Overhead shot of cream cheese chicken enchiladas surrounded by ingredients like shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes, and fresh cilantro, styled for a recipe card.

These Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas are an easy Tex-Mex dinner made with juicy chicken, cream cheese, and enchilada sauce.

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Prep Time20

Cook Time30

Total Time50

Servings enchiladas

If you love comfort food with bold Tex-Mex flavor, these Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas are about to become your favorite weeknight dinner. We’re talking tortillas loaded with juicy chicken, cream cheese, gooey cheese, and green chiles—smothered in yummy enchilada sauce. This is a recipe that tastes like it took hours but comes together with no fuss.

cream cheese chicken enchiladas surrounded by ingredients like shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes, and fresh cilantro, styled for a recipe card.

🔥 You haven’t had enchiladas like this—> click here for the cheesy, saucy enchilada recipe everyone’s obsessed with! 🔥

Ingredients You’ll Need

cream cheese chicken enchiladas raw ingredients that are labeled

1 ½ lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese
½ cup heavy cream
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
1 can diced tomatoes and green chilies
10 flour tortillas
3 ½ cups freshly shredded colby jack cheese
2 cans red enchilada sauce

Garnish with ½ cup pico de gallo and ½ cup sour cream

Ingredient Substitutions

Chunky salsa can be used in place of Rotel for the filling.
No pico de gallo? Regular salsa works just fine as a topping.
Thinly sliced green onions can be substituted for chopped cilantro.
Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack cheese can be used instead of Colby Jack.
Shredded rotisserie chicken is a quick and flavorful shortcut.

Tips for the Best Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

🥄 When melting the cream cheese and cream:
Keep the heat at medium and stir constantly. Cream cheese melts slowly—rush it and you risk scorching. Slice it into pats as written—it really does melt faster and more evenly this way.

cream cheese and heavy cream added to a skillet

🌿 Stir in the spices and cilantro off the heat:
Once the cream cheese mixture is smooth, then stir in the cumin, pepper, and cilantro. This keeps the herbs tasting fresh and the spices from toasting too hard or getting bitter.

🍅 Drain that Rotel properly:
This step makes or breaks the texture. Even “chunky” canned tomatoes carry a lot of liquid. Let it drain in a mesh strainer while you’re prepping everything else so your filling doesn’t end up soupy.

🐓 Mix the chicken in while the sauce is still warm:
Warm filling = easier to roll and better flavor absorption. If you wait too long and the sauce cools down, it’ll be thicker and harder to mix through the chicken.

🌯 Don’t overfill the tortillas:
Stick to the ⅓ cup of filling. It might look like you can add more, but resist. Overstuffed enchiladas are a pain to roll and prone to tearing or bursting open while baking.

shredded colby jack cheese sprinkled on top of the chicken cream cheese on a tortilla

🧀 Sprinkle cheese as you go:
Sprinkling the cheese on each enchilada before rolling helps it melt inside as it bakes, so you get that cheesy pull in every bite.

📏 Arrange them seam-side down:
This helps keep them rolled tightly as they bake. Plus, it prevents the edges from drying out or unrolling.

enchiladas placed on top of the enchilada sauce in a baking dish

🧀 Use foil for the first 15 mins if your oven runs hot:
If your cheese tends to brown too quickly, cover the pan loosely with foil for the first 15 minutes, then remove it to finish baking uncovered.

⏱️ Let them rest before serving
After baking, give the enchiladas 5 minutes to settle before cutting in. This helps the filling thicken slightly so it doesn’t spill out everywhere.

cream cheese chicken enchiladas baked in a baking dish

How to Serve Enchiladas

Pile on the garnishes: a dollop of sour cream, a spoonful of salsa or pico de gallo, and a sprinkle of fresh chopped cilantro. Don’t skip the toppings—they cut through the richness and make the whole dish pop.

Scoop, sauce, and stack with toppings. Use a wide spatula to lift each enchilada out in one piece—then spoon a little extra sauce from the pan over the top.

Pair it with something fresh. These enchiladas are rich and cheesy, so a crisp green salad with lime vinaigrette or a batch of Mexican slaw balances everything out. Even just sliced avocado with a pinch of salt and lime juice does the trick.

Make it a meal. Serve with Mexican rice, refried beans, or even a simple side of chips and guac. And if you’re going all in—add a spicy margarita or cold beer and call it a fiesta.

Make-Ahead, Freezing & Reheating Info

(Because Yes, These Cream Cheese Enchiladas Are Just as Good Later)

Make-Ahead:
These enchiladas are perfect for prepping ahead. Just assemble, cover, and stash in the fridge for up to 24 hours. When you’re ready to bake, pull them out and pop them straight in the oven. To keep the tortillas from going soggy, make sure your Rotel is well-drained and use flour tortillas with a bit of structure (nothing too thin).

Freezing:
They freeze like a champ—before or after baking.

Before baking: Assemble everything in a foil tray, wrap tightly, and freeze for up to 3 months. Let them thaw overnight in the fridge, then bake as normal (you might need to tack on an extra 10 minutes).
After baking: Let them cool completely, then freeze in individual portions. Great for quick lunches or weeknight dinners when you don’t feel like cooking.

Reheating:
Reheat in the oven at 325°F, covered with foil until heated through.

a spoonful of cream cheese chicken enchiladas surrounded by ingredients like shredded cheese, chopped tomatoes, and fresh cilantro, styled for a recipe card.

More Enchilada Recipes

Too tired to cook? This Lazy Enchilada Recipe is the easiest dinner ever.
So creamy, so cheesy—you won’t believe what’s inside these White Enchiladas.
This cheesy Beef Enchilada Recipe is the weeknight dinner everyone’s raving about—see why it’s going viral
Enchiladas… but make them bite-sized, cheesy, and impossible to resist—try our Enchilada Cups Recipe.

Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas

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These Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas are an easy Tex-Mex dinner made with juicy chicken, cream cheese, and enchilada sauce.

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 30

Total Time 50

Servings enchiladas

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Ingredients

1 ½ pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and shredded (Makes 3 cups)
8 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature and sliced into pats
½ cup heavy cream, room temperature
¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (divide: 2 tablespoons for filling, 2 tablespoon for garnish)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon fresh cracked black pepper
10 ounces diced tomatoes and green chilies, drained (I used Rotel’s chunky diced tomatoes and green chiles)
10 8 inch flour tortillas (17.5 ounce)
3 ½ cups freshly shredded colby jack cheese (divide: 2 cups for filling, 1 ½ cups for topping)
20 ounces red enchilada sauce, I used Old El Paso brand (two 10-ounce can)
½ cup sour cream, for garnish
½ cup pico de gallo, for garnish

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350* F. Generously spray a 9×13 baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.
Pour one can of red enchilada sauce evenly in the bottom of the prepared baking dish.
In a 10 inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, add the sliced cream cheese and heavy cream, stirring constantly until the cream cheese is completely melted. Remove from the heat.
Stir in the 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro, ground cumin and fresh cracked black pepper. Stir until well combined.
Add the drained diced tomatoes and green chilies to the cream cheese mixture. Stir to combine.
Add the shredded chicken and the cream cheese mixture and stir until the shredded chicken is completely coated.
Measure ⅓ cup of the chicken cream cheese mixture down the center of a flour tortilla. Sprinkle 2-3 tablespoons of 2 cups of shredded colby jack cheese over the top of the chicken cream cheese.
Fold one end over the shredded cheese and tightly roll the tortilla up. Place the enchilada, seam down, in the baking dish on top of the enchilada sauce. Repeat for the remaining tortillas.
Drizzle the remaining can of enchilada sauce over the top of the enchiladas and sprinkle the remaining 1 ½ cups of shredded colby jack cheese.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and beginning to turn golden brown. (All ovens cook differently, so begin to check the enchiladas at the 20 minute mark)
Let the enchiladas rest for about 5 minutes before topping with ½ cup of sour cream, ½ cup pico de gallo and the remaining fresh chopped cilantro before serving.

Notes

Chunky salsa can replace Rotel in the filling.
Salsa can replace pico de gallo for the topping.
Thinly sliced green onions can be substituted for chopped fresh cilantro.
For a low carb option, use Mission brand Carb Balance flour tortillas.
Shredded monterey jack or shredded pepper jack cheese can replace shredded colby jack cheese.

Nutrition

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Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas