Homemade chicken enchiladas with red enchilada sauce made from scratch (with a secret ingredient; peanut butter!) is a great meal to use up leftover shredded chicken or leftovers from a roasted chicken. This is a comfort food recipe to enjoy in the fall or winter seasons for a weeknight dinner.
In a pressure cooker add in boneless skinless chicken thighs and the broth.
Seal pressure cooker and set pressure to high for 20 minutes.
Do a quick release after 5-10 minutes.
Remove the chicken from the juices and shred with two forks in a separate bowl. Keep separated.
Enchilada Sauce
While the chicken is cooking, begin the enchilada sauce. In a small bowl mix together flour and chile powder.
In a medium mixing bowl mix together the water, tomato paste, cumin and salt.
Preheat a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once heated, add in the canola oil and onions. Allow to soften for 2 minutes.
Next add in garlic and continue to stir until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add in the flour mixture and whisk to form a roux. If the mixture seems too dry, add 1 tablespoon more canola oil. Simmer for one minute.
Carefully add in water mixture and whisk to combine. Let the sauce come to a simmer and add in both cans of chiles, including the juice from both cans and stir together.
Reduce the heat to medium low and let reduce and thicken for 5-8 minutes.
Take the saucepan off the heat and add the peanut butter. Stir well to combine.
Enchiladas
Once the chicken is cooked and sauce is done cooking, preheat the oven to 400 F.
Spray a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish with cooking spray.
To the shredded chicken, add ½ cup of the monterey jack cheese and 1 cup of the enchilada sauce and mix it well.
Take a tortilla and use a ⅓ cup measuring cup to portion out chicken/cheese/sauce mixture. Add the mixture in a row down one side of the tortilla. Roll tortilla up and place in the pan, seam side down.
Repeat until you have 6-8 tortillas in the pan. The pan may not be completely full of tortillas.
Place the enchiladas in the oven uncovered for 15 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and add the rest of the enchilada sauce over the rolled up tortillas. Top evenly with cheese and bake uncovered for another 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and sauce is bubbling.
Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with your favorite toppings like sour cream, sliced avocado, cilantro and/or hot sauce.
Notes
If you are using already cooked and shredded chicken, this recipe uses about 2 cups of chicken.
You can substitute chicken breast in this recipe.
Shredded chicken can be made in the slow cooker on high for 4-6 hours and shredded or low for 8 hours and shredded.
The sauce can be made ahead of time and stored in the fridge for 3-4 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.