The Easiest Chicken Enchilada Filling Has Just 4 Canned Ingredients

While making enchiladas from scratch can obviously produce delicious results, sometimes you just want the same flavors but without all the hassle. Enter: canned ingredients. With just a handful of pantry staples — like canned chicken, canned enchilada sauce, canned green chilies, and canned corn — you can whip up a tasty enchilada filling in minutes.

When making these enchiladas, you can certainly mix everything together in a bowl as-is, or you can cook it together on the stove for a few minutes before filling your enchiladas. This will help the flavors meld together, but it's not required. When it comes to the amount to use, starting off with a 12.5-ounce can of chicken will make about 10 standard tortillas once the rest of your ingredients are mixed in. When using canned enchilada sauce in the filling, make sure not to overdo it, or you risk the filling becoming too wet. This can cause the tortillas to fall apart while baking. Instead, use just enough to moisten the other ingredients (like a couple of tablespoons), but not too much that everything is drowning.

While these enchiladas are perfect as is, there's plenty you can do to take things to new heights. For instance, adding a bit of butter to the canned corn can make it more luxurious, while adding herbs and spices to the chicken, like paprika or cilantro, is a surefire way to make it much more flavorful. You could also add a splash of vinegar to the canned chilies to help brighten them up a bit. Acid can also help balance the dish overall, and with all of the canned elements going into it, you'll want to use this trick to help bring them back to life. For more flavor and texture, you could also use some canned black beans in the filling, as well as some cooked white or brown rice, or shredded cheese.

To take things even further, you can swap out the canned enchilada sauce for a homemade recipe, like an enchilada verde sauce. You could also whip up a chocolate mole sauce for something even more complex. To really make your dinner pop, you could consider using both green and red canned sauce to create delicious enchiladas divorciadas. And don't forget the essential tortilla step to prevent your dish from coming out soggy: Fry them first.