Low carb and keto chicken enchiladas makes for a yummy Mexican inspired dinner no one will even know is low carb. The keto enchiladas with low carb tortillas lets you enjoy enchiladas when you're on a keto diet.
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Serve the keto chicken enchiladas with cauliflower rice, riced broccoli, or a simple salad. For your friends and family that aren't eating low carb, you can also serve quick Spanish rice or refried beans on the side.
And if you adore Mexican inspired recipes too, then you'll definitely want to try our popular recipes for crustless taco pie, low carb taco soup, keto taco salad, chicken fajita bake, and chicken green chili casserole.
Are Enchiladas Keto Friendly?
First things first before you go any further with our post about low carb chicken enchiladas. Are enchiladas keto friendly? When you think of the classic Mexican restaurant recipe or even home-cooked enchiladas, high carb tortillas are the first thing that comes to mind.
Keto diet enchiladas do have a place on a low carb health plan as long as you swap regular grocery store tortillas with the low carb high fiber tortillas you can now get on the market. While these kinds of tortillas still have a decent amount of carbs, they're offset but very high amounts of fiber, which get subtracted from the carb count.
If you're balking at giving up 8 net carbs to enjoy one keto enchilada, a suggestion is to do what my keto husband does when he wants to enjoy a periodic meal that is on the high end for a keto diet.....he simply plans out 1-2 zero carb meals for that particular day! One is usually bullet coffee for breakfast (which is surprisingly filling!) and the other is a medley of almost no carb snacks that when put together, make the perfect lunch for work.
Keto Enchiladas
Mexican food is something our family seriously could enjoy multiple times a week, we seriously just can't get enough of it. And while we love to frequent our favorite Mexican restaurant, it's hard for us to skip the carbs, which means we typically stick to fajitas without the shells or a taco salad with no tortilla, chips, or beans.
Making your own Mexican food at home is the best way to cut your food bill, plus you know exactly what ingredients are being used and how many carbs you're eating.
Keto chicken enchiladas in low carb tortillas are one of the best ways to enjoy restaurant-quality food, plus it serves many people at once in just one pan.
There are four basic steps to making low carb chicken enchiladas bake:
- Cook the chicken and veggies in a pan
- Fill the tortillas with the chicken mix, sauce, and cheese
- Top with more sauce and cheese
- Bake for 20 mins
While we cooked the chicken in a skillet as part of this dish, feel free to skip that step and mix in rotisserie chicken, leftover chicken, pan fried chicken tenders, instant pot Mexican shredded chicken, or shredded baked chicken.
Ingredients for Low Carb Chicken Enchiladas
To make sure these stay keto enchiladas, it's super important you read the labels of whatever brands you buy to make sure you aren't accidentally adding in extra sugar and carbs.
Keto Enchilada Ingredients
- 2 lb chicken, cubed
- 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 1 4oz can of mild green chilis, drained
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 jar no sugar enchilada sauce or homemade enchilada sauce
- 8 low carb tortillas
- 2 cups Colby jack cheese, shredded
- Non-stick cooking spray
For the low carb chicken enchiladas recipe, we used Mission Carb Balance taco shells that you can find at your local grocery store. There could be even lower carb tortillas on the market that you prefer, but my keto dieting hubby eats those and personally hasn't had any issues.
You can also substitute homemade low carb tortillas if you prefer! These are 2 net carbs less than the grocery store low carb tortillas.
Most store-bought enchilada sauces include a little bit of sugar in them, to keep the carbs as low as possible buy a brand like Rosarita that doesn't include sugar (at most grocery stores) OR make your own homemade enchilada sauce.
And by chance you don't have cumin and chili powder on hand, feel free to mix in a little taco seasoning or fajita seasoning instead!
Needed Supplies
- 9x13 baking pan
- skillet
- spatula
How to Make Low Carb Enchiladas
Cook the Chicken
In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil in the pan. Cook the onions for 3-4 minutes until the onion starts to soften.
Add the bite-sized chicken pieces, cumin, and chili powder and cook until the pieces are white on the outside. The chicken won't be cooked all the way through at this point, but will finish cooking in the oven. Stir in the drained green chilis.
Feel free to substitute roasted chicken or another type of shredded chicken you might have on hand. Making low carb enchiladas makes perfect use for leftover shredded chicken!
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Assemble the Keto Enchilada in Red Sauce
Spray a 9x13" pan with non-stick cooking spray.
Add a large spoonful of enchilada sauce to each tortilla and spread the sauce on one side of the tortilla.
Add chicken down the center of the tortilla, which will be about ½ cup of chicken.
Sprinkle with a generous sprinkle of cheese.
Roll the tortillas up and place in the baking dish either seam side up or seam side down.
Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the keto chicken enchiladas.
Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top of the low carb enchiladas recipe.
Bake and Serve
Bake for 15-20 minutes at 350F until cooked through and the cheese is melted.
Garnish with cilantro if desired, and serve with sour cream, avocado, salsa, or chives on the side.
Makes 8 servings. Enjoy!
Keto Enchilada Bake Variations
Here are a few other ideas on how you can change up the keto enchilada recipe:
- Substitute ground beef, ground chicken, ground turkey or pre-cooked roasted shredded chicken for the pan cooked chicken.
- Instead of Colby Jack cheese, try a different kind of cheese or mix your favorites together. Some ideas include cheddar, Sharp cheddar, Mexican cotija cheese, Monterey jack, 3 cheese blend, or Mexican cheese blend.
- We don't recommend using pre-shredded cheese since it uses potato starch as a binder, which adds carbs to the dish and it doesn't melt as well.
- Swap the keto enchilada red sauce for a green sauce
- Add in extra low carb veggies like mushrooms, black olives or bell peppers.
- Add some spice by cooking 1 jalapeno with the vegetable mix, or swap the green chilis for canned jalapenos
- Serve with avocado, sliced black olives, sour cream, sliced jalapenos, or salsa
Other Low Carb Mexican Recipes You'll Love
- crustless taco pie
- low carb taco soup keto taco salad
- chicken fajita bake
- chicken green chili casserole
- Baked salsa chicken
- Instant pot taco chicken
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Keto Chicken Enchiladas
Low carb and keto chicken enchiladas makes for a yummy Mexican inspired dinner no one will even know is low carb. The keto enchiladas with low carb tortillas lets you enjoy enchiladas when you're on a keto diet.
Ingredients
- 2 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into cubes
- 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup onion, diced
- 1 (4oz) can of green chilis, drained
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- 1 jar red enchilada sauce
- 8 Mission Carb Balance tortillas
- 2 cups Colby jack cheese, shredded
- Non-stick cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Cook the Chicken
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat the olive oil in the pan. Cook the onions for 3-4 minutes until the onion starts to soften.
- Add the bite-sized chicken pieces, cumin, and chili powder and cook until the pieces are white on the outside. The chicken won't be cooked all the way through at this point, but will finish cooking in the oven. Stir in the drained green chilis.
- Feel free to substitute roasted chicken or another type of shredded chicken you might have on hand. Making low carb enchiladas makes perfect use for leftover shredded chicken!
Assemble the Keto Enchilada in Red Sauce
- Spray a 9x13" pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Add a large spoonful of enchilada sauce to each tortilla and spread the sauce on one side of the tortilla.
- Add chicken down the center of the tortilla, which will be about ½ cup of chicken.
- Sprinkle with a generous sprinkle of cheese.
- Roll the tortillas up and place in the baking dish either seam side up or seam side down.
- Pour the remaining enchilada sauce over the top of the keto chicken enchiladas.
- Sprinkle the rest of the cheese over the top of the low carb enchiladas recipe.
Bake and Serve
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until cooked through and the cheese is melted.
- Garnish with cilantro if desired, and serve with sour cream, avocado, salsa, or chives on the side.
- Makes 8 servings. Enjoy!
Notes
- Instead of pan frying the chicken cubes, you can also boil chicken breast or pressure cook chicken. Chicken tenderloins work great too and are often cheaper than boneless skinless chicken breasts.
- You can substitute shredded chicken for cubed. Rotisserie chicken should work also but it will be saltier than chicken you cook yourself.
- Feel free to sub the red enchilada sauce for green enchilada sauce for variety!
- Shred the Colby Jack cheese yourself since pre-shredded cheese is coated in starch that adds extra carbs, plus it doesn't melt as well.
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Nutrition Information
Yield 8 Serving Size 1Amount Per Serving Calories 500Total Fat 29gSaturated Fat 11gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 16gCholesterol 135mgSodium 475mgCarbohydrates 25gNet Carbohydrates 8gFiber 17gSugar 0gProtein 42g
Please use the nutritional info as an estimate, the numbers can vary by brands you purchase or by calculator. If you're on a restricted health program, be sure to calculate this information manually.
Carmen says
The carb balance tortillas have lots of bad ingredients that are not even keto friendly.
WholeLottaYum says
Hi Carmen, not everyone eating Carb Balance tortillas is on a strict keto diet, some people are eating low carb. Other brands people would rather eat can definitely be used instead of Carb Balance. We've personally found that they're the closest thing to regular tortillas and eat them now and then when we're craving Mexican food.
Lynne Houston says
Love this page!! Hi, you can use the Mini Keto Mission tortillas. The mini's are only 20 calories each. I changed it up a bit: "I sprayed my casserole dish with olive oil spray and layed flat 4-6 mini tortillas, topped with shredded rotisserie chicken, chiles & japs, enchilada sauce and one pkg of *kraft mexican creamy philly four cheese, top with 4-6 more mini tortillas, then sauce and cheese. baked at the 350 suggested. Turn out excellent. Based on 4 servings: total calories per serving with using 12 mini's: 320 calories and 12 carbs per serving.
lynne houston. houstonlynne@gmail.com
Greg Divine says
I made these tonight for dinner and everyone love them . I used canned chicken and did homemade enchilada sauce with jalapeños on top , yummy. I love Mexican Food and it’s nice to have lower carb options. I’ll be making this again for sure. Thanks for sharing the recipe with us .