Chicken Enchilada Pasta
This post contains affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy.
This One Pot Chicken Enchilada Pasta is an amazing weeknight recipe that your family will love. High in protein and easy to prepare!
This one pot chicken enchilada pasta recipe is a unique twist on healthy chicken enchiladas in pasta form!
This chicken enchilada pasta is easy to make in one pot and great for meal prep! Plus, there are tons of ways to customize it listed below.
Liz & Tyler’s Top Tips for this Recipe
- Let your chicken sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before cooking. Searing cold chicken can result in tough chicken.
- Use freshly grated cheddar cheese. Freshly grated cheddar cheese melts so much better!
- Use homemade bone broth instead of store bought chicken broth. It’s much higher in protein and lower in salt!
Ingredients:
Substitutions
Olive Oil: You can substitute avocado oil or butter.
Chicken Breasts: You can substitute with boneless chicken thighs, chicken tenders, pork tenderloin, or pork roast.
Vegetables: Red peppers, onions, garlic, and corn really make the flavors of this dish come together. You can substitute green, yellow or orange bell peppers. Feel free to add an extra cup to the pot if you’re looking to eat more veggies. Jalapeño peppers would give this dish a nice kick as well!
Beans: Black beans are ideal for this recipe but you could also substitute for pinto beans or red kidney beans if needed. Make sure to drain them and rinse them.
Pasta: We love rotini and short fusilli for this recipe but any medium pasta (like farfalle, or penne pasta) would work. Look for pasta with a 10-12 minute cook time. We have not tried this recipe with whole wheat pasta or gluten free pasta.
Cheese: We have not tried dairy-free cheese and are unsure how they would melt but it may work. Parmesan and mozzarella are other cheeses that would be delicious.
Enchilada Sauce: Red or green enchilada sauce will work, we used red enchilada sauce and really like the flavor this gives. You can find this at most grocery stores. Look for an enchilada sauce that is lower sodium (less than 350mg per 1/4 cup). We like this brand best, but this brand is also good!
Broth: Broth and stock are the same thing! You can use any broth or stock interchangeably. Beef Broth, Chicken Broth, or vegetable broth all work interchangeably. I always use low or no salt broth.
Other enchilada dishes: If you love enchiladas, try our Enchilada Dip or Enchilada Soup.
How to Make Chicken Enchilada Pasta
- Heat olive oil in a skillet and cook cubed chicken for 10 minutes until golden brown. Set aside.
- Sauté onions, garlic, and red peppers for 3 minutes or until they begin to soften.
- Stir in chicken, dried pasta, black beans, frozen corn, enchilada sauce, and chicken stock and cover with a lid.
- Bring to a simmer. Then remove the lid once simmering reduce the heat to medium and simmer for another 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently.
- Once your pasta is cooked al dente, turn the heat off and stir in your cheese. Serve and enjoy!
What to Serve with this Recipe:
This high protein chicken enchilada pasta is a full meal high in protein, healthy fats, and carbohydrates. We usually just eat it as is. If you’re looking to eat more veggies, a side salad would be a great option to go along with this recipe.
Some of our favorite salads are Red Pepper Cucumber Salad, Corn Tomato Avocado Salad, or Spinach Salad.
Storage
Storing: This chicken enchilada pasta will last in the refrigerator for up to 4 days in an airtight container.
Freezing: I don’t think this recipe would freeze well, pasta gets soggy and gummy when reheating after being frozen.
If you need freezer friendly recipes check out our Fill Your Freezer Ebook or this list of Healthy Freezer Recipes!
Reheating: You can reheat this one pot enchilada pasta recipe in the microwave or on the stove. If reheating on the stove top you could add a splash of chicken broth to the pan while heating.
Other one pan dinner recipes:
- One Pot Taco Skillet
- Red Pepper Orzo
- Cajun Chicken Pasta
- Chicken and Stars Soup
- Ground Beef Butternut Squash
- Buffalo Chicken and Rice
Check out our full list of Healthy One Pot Dinner Recipes or grab our free one pot dinners ebook.
Chicken Enchilada Pasta
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut in 1/2 inch cubes
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 cup chopped onion
- ½ tablespoon minced garlic about 2 cloves
- 2 cups diced red bell pepper
- 15 oz can black beans rinsed & drained, low or no salt
- 1 cup frozen corn thawed
- 3 cups rotini pasta 10 oz
- ½ cup enchilada sauce red or green both work
- 3.5 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- In a large pot or skillet on the stove, add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Heat over medium high heat for 3-4 minutes or until the olive oil begins to shimmer.
- While the pot is heating up, cube your chicken in quarter inch pieces and set aside. I butterfly the chicken in half and then cut in ¼ inch strips to make this easy.
- Add the chicken to the heated pot. Brown your chicken for 10 minutes or until golden brown on all sides. Make sure to stir occasionally throughout the cooking process.
- Once the chicken has cooked, remove the chicken from the pan and set aside in a small bowl. Add your onions, garlic, and red peppers to the pan. Sauté for 3 minutes or until they begin to soften.
- Add your chicken back to the pot, along with dried pasta, black beans, frozen corn, enchilada sauce, and chicken broth. Stir together and cover with a lid.
- Bring the pot to a simmer. Remove the lid once simmering (about 3 minutes or so). Reduce the heat to medium and simmer for another 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Once ¾ of the liquid has been reduced (or your pasta is cooked al dente), turn the heat off and stir in your shredded cheddar cheese.
- Taste for salt and pepper, serve and enjoy!
Video
A little bland, but still quite good…I’ll use a hotter enchilada sauce next time. I used chicken broth as the ingredients listed, but the instructions said chicken stock…does it matter?
Sorry you felt that way. The flavor will vary greatly depending on the enchilada sauce you use. Chicken broth and chicken stock are the same thing and can be used interchangeably.
This dish was a hit with my family! Super easy to make. I doubled the recipe for leftovers and even reheated this meal was delicious! I’m loving all of your recipes!
This recipe was fine, not great. The pasta soaked up the enchilada sauce and the dish didn’t have an enchilada flavor at all. If we make it again, we’ll definitely add more enchilada sauce to give it flavor.
Sorry you felt that way, but the point of the dish is for the past to absorb the sauce. It’s a one pot dish 🙂 This sounds like you didn’t have a very flavorful enchilada sauce to begin with. We tried this with Whole Foods 365 Brand and Siete Foods brand it was very flavorful. If you add more enchilada sauce the sodium content will be very high! Some brands are not as flavorful as others.
I just made this for dinner and really liked it. I used protein enriched pasta but didn’t add the cheese to mine(personal preference). My husband added cheddar and mozzarella cheese and cilantro to his and really enjoyed that. I did opt for a little extra enchilada sauce.
So yummy! I think I added too much liquids so it kind of became a soup. But still delicious! Instead of black beans I did white northern beans, I also added jalapeños for that kick. My family loved it 🥰
I’m so glad you all enjoyed it!!