Cheesy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas Recipe with White Rice

My husband grew up in New Mexico, where Hatch green chiles are poured on practically everything! His favorite was green chile chicken enchiladas, but he’d eat it on everything.

And I do mean quite literally, everything. Eggs at home? Yup. Hotdogs at Sonic? You got it. A cheeseburger at McDonalds? It comes with green chile on it!! I wish I were kidding.

Every year when I ask my husband what he wants for his birthday dinner, he tell me, “green chile enchiladas.”

Ugh.

One day I decided that I was going to bite the bullet and try cooking with Hatch green chiles from New Mexico. My mother in law used to send us a few cans every now and then, but we had long since run out. I went to our local Publix and lo and behold, they not only had green chiles, but they had green chile enchilada sauce.

Our taco section is gigantic! Taco Bell, Ortega, Old El Paso – and that’s not including any of the actual latin brands! I took a quick look at the back of the enchilada sauce can and it actually had a very simple recipe. I decided to make it for dinner that night.

I don’t particularly care for the taste of green chile – green chile are not something you normally eat in Mexican food, which I totally love, by the way. I had never even heard of Hatch green chile until I met my husband. The brand of green chile is actually only grown in Hatch, New Mexico. So I was wary that I wasn’t going to like them, and that my daughter wouldn’t eat them…

Boy, was I mistaken! After tweaking the green chile chicken enchilada recipe a little, I came up with something so delicious that when I have dinner parties now, I actually make this dish. People LOVE it!

Ingredients

2 lbs shredded cooked chicken

(I buy chicken breasts and prepare them by boiling them with a teaspoon of olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt. After they cook through, for about 15 minutes, I let them cool and then shred them)

1 8 oz package of cream cheese, cubed and brought to room temperature

2 1o oz cans of Old El Paso Mild Green Chile Enchilada Sauce

2 4.5 oz cans of Old El Paso Chopped Green Chiles (do NOT drain!)

1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack Cheese

8 flour tortillas

non stick cooking spray

2 cups unprepared Minute Rice Premium White Rice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a frying pan over medium heat, place the cooked chicken, both cans of the green chiles and the cream cheese. Heat until the cream cheese melts and everything is well blended.

Spray a 13 inch baking dish with non stick cooking spray.

Spoon 2.5 heaping tablespoons into each tortilla, roll it up and place in the baking dish with the seam facing down.

After you have placed all of the tortillas in the baking dish – you should have about 7 or 8, depending on how liberal you were with the filling – pour both cans of the enchilada sauce over the top. Make sure you get all the nooks and crannies!

Sprinkle the Monterrey Jack cheese over the top and cover loosely with aluminum foil.

Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes, and then remove the aluminum foil and continue to bake for another 10 minutes.

While it is continuing to bake, prepare the Minute Premium White Rice according to package directions.

When you plate your green chile chicken enchiladas and rice, you can drizzle a little of the enchilada sauce over the rice for an extra dose of flavor!

I received product coupons from Minute Rice to use in this recipe, but all opinions are my own.