Creamy Shrimp Enchiladas
These Creamy Shrimp Enchiladas are a delicious Mexican recipe filled with veggies and shrimp and covered with a rich, creamy sauce. Don’t like shrimp? Make this a Creamy Chicken Enchilada recipe and it will be just as good.
I may earn commissions for purchases made through links on this post.
Creamy Shrimp Enchiladas
Today we’re making seafood enchiladas for a date night in. When I think of a special date night, seafood is the way to go.
Seafood means “adults only” in my eyes. Can I tell you that I made four different versions of these enchiladas to come up with the perfect recipe? All in one week.
Then on our date night we got Mexican food and I ordered enchiladas just for research purposes. Needless to say, you can call me the expert on how to make creamy enchiladas. And ten pounds heavier.
Start by chopping up some onion, pepper, and garlic.
Oh yeah. I found out that shelling fresh shrimp is my least favorite thing to do.
Sautee the veggies and add to the shrimp until the shrimp turn pink. We’ll be baking them more in the oven later. This mixture alone is the bomb.
Make your cream sauce and add a little to the shrimp and the rest we’re going to pour on top of the enchiladas.
These are rich and decadent. Perfect for Perfect for an easy weeknight dinner.
OTHER MEXICAN RECIPES:
- Shrimp Tostadas
- Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
- Low-Carb Shrimp Enchiladas
- Shrimp Tacos With Avocado Salsa
- Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta
- Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Pineapple Salsa
- Mexican Rice and Chicken
Creamy Shrimp Enchiladas
Ingredients
- 8 (6-inch ) flour tortillas
Shrimp Mixture:
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/2 cup red bell pepper, diced finely
- 1/2 cup white onion, diced finely
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined and chopped into 1 inch pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
Sauce:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup salsa verde
- 1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese, (use Pepper jack for more spice)
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 casserole dish with cooking spray.
- For the Shrimp Mixture: In a large skillet melt the 2 tablespoons of butter. Sautee the red bell pepper and onion over medium heat until slightly soft. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
- Add the chopped shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes or until pink or just start to turn pink. Remember we are still baking this so we don't want the shrimp to be overcooked.
- Remove mixture from the heat and add the salt, chili powder, cilantro, and lime. Stir and set aside.
- For the Sauce: In a large skillet, melt butter. Add the flour and stir and cook for 1-2 minutes. Slowly add the chicken broth and continue to cook over medium high heat stirring constantly. The mixture will start out thin and thicken up once it cooks.
- Once the mixture has thickened lower the heat and add the Monterey Jack cheese and stir until the cheese melts. You can remove mixture from the heat and stir in the green salsa and sour cream.
- Add 1 cup of the sauce to the reserved shrimp mixture and stir.
- Fill a tortilla with 1/3 cup of the shrimp mixture, roll the tortilla tightly and place it seam side down in the baking dish. Repeat with the remaining tortillas.
- Pour the remaining sauce over the tortillas and bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and let the enchiladas sit for 10 minutes before serving. Serve with pico de gallo, sour cream, and guacamole. You can also serve with refried beans or black beans.
Question on making ahead and freezing, are you completely assembling with sauce and freezing or adding the sauce before they go into the oven. I want to make these for a wedding rehearsal and don’t want them to be not right.
Honestly you can do it either way but if you’re worried about them getting soggy you can add sauce before just in case.
I made this subbing jarred chipotle peppers for the bell peppers. It made all the difference. The smokey flavor of the peppers enriched the recipe greatly.
Good to know!
Any way to make the sauce gluten free? We use gluten free tortillas, but would corn starch, xanthan gum or arrowroot powder be used to thicken the sauce?
Yes I’ve used xanthum gum to thicken it!
I see salsa verde in the ingredients list but no where in the instructions. When do I add it?
The green salsa is added in step 6
Very Good!
Made exactly as in the recipe and they were excellent once again.
My wife raved about it again, just as she did in 2016.
Thanks for sharing.
Aww thank you!
I will use a little less cheese next time, I used Oaxaca cheese, it was very good. I added jalapeños too. Thank you!
You’re welcome!
Love these and have made them many times! The only thing is I feel like they stick more then other enchiladas even with spraying the pan. Maybe I should put a little sauce on the bottom before assembling and putting in the pan? I also recommend adding jalapeño if you like a little heat. So good!
Yes that would help!
Hi. I made these last night and they were delicious. What I don’t understand though is that my sauce was green because of the salsa verde but the photos in this post don’t have show any green at all. Is 1/2 cup of salsa verde correct?
The step by step photos have a green tint but it isn’t super green unless you salsa verde was really green.
Love these enchiladas! Have made several times. If you want to make ahead and freeze, do you freeze before or after you cook in the oven? If so do you go straight from freezer to oven or let thaw?
You can freeze before cooking or after but I prefer before. Thaw in the fridge overnight than bake as directed
I have made this recipe and it is delicious!!! However, can you give instructions on how to prepare ahead of time? Do I fully assemble, refrigerate and then reheat? I would like to make ahead of time to take in our RV to celebrate a birthday. Thank you!
Yes I personally would assemble and reheat!
Thank you so much.
The creamy shrimp Enchiladas tasted so good. My daughter really like it and she took two of them. Thank you!
Awesome!
Can you make this ahead of time or will that not work since the first step isnt fully cooking thr shrimp?
Yes, you can totally make ahead of time.
BEST THING EVER!! I’ve been indulging in comfort foods and these enchiladas made me so very happy! After reading reviews, I went ahead and doubled the shrimp, but followed everything else exactly. Absolutely perfect!
Thank yoU!
This might be one of the most delicious dishes I’ve ever made. I never comment on recipe blogs but this was SO yum! Made it just as written! Thanks so much!
Yay! glad you took the time to comment.
What would be an amazing side with these???
I love these all on their own, but I’m making these for a dinner party with my sisters, and need something to go with them! Of course a salad, but what else?
I would do the cilantro lime rice. Double it! https://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/cafe-rio-cilantro-lime-rice/
Can I freeze this?
Yes!
Curious if this recipe freezes well. Going to make this tomorrow… Sounds yummy!
Freezes great!
This was great. I left the red pepper out. Everyone cleaned their plates. The shrimp were so tasty before putting into the tortilla. They’d be great in shrimp tacos as well.
It’s one of my faves.
Just made this recipe today. I have been ordering shrimp mexican dinners for the past year, so gave this a try knowing I would love it. My husband, maybe not so much. He had to make himself stop eating it as he loved, loved, loved it.
So so happy to hear that!
I showed this recipe to my husband and he was like “ I don’t know about that” and kind of turned his nose up at it. Well…I made this and he couldn’t stop talking about it. He said I need to make this again. I’m so glad he tried it and liked it! I liked it also.
This is one of my favorite recipes! I’ve made it with both shrimp and chicken and it’s fantastic. The only thing I do different is use less butter and flour and use fat free Greek Yogurt instead of sour cream. I also use low carb tortillas and fat free cheese. So good!
Great substitutions.
I followed this recipe to a T and these are to die for❤️
Wa-hoo! Awesome!
Absolutely delicious. I didn’t use the salsa verde but included spinach in the filling. The chilli gave it a lovely bite!
Glad you liked them.
This recipe looks great & I will be making it for company. Any tips on making ahead?
I wouldn’t do too far ahead or the tortillas can get soggy.
I added spinach (OMGGGG so gooooddd). We also used Dark chili powder, mexican cheese blend, and a bit more of all of the flavors to compensate for the spinach. SO GOOD. I highly recommend going super hard on the lime and cilantro. It pairs impeccably with the shrimp 😍
It’s me again. I forgot an important add! I added about 1-2tbsp of pickled jalapeño juice to the sauce. 10/10 recommend that, if not more. (We had to keep it mild for our two toddlers! They can do spicy but not too much!)
I made these today too! Forgot how much I liked them.
I really cheated by using cream of chicken soup for the white sauce along with the sour cream, salsa, and cheese. I also use this in my chicken enchiladas. A big time saver!
Hey whatever works!