your inner liner easily. Due to the circular shape of the pressure cookers I prefer to do the layered casserole style I just described.

After you assemble the enchiladas (either rolled or casserole style) cover the pan with foil. Add 1 1/2 cups water to your instant pot liner add the enchiladas on the sling and cook on high pressure for 20 minutes with a quick release.