Slow Cooker Enchilada Chicken
3.28 from 11 votes
Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours hours
Total Time: 6 hours hours 15 minutes minutes
Servings: 5 servings
Nutrition
Calories: 599kcal | Carbohydrates: 57g | Protein: 59g | Fat: 15g | Fiber: 3.6g
This Slow Cooker Enchilada Chicken has 59 grams of protein and is super easy to meal prep using a slow cooker. Most of the cooking is hands off and takes very little effort for you to complete.
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Ingredients
- 2½ lbs (1135 g) boneless skinless chicken breast
- 28 oz (822 g) fire roasted tomatoes
- ½ lb (227 g) frozen cauliflower
- 2 tbsp (30 g) lime juice
- 2 tbsp (30 g) tomato paste
- 1 small (100 g) onion
- 2 tsp (6 g) garlic powder
- 1 tbsp (15 g) chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- salt and pepper to taste
For the Rice
- 5 cups (750 g) cooked basmati rice
- 2 tbsp (28 g) butter
- salt to taste
- 10 tbsp (70 g) monterrey jack cheese
- 5 tbsp (25 g) cilantro optional
Instructions
For the Enchilada Chicken
- Place the cauliflower into the microwave for a few minutes to thaw and soften.
- In a blender, add the tomatoes, lime juice, tomato paste, onion, cauliflower, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and garlic powder. Blend until completely smooth.
- Cut the chicken breast into one inch chunks and add to your slow cooker pot. Season with salt and pepper and then pour your sauce over the top.
- Place into your heating element and cook on low for 6 hours.
- Around the 5 hour mark, check on your sauce. It should have the consistency of a pasta sauce so if yours is a bit watery, you can crack the lid a bit for the last hour to evaporate off some liquid.
- Once finished, you will need to season the tomato sauce with salt and pepper to taste. Start slow and gradually add more until you reach your desired flavor.
For the Rice
- Around the same time your check on your sauce you can start your rice. In this recipe you will need 5 cups (750g) of cooked rice. Cook enough rice to yield this amount. I used 360g of dry rice and I had about 1/2 cup left over.
- Once your rice has finished, stir in 2 tbsp of butter and salt to taste.
Plating
- This recipe makes 5 servings. To each dish add 1 cup of cooked rice and divide the chicken mixture evenly between all the containers.
- Top each with 2 tbsp of Monterey Jack cheese and chopped cilantro if you desire.
Course: Main Dish
Cuisine: meal prep, Mexican
Keyword: chicken, free, freezer friendly, gluten free
NUTRITIONAL INFO FOR THE Slow Cooker Enchilada Chicken
The information in this table represents the estimate for the total nutrition of the recipe as it is written. If you wanted to split the recipe into more or less servings than what is originally listed you can use this table to determine the nutritional estimates. If you update the number of servings in the “Servings” field of the recipe above, the information in these tables are no longer accurate as you have updated the ingredients.
Servings
Carbs
283.6g
Protein
293.5g
Fat
76.5g
Calories
2996.9 cals
This Post Has 17 Comments
This one was the first TMPM miss for me. Maybe the Aldi fire roasted tomatoes weren’t up to the job.
Hey same name, I agree but I don’t think it was the Aldi brand, mine came out tasting pretty bland and needing a lot more flavor in the sauce. I think the cauliflower and chicken, which taste like nothing, soaked up all the available flavor from the tomatoes, chilis, and garlic.
I agree with you Kyle. It wasn’t bad, just nothing special. I probably won’t be making this one again.
This one was a miss. Despite opening the lid for the water to evaporate, the sauce was still watery and bland.
Do not make this. It was unimpressive day 1 and gag worthy by day 2.
I made this overnight and when I smelled the pot in the morning it did not smell good. Too sweet and acidic, I would expect something more umami, dark, and spicy for an enchilada sauce. I thought it was going to be a total miss but after a day in the fridge the flavors mellowed out and it was not too bad. It was super easy and has great macros so I might make it again.
Sauce was too watery and tended to separate after reheating – I think draining all the liquid out of a can of tomatoes before adding would help a lot with this. I used Muir Glen fire roasted, generally good tomatoes for me. I cooked it overnight so probably 10 or more hours and the chicken did not taste dry.
This sauce needs something to deepen the color and add more complexity of flavor. Adding broth (instead of tomato can water). Dried ancho chilies and a complement of spices (chili powder, cumin, oregano) might help. Instead of butter in the rice, spending that fat on oil to brown the onions, toast spices, and sautee the chicken and tomatoes first may help. But then you have lost the massive simplicity and convenience of this recipe.
I like having super easy and convenient options like this that aren’t just ground-turkey stir-fry, so I might revisit this and try to find a happier medium between complexity and flavor.
Sadly, this one came out a little bland for my tastes. I kept it because it’s just about macro perfect but it needs more spice/flavorings in the sauce.
The negative reviews confuse me, and I’m gonna chalk those up to people not seasoning their food well enough. Followed the directions with just the slight modification of adding a few more seasonings (cumin, etc. nothing crazy) to the sauce. Just finished my first serving (it’s the day after) and it was delicious. This will be in my frequent rotation. Looking forward to the rest of the week!
Bit of a swing and a miss, I’m pretty sure there’s a step missing in the instructions based on how wildly watery the sauce is… I’ll try this again but with drained tomatoes and might try roasted cauliflower in the sauce (might as well add roasted carrots too). I added an entire can of chipotle peppers and that really woke up the flavor. I also cut down the rice volume a bit and got macros down to ~550/serving.
Overall it’s a high volume meal, tastes pretty good but I’ll use chili powder next time and way less liquid in the sauce. Based on the photo we see there’s gotta be something missing.
Just not that tasty, it didn’t really taste like much at all.
I’d recommend adding some additional Cumin, Garlic, Paprika, and a few table spoons of Greek yogurt. The sauce comes out tasting acidic and sweet, which is normally good but needs some creamy and savory to balance.
Has anyone else noticed an odd discrepancy when building this recipe in a macro app like MacroFactor? When I build the recipe with the provided and used amounts, for 5 servings I’m getting 710 calories and about 80g of protein.
Josh, this happens with the majority of recipes I make. Not only from MPM, but other meal prep books or recipes. I find it’s usually 100 calories + or – what the recipe says.
This is a great and easy recipe if you are careful to season it enough. “Salt and Pepper to taste” means at least 2-3 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of pepper (Taste when it is done and liberally add more salt if needed). I also added a tablespoon each of cumin and taco seasoning blend and the flavor turned out very nice. When I make again, I will probably triple the amount of chipotle peppers as well. I’m guessing the low reviewers just sprinkled on some salt at the end, and yes, that would probably be super bland.
I agree with others – as written, this recipe is really lacking. I made it delicious with these changes:
Added half a jar of de-seeded chiles in adobo
Threw 2 large, dried ancho chilis in the oven for maybe 5 minute for them to puff up. Destemmed/deseeded and threw those into the blender with the sauce
AGGRESSIVELY DRAIN all the tomatoes, and use Rotel
More salt is needed than you think
In slow cooker, cook first 2 hours on high, then 4 hours on low
These changes make this a great recipe.
I made this more or less as 5150 suggests and it is delicious.
First recipe I tried from here that was not a hit. I salted it up and added a little more garlic and chipotle. Yet it still came out bland and the chicken breast is kinda dry.With the sauce I think its the blending of the cauliflower that kills it.. If i were to make this again Id do roasted cauliflower chunks on the side leave the sauce as is and use chicken thighs. I know it may raise the calories and macros but I feel like that could impart more flavor. Also maybe for a depth of flavor to the sauce use fresh garlic roasted , maybe strain out half the fire roasted tomato liquid . But these are just ideas. Either way not making this again.