Chicken Enchilada Dip
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Chicken Enchilada Dip is an easy, high protein appetizer that everyone will love! Secretly healthy, this chicken dip is a must make! Serve it with your favorite veggies or chips
If you’re looking for another healthy game day snack to add to your menu, this Chicken Enchilada Dip is a must try.
This simple dip is made with only 7 ingredients in 30 minutes (only 10 minutes of prep), and it’s packed with protein. We love it with tortilla chips and/or veggies – it’s filling, cheesy and delicious!
With 40g of protein per serving, it’s extremely filling! When testing this recipe, we actually even ate it for lunch a few times!
Sometimes ‘healthier’ appetizers can feel boring and bland… this healthy enchilada dip actually tastes good and everyone will enjoy it… even though it’s healthy 😉 If you like our Healthy Buffalo Chicken Dip or Healthy Onion Dip, you’re going to love this one!
liz’s top tips for chicken enchilada dip if it ends up watery
- If your buffalo chicken dip is watery, no worries – we can fix it! Take a paper towel and gently blot it against the edges of the dip. You can tilt the dish using an oven mitt towards the paper towel so the excess water drains towards it.
- You can also bake the dip for an extra few minutes to help absorb the excess moisture.
- The dip is likely watery because of your ingredients. If you used a cottage cheese brand with fillers or gums, this could cause the cottage cheese to separate, resulting in a watery dip. Preshredded cheese can also cause the same issue. Using low fat ingredients instead of nonfat (they’re different!) can also result in a watery dip.
- Either way, just try to blot as much of the excess water out and return to the oven to bake for a few minutes to help.
Ingredients:
Substitutions
Cooked Chicken: You can make our crockpot shredded chicken, instant pot shredded chicken or just buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it! I like to make this with chicken breasts, but chicken thighs or chicken tenders will also work.
Enchilada Sauce: Enchilada Sauce can be really high in salt, so look for a red enchilada sauce that is lower sodium (less than 350mg per 1/4 cup) . We like this brand best, but this brand is also good!
Yogurt: Use nonfat Greek yogurt in this recipe to make it creamy and higher protein than cream cheese. Do not use regular yogurt. Regular yogurt can make this dip watery.
Cottage cheese: I haven’t tested this recipe without cottage cheese, but if you’re asking because you don’t like it… just put it in there. I don’t like cottage cheese either (at all!) but I swear you can not taste it in this. Do not use fat free cottage cheese. Look for 4% milkfat or a brand with no stabilizers or gums. We like GoodCulture.
Cheddar Cheese: We recommend using freshly grated cheddar cheese, not pre-shredded. Pre-shredded cheese does not melt as well and can result in a watery dip.
Low fat cheese: Low fat cheeses do not melt as well as regular cheese. It will work in this recipe if you like it but it likely will make the dip watery.
Black Beans: You can skip the black beans in this recipe. If you don’t have black beans, pinto beans would probably work but I haven’t tried it.
Hatch Green Chiles: I haven’t made this dip without the green chiles, but I’m sure it would be fine without them if you don’t have them. We always use the mild ones, so they’re more for flavor than anything!
To Make it Lower Carb: You can skip the beans in this recipe, or cut them in half to cut down on the carbs.
How to Make Chicken Enchilada Dip
- Add cooked chicken, enchilada sauce, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, black beans, hatch chiles, and 1 cup of cheddar cheese in a mixing bowl.
- Stir until thoroughly combined.
- Pour mixture into a baking dip and top with remaining cheese. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes.
- Broil the dip for 1-2 minutes at the end of the bake time to brown the cheese if you’d like.
- Optional (but highly recommended): Garnish with a drizzle with ¼ cup of enchilada sauce and serve with chips or veggies.
What to Serve with this Recipe:
This dip goes well with pretty much anything! You could top with cilantro, green onions, or a dollop of sour cream.
- Chips – these chips are great and made with avocado oil!
- Pretzels – (I love these flat ones for dipping!)
- Veggies – Celery, bell peppers, and carrots go well with this.
- On a salad with taco dressing or with roasted veggies – we did this for a quick meal!
- On a sandwich – Leftovers are delicious in a grilled cheese!
How to make shredded chicken
Instant Pot: Try this Easy Instant Pot Shredded Chicken
Crockpot: You can cook chicken in the crockpot (you’d have to do it the day before or in the morning)
Rotisserie Chicken: You can buy a rotisserie chicken and shred it up (Save the bones and make crockpot bone broth!)
Boiled chicken: You can boil chicken for about 15 minutes until it is entirely cooked and then shred.
Canned Chicken: You could use canned chicken… but I think it’s gross and bouncy. If you do use canned chicken make sure to drain it EXTREMELY well. If you don’t you’ll be left with a watery mess.
Tip for shredding chicken fast: Instead of using two forks, toss your cooked chicken breast into your stand mixer and run on low for a few seconds until it is perfectly shredded.
Storage
Prep ahead of time: You can mix together this high protein enchilada dip the night before and put it in the fridge (unbaked). When you’re ready to eat let the dish come to room temperature for 30 minutes, then bake per instructions.
Storing this Dip: This dip will last for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.
Freezing: I haven’t tried freezing this dip but I wouldn’t recommend it. I don’t think it will freeze well. I think it would get watery/ and might not be as creamy.
Reheating Cheesy Chicken Enchilada Dip: If you need to reheat this healthy Chicken Enchilada Dip – you can put it in your microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until cheese starts to melt.
You can also reheat it in a toaster oven, or use a crockpot set to warm to keep it warm!
Other healthy appetizer recipes:
Check out this full list of healthy appetizer recipes!
Chicken Enchilada Dip
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups cooked shredded chicken
- ½ cup enchilada sauce
- 1 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
- ½ cup small curd cottage cheese
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese divided
- 1 15 oz can black beans rinsed and drained well – low or no salt
- 4 oz diced hatch green chiles
Optional Topping:
- ¼ cup enchilada sauce
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425.
- In a mixing bowl mix cooked chicken, enchilada sauce, greek yogurt, cottage cheese, black beans, hatch chiles and 1 cup of cheddar cheese until thoroughly combined.
- Pour dip into a glass 8×8 pan. Top with remaining 1 cup of cheese. Bake at 425 for 20 minutes. You can broil the dip for 1-2 minutes at the end of the bake time to brown the cheese if you’d like.
- Optional, but recommended: Drizzle the top with ¼ cup of enchilada sauce when it comes out of the oven.
- Serve with chips or veggies of choice.
Video
Made this recipe for the first time on super bowl Sunday. It was supper easy, made as written except I came up a 1/2 cup short on the shredded chicken. The flavor was outstanding and it was even better the next day. Will most definitely make again.
I made this dip for dinner and it was amazing!!! I shared this with all my friends and told them they needed to make this recipe. It’s 10/10 recommend!! So good!!! This is perfect for a craving if you want enchiladas but want a healthier version of it. I used lime tortilla chips with the dip and that was so good. For the leftovers for the dip, I’m using zero-carb tortillas and making it into a taco topping it with peach mango salsa, and lettuce for the next day for dinner. this step will be in rotation in my meals for dinners.
Yummy with tortilla chips, pita chips, veggies.. so good!