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.
Creamy Shrimp Enchiladas
Today we’re making Creamy Shrimp 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 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 shrimp is my least favorite thing to do.
Sautee the veggies and add to the shrimp until they are just barely pink. We’ll be baking them more in the oven later. This mixture alone is the bomb.
Make your cheese sauce and add a little to the shrimp and the rest we’re going to smother the enchiladas with.
These are rich and decadent. Perfect for a date night!
OTHER SEAFOOD RECIPES:
- Shrimp Tostadas
- Shrimp Tacos With Avocado Salsa
- Creamy Shrimp and Mushroom Pasta
- Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Pineapple Salsa
- Rosemary Ranch Salmon
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.
Ingredients
- 8 6-inch flour tortillas
- 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
- 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
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a 9x13 pan with cooking spray.
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For the Shrimp Mixture: In a large skillet melt the 2 tablespoons of butter. Sautee the red bell pepper and onion until slightly soft. Add the garlic and cook for an additional minute.
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Add the shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes or until pink just start to turn pink. Remember we are still baking this so we don't want the shrimp to be overcooked.
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Remove mixture from the heat and add the salt, chili powder, cilantro, and lime. Stir and set aside.
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For the Sauce: In a large skillet melt the 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.
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Once the mixture has thickened lower the heat and add the Monterey Jack cheese and stir until melted. You can remove mixture from the heat and stir in the green salsa and sour cream.
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Add 1 cup of the sauce to the reserved shrimp mixture and stir.
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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.
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Pour the sauce over the tortillas and bake uncovered for 30-40 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.
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Remove from the oven and let the enchiladas sit for 10 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes
Source: The GIrl Who Ate Everything
Made these and they were fantastic! I followed all your directions but had leftover shrimp from the night before and since it wasn’t quite a pound I threw in some fresh spinach when preparing the filling. Worked great! Thanks for sharing!
Awesome! I love hearing that.
Fantastic! So many recipes sound great, but then are disappointing when finished. These were easy to make and delicious. We did the cilantro lime rice as well, with a can of black beans thrown in at the end. Very filling meal and just the right amount of spice with the salsa verde rather than overpowering the shrimp with too much jalapeno, etc as some recipes include. A true keeper!
Ooh I misread this first and thought you said you were disappointed. Glad you liked it!
Happy Holidays!!
I just wanted to take a moment to share; this is the Best enchilada recipe I’ve ever tried!!
This year the college students in our family made a request to change up our traditional Christmas feast. They unanimously, agreed on having a Mexican menu. We all agreed, and it was beautiful!! I contributed Your creamy shrimp enchilada recipe, as well as a cheesy chicken enchilada recipe (from some other site) By far, the shrimp enchiladas disappeared first, and everyone wanted a copy of this recipe.
Thank you for sharing this with the world!! We may never go back to our traditional Christmas Feast again!!
Thank You!!
RR
Oh my God, I used your recipe and they came out absolutely delicous!!! Thank you.
Thank you!
I was so disappointed. Saw this recipe had 5 star reviews so it ‘had’ to be good. This fell so flat of my expectations. The sauce is so bland and the tortillas were gummy. You definitely need to add more spices to make this palatable. I’m not a good snob but my husband and I were really disappointed in this recipe, which I calculated and measured out perfectly according to the directions. He barely finished one enchilada and when I asked him if he wanted me to save the rest of the pan he said “if you want them go ahead and save it” which definitely says something from a man who loves everything I cook!
Sorry Jenn. A lot of people love these which shows we all have different tastebuds.
I wonder how these would be with corn tortillas? I’m not usually a fan of flour myself because of that “gumminess” you describe. Was already going to make a double batch of these, now I think I might make half with corn & half with flour just to see.
As for the sauce not being spicy enough for you Jenn, is that really a failing of the recipe? I would just use a spicier green sauce, maybe add a chile if you really want. Everyone seems to enjoy different heat levels, that is why there is salsa on the table at restaurants.
I am very much looking forward to making this scrumptious sounding dish for a special celebration. Thank you for sharing this delicious and easy sounding recipe Christy!
Just wanted to let you know that my husband and I made these for the first time last night and we LOVED them. My husband even said that he would rank this recipe in the “Top 5 Dinner Recipes” category! 🙂 Thanks for such a tasty dish!
I love hearing that! Thank you, thank you!
Do you have a recipe for creamy chipotle sauce? I think it would be delicious with the shrimp enchiladas.
I don’t! But I bet that would be great!
Delicious!!! Yummy!!!!!! I did something a little differently I pick up pepper jack cheese by mistake and used it. Also there was a little bit of shrimp mixture left. I stirred it in with the sauce that you cover the enchaladas with and YUMMY!
Sounds fabulous!
can you uselemon instead of lime
Yes, I love lime but you can.
These were fantastic. I followed the recipe exactly. However, I do recommend ensuring there’s plenty of cooking spray and/or sauce in the baking dish. The bottoms of my tortillas got a little dry. Other than that, great recipe.
Thank you!
Ok, these look FABULOUS, and my soon-to-be-son-in-law loves shrimp!!! (And yes, he IS going to love me more than his own mother.) Since you hate the shrimp peeling process, I was just wondering if you’ve tried a shrimp peeling/deveining device. They’re sold in the gadget department of most grocery stores–at least here in the South.–and at Bed, Bath, and Beyond They’re usually red plastic, but sometimes you can find a smaller metal one. You simply grab the shrimp in one hand, place the point of the instrument in the vein that runs under the top of the shell, and proceed to push the instrument under the shell to the tail. It will lift the shell from the shrimp along with the vein. A gentle tug will pull the shrimp free of tail, shell and vein. It takes mere seconds. My mother-in-law was convinced she could do the job faster with a knife until we had a little contest. She bought a shrimper!
How did I not know about this? Thank you!
These were delish! I have the good fortune to live in S.E. Alaska where we can harvest our own shrimp (two types), crab, salmon and halibut. I am always on the look out for really good seafood recipes. I followed the advice of another poster and added 1/2 tsp. each of cumin and cayenne which was a good addition to an already great recipe. Also browned the casserole under the broiler per another poster. Husband loved them and they will be made again. Thank you for a great recipe.
You’re welcome!
I made this tonight & my whole family loved it. Changed a lil too make enough for 6. Doubled sauce ingred. & added 1sm.can rotel in place of salsa verde b/c it was handy! Still was delicious! Thanks so much.
You’re welcome!
This looks amazing ! Will have to try it real soon !
I been looking for something about the same as what Chi-Chi’s used to serve (Cancun) and haven’t been able to find… this sauce looks similar .
Thank you! I hope you enjoy them.
I haven’t tried any of these recipes yet, I rarely look at pinterest, but everything looks fabulously delicious. If I made each thing that looks good I’d weigh about 500 pounds. These days I am an empty nester so I cook much less than I used to. I guess I will have to pick and choose. My husband does like cheese sauce on some things so I am hoping I can get the sauce on the enchiladas by him. He has a keen sense of taste so he might detect the sour cream. That would not be good.
Haha. You’re funny. Thank you for stopping by. I feel honored.
I tried this tonight. Was home alone snd its so good I want to invite wveryone over. I tweaked it to my liking but great dish to make! I apso added diced chicken.
So glad you liked it!
Crystal, do you mean you made them with shrimp AND chicken or did you substitute chicken for the shrimp? Thanks if you see this 😀
I have never found a shrimp enchilada recipe that looks so delicious as this one.
Thank you so much!
These look amazing I’m going to make them with corn tortillas(I think they have so much more flavor) and serve alongside calabazitas, a Mexican side dish that consists of sauteed zucchini, corn, tomato, onion, and jalapeño with a dollop of sour cream on top.
Sounds delicious!
I have a bunch of those little salad pink shrimp in my freezer I would like to make with this but they are pre cooked. Will it taste okay if I don’t sauté them with the onion and garlic?
They should taste fine.
Wow! This recipe looks SOOO yummy!! I’m going to try my hand at it this weekend for a Mexican themed date night with my hubby! I have NEVER cooked shrimp before though (other than frozen popcorn shrimp from a box if that even counts! haha) So I am wondering… what kind of shrimp do you buy? Is it fresh from the meat section, frozen then thawed or what? Any help would be appreciated!! Thanks!
-Bethany
Bethany,
Fresh is definitely always better. If you buy it from the fresh seafood section you can get them already peeled and deveined which I love. Good luck!
Hi. Love this recipe, making double batch today . Question: have u ever made then frozen these for later use and do they turn out well? Wondering if I should make more layered casserole type than rolled if I plan to freeze? Suggestions, ideas, for large group next weekend. Am cooking for 22, trying to do as much as possible in advance. Thanks. I love your stuff. Lyn
Shoot. I’ve never tried freezing these so I’m not sure how they would turn out. You could definitely layer these instead.
I freeze my seafoof enchiladas all the time, I freeze sauce separately, then reheat in crockpot on low or in microwave on power, cover enchiladas with foil reheat in low oven til thawed take foil off let tortillas start to get alittle hard pour sauce on turn up heat and bake as usual, won’t be soggy or curdle
I made these for dinner last night. They were delicious. To avoid a trip to the grocery store, I used what I had on hand. I substituted a can of Rotel original (drained) in place of the salsa verde, and a combo of coconut milk and greek yogurt for the sour cream. This recipe is a keeper!
If I were to use frozen shrimp, would I need to go about anything different?
No. Just make sure you thaw them in cold water.
I made these for my husbands birthday party. I made it exactly as the recipe said and they were a HUGE hit with all our guests. I doubled the recipe and it made two large roaster pans full. Everyone wanted the recipe and went back for seconds. We had some leftovers and they were just as good the next day. Love, love, love this recipe and I will be making these again, for sure! Thank you!
Thank you! So happy to hear that.
I’ve been craving these for a month, and I finally made them! Added green chiles and a little bit of green enchilada sauce instead of the salsa.. They look and taste amazing! Thanks for the awesome recipe!
These sound delish! Do you think it would work if I sub veggie broth for the chicken?
Yes, it shouldn’t make a difference.
This was such an amazing find!!! My husband and I were practically licking our plates! I just love your blog and all your delicious recipies ! They make me excited to come home and make dinner!
Just made these. My husband LOVED them! I used low carb tortillas. I only used half of the sauce over the enchiladas. Next time I make this I will half the sauce recipe. I also used more than half of one onion and red pepper. I might add spinach and mushrooms next time. Thank you for the recipe!
You’re welcome!
Looks so delicious!!! And about to try. However, I am Hispanic and there’s hundred types of green salsa and chili powder in my book
Sorry. Posting from my phone. My question is what kind if salsa and chili powder did you happen to use. Thank you
I used Mission Salsa Verde and McCormick Chili powder.
Looks so delicious!!! And about to try. However, I am Hispanic and there’s hundred types of green salsa and chili powder in my book