Next time you find yourself looking for chicken dinner ideas, give this Chicken Chilaquiles Recipe a try. They are packed full of flavor and come together even faster if you have shredded chicken on hand!
Originally posted March 27, 2009
I have been making this chicken chilaquiles recipe for years now. And every time I make it, I think to myself – why don’t I make this more often? This is one of those dinners that is super easy to throw together and that uses things that I usually already have in my kitchen.
We all know that I am a huge advocate of keeping cooked, shredded chicken on hand. It makes dinner time so much easier on those nights when you just don’t have the energy to cook. I’ll admit that I didn’t even know how to say chilaquiles back when I first published this recipe, but now this is one of my favorite dinners!
What are Chilaquiles
Ok – before I get into what chilaquiles actually are, I have to point out that I know that these are not traditional chilaquiles. These are definitely an easy, shortcut way to make chilaquiles, but the idea of chilaquiles is there.
Traditionally, chilaquiles are a Mexican dish that consists of fried tortilla strips that are topped with a spicy sauce and cheese. Usually, when I’ve had these at a restaurant, the chips are added to the pot with the sauce to cook, so the chips don’t remain super crispy. They are also usually served for breakfast or brunch and are often topped with or served with eggs.
My chilaquiles recipe adds chicken to the red sauce and turns it into a dinner.
How to make Chilaquiles
This chilaquiles recipe is so easy!!
- Start by making the sauce, which consists of garlic, diced tomatoes and chipotles in adobo plus some of the adobo sauce. I remove the seeds from the chipotles because I have kids eating, but if you like the heat, you can leave some or all of the seeds in the chiles. Cook all of this together, along with some water, until it makes a thick sauce.
- Add some cooked, shredded chicken to the mixture and let it heat through. Then, off the heat, stir in some cilantro.
- Place some tortilla chips in a bowl and top with some of the chicken mixture. Top that with sour cream, queso fresco and additional cilantro.
More Mexican Inspired Recipes
Mexican Shredded Beef Baked Taquitos
Mexican Corn Salad
Steaks with Mexican Spices and Chile Con Queso
Mexican Egg and Sweet Potato Breakfast Scramble
Warm Cajeta Pudding with Fresh Berries
Looking for more free recipes?
Subscribe to my free recipe newsletter to get new family friendly recipes in your inbox each week! Find me sharing more family-friendly inspiration on Pinterest and Instagram.
Chicken Chilaquiles Recipe
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican
Description
Next time you find yourself looking for chicken dinner ideas, give this Chicken Chilaquiles Recipe a try. They are packed full of flavor and come together even faster if you have shredded chicken on hand!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 28–ounce can diced tomatoes
- 2 chipotle chiles in adobo, finely chopped, plus 1 tablespoon adobo sauce
- coarse salt
- 3 cups cooked, shredded chicken
- 1/2 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves, chopped
- 4 cups tortilla chips
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup crumbled queso fresco cheese
Instructions
- Combine oil and garlic in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until fragrant and sizzling, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Add undrained tomatoes, chipotles and adobo, and 1 cup water. Bring to a boil; season with salt. Reduce heat and simmer rapidly until lightly thickened, 6 to 8 minutes.
- Add chicken and cook, stirring, until hot, about 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in chopped cilantro.
- Divide chips among four shallow bowls; top with chicken mixture and sauce. Garnish with cilantro sprigs, sour cream, and queso fresco. Serve.
Recipe Notes:
adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast
Nutrition information provided as an estimate only. Various brands and products can change the counts. Any nutritional information should only be used as a general guideline.
Nutrition
- Calories: 374
- Sugar: 9 g
- Sodium: 474 mg
- Fat: 20 g
- Saturated Fat: 6 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 5 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 23 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 25 g
- Cholesterol: 73 mg
Miska Knezevic says
★★★★★
Chels R. says
Drooling!
Cookin Canuck says
This is such a great idea for a quick dinner, Deb. My family would absolutely love this, but they might insist that I top it with black olives. 🙂
Lara says
I say it more like
chee-lay-key-LAYS!!
Nicole says
This is what I call a perfect dinner!
Carol at Wild Goose Tea says
I can see why this is a family favorite flavor wise. Plus it is probably a family favorite with the ‘cook’ too, because it’s easy. Yay! Kind of mini nacho dish.
Noelle says
I ran into your blog and noticed this recipe. I made this last week, remembering how my grandmother made it back in Mexico. See my blog!
Carrie says
Made this last night using diced tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes. I thought I had some, but didn’t. What I’ll do differently next time: not put in so much tomato juice (final product was a little runny), put in a little sugar to combat the acidity of the tomatoes (was a little on the sour side), use 2 garlic cloves instead of 4 (my daughter found it too garlicky for her taste, a little overwhelming, but smelled great cooking), and cut out some olive oil. I used rotisserie chicken from the store, which my 8yo daughter shredded while I exercised. I also couldn’t find adobo sauce so I bought adobo spice with salt. I didn’t want to use the chipotle in adobo because it’d be too spicy for the family. The recipe came together so amazingly fast. It was awesome with the sour cream and a little shredded cheese. I also made tortilla chips using corn tortillas that I had in the fridge, lightly brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. We also ate it with Japanese rice, being from Hawaii, everything is great with rice. Definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing such a quick and delish recipe!
Look Younger says
wow ! it looks so yummy!
Andrew & Carlene Wood says
looks sooo tasty
carly~
Andrew & Carlene Wood says
looks sooo tasty
carly~
Nama says
This looks delicious! I’ll be trying it soon. Thanks!
Rochelle Yerrick says
Hello! I’m a new follower here, but LOVING your blog. Such great recipes…this cookbook looks awesome..I’d sure love to win it 😉
Crystal says
Chicken is great! I’ve never had these before, but they look great!
The Isom Eight says
I love chilaquiles! We devour them in our home! This recipe looks great!
Mama Goose says
Um. Yum. ‘Nuf said.
Kevin says
The chicken chilaquiles look tasty!
Jaime Palmer says
Wow, those chilaquiles look awesome! I love Mexican food, but this is not a dish I’ve ever tried!
Cammee says
oh, I would love that. I can’t wait to try this recipe.
MindyW says
This looks pretty tasty! I wonder if you could throw it all in a crockpot with good results?
Grace says
it doesn’t matter how much a person mangles the pronunciation of chilaquiles, they’re delicious. this is my kind of food. 🙂
Cathy says
Those look fantastic! They have found a place on my “recipes to try” list.
clbeth at hotmail dot com
Mandi says
I bought this cokbook a couple years ago, and have LOVED it ever since. I have made these (I pronounce them chili-kellies…with a Utah accent) a couple times and just love them, but they are a trillion times faster with a rotisserie chicken from Costco!
Love your site. I hate getting into the same old, same old rut, and love trying new things..much to my families dismay.
Maria says
My hubs would love this one. That is a great cookbook, I really need to get it, or win it..ha!
steenbok68@gmail.com says
In Mexico these are considered breakfast. I love’em and could eat them any time of the day!
gayle says
Just found your blog, and already I see a couple of dozen recipes I have to try!
I’m going to go do a coin-flip now – Beef Quesadillas or Chicken Chilaquiles for supper tonight…
Thanks for the recipes!
kat says
My husband would dive head first into that!
Jean Bugs says
Someone give me a spoon! This looks awesome:-)
Sophie says
I just bought a whole chicken, I’ll be trying this recipe with the leftovers :). Lol this is actually a fun word to say, but I can see how it can be quite tough to pronounce. I think the first commenter did a good job of providing the pronunciation for it, though :).
Janell says
I just saw a similar recipe for these, but I’m with you—how do you say it??? I’m gonna have to try this recipe soon cause I know we’d like them at our house!!
Beer Lover says
Oh yeah! this one look terrific!
Jingle says
This looks SO good!!!! Thank you for the great recipe!
Anonymous says
Your recipes always look so appetizing. I need to try this recipe-it looks yum!!
robmba says
Ryley has the pronunciation right.
In Mexico, this recipe is a way of using up old stale corn tortillas. They fry the tortillas so you end up with tortilla chips, then throw the chips in with the chicken and sauce. So normally the chips are cooked in the sauce rather than just serving the sauce on top of the chips. It’s a great way to use up all the broken up chips at the bottom of a bag or soggy chips if you leave the bag open when the humidity is high.
Elyse says
I’ve been eying this Martha Everday Food recipe for quite some time, and I think I need to make it after your rave reviews. Yours looks absolutely delicious! (I’ll join you in that confession: I stared at your blog post title for like 2 minutes trying to decide in my head how to pronounce the recipe name :). However it’s pronounced, it sure looks yummy!
Marta says
I was looking for a chilaquile recipe, this looks like a yummy version! Thanks!
Dawn says
that is a fast recipe! and with all the flavors. I must print this one.
Tiff says
I’ve made these before and thought that they were Ok. I’ve made many things from Everyday Food and love their simplicity!
Scott and Melissa says
I make chicken all the time so it is nice to see other renditions. I get in ruts too! Thanks for posting this great recipe!!
Ryley says
ps. Chee-lah-KEE-less!
Ryley says
This looks so good!
Do you eat it like Nachos???
Or just eat it like a chicken stewy type dish??
Sorry.. just curious! 🙂
Ingrid says
Looks good, I’m all about quick,easy,and delish!
~ingrid
Emily and Tom says
Mmmm…you’ve got my mouth watering with this one. My kids might even like it!
Megan says
I confess, I don’t know how to pronounce it either – so much for 6 years of Spanish (jr and sr. high school).
I’ve already entered your drawing, but I’m going to cook more chicken just to make that dish!
midwestmom3 says
We love this recipe too!
It is easy, fast, and tastes great!
Jillian says
I really like Everyday Food! Thanks for sharing!
Kate says
I’m a huge Everday Food Magazine fan, but don’t have the cookbook. I’d love to win it. And I’m going to put this dish on my meal plan very soon. Looks great!
Michelle says
Oh cool! Contests are fun, huh? The one I’m doing now is my 1st and I’m enjoying it 🙂
Jamie @ Baldwin Bungalow says
Yum! I make chicken all of the time. Beef just hasn’t sounded great to me. Thank you for the recipe!
Kassy says
Oh, these look good! I may have to try them 🙂
Kathy says
Chee-la-kee-las!!!! We love them!!! They are our favorite!!! Here’s a version that we use http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/007358chilaquiles.php Can’t wait to try yours!!!