Copycat Carlos O’Kelly’s Enchilada de Monterrey
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One of the best selling dishes at Carlos O’Kelly’s is their Enchilada de Monterrey! Pulled Chicken and Monterrey Jack rolled in a flour tortilla and covered with cheese enchilada sauce – it’s so good!
If you’re not familiar, Carlos O’Kelly’s is a chain Mexican restaurant in Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. Their very first location was actually in Marion, IA and that’s the location I’ve been to a million times! I didn’t even know it was the OG! haha! They are super famous for their queso and their salsa – but I couldn’t just stop there – I had to make more of their dishes!
How do you make Enchilada de Monterrey?
Enchilada de Monterrey takes a bit of time – but the most time-consuming part is the chicken and you can make that ahead of time. First poach the chicken thighs & breast and then saute onion and add the chicken. Then you’ll add a load of delicious seasonings along with salsa, green chiles and chicken broth and let it cook down. Then the chicken needs to refrigerate overnight.
When you’re ready for dinner, whisk together nacho cheese, cream of chicken soup, chiles, salsa, sour cream and seasonings and then heat to simmer. This is your cheese enchilada sauce and it’s AMAZING!!!!!
Finally – put it all together! Roll the flour burritos with chicken and colby jack cheese – then pop them in a making dish and top with the cheese enchilada sauce and a little more shredded cheese and bake for 25 minutes. Dinner is served!
Can you freeze Enchiladas de Monterrey?
Yes! This recipe makes 8 LARGE enchiladas – so I took half of them and froze them right off the bat. Then the rest I parsed out into glass containers for lunches (still working from home!). To reheat, thaw completely in the refrigerator and then heat in the oven or microwave. The tortillas do sog a bit – so you could freeze the chicken filling on it’s own – it’s so good!
Best Mexican Restaurant Copycat Recipes
Here is a list of the other copycat recipes from my favorite Mexican restaurants:
- Carlos O’Kelly’s Salsa
- Carlos O’Kelly’s Queso
- Chuy’s Tres Leches Cake
- Chipotle Corn Salsa
- Carlos O’Kelly’s Cheese & Onion Enchiladas
Copycat Carlos O’Kelly’s Enchilada de Monterrey
Equipment
- Meat Thermometer
Ingredients
Enchilada Filling
- 8 cups water
- 3 tbsp Better than Bouillon base
- 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut in half
- 1/2 onion diced
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp minced garlic
- 1 tsp coarse sea salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp Lawry's seasoning salt
- 1 tbsp oregano
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1/2 cup Carlos O'Kelly's salsa
- 4 oz diced chiles
- 1 cup reserved chicken broth
- 8 oz colby jack cheese shredded
- 8 large flour tortillas
Cheese Enchilada Sauce
- 1 can nacho cheese sauce
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 4 oz diced green chiles
- 1/2 cup Carlos O'Kelly's salsa
- 1 tbsp onion powder
- 1 tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 cup reserved chicken broth
- 1 cup sour cream
Instructions
Chicken Filling
- Bring water to boil in a stock pot, when boiling add Better than Bouillon base and stir to dissolve
- Turn heat to low and add chicken. Cover with lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes until chicken temps to 165 degrees.
- When chicken is done, save 1.5 cups of chicken broth for later
- Drain chicken and let cool
- In a large skillet, saute diced onion in oil for two minutes. Add garlic and saute until onions are translucent. (you might want to use the stock pot again!)
- Once chicken is cool, roughly chop and pull the chicken into bite sized pieces.
- When onions are translucent, add in chicken, salt, pepper, seasoning salt, oregano and cumin. Cook on medium for 5 minutes.
- Add in salsa, chiles and one cup reserved chicken broth. Let simmer for 20 minutes. (Refrigerate remaining broth for tomorrow)
- Place chicken mixture into a large covered bowl and refrigerate overnight (or at least three hours)
Enchilada Sauce
- In stock pot, add all Enchilada sauce ingredients and whisk together until blended
- Heat on medium high for 10 minutes until simmering – stirring often
Enchilada de Monterrey
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking dish with nonstock spray
- Lay out large flour tortilla and spoon in 1/3-1/2 cup chicken mixture
- top with 1/3 cup shredded cheese
- Fold ends and roll like a burrito and place in baking dish
- Pour enchilada sauce over burritos (you'll likely have extra! refrigerate and enjoy with chips later)
- Top with remaining shredded cheese
- Bake for 25 minutes
- Top with sour cream, diced green onion and diced tomatoes
Heather, Thank you, thank you, thank you soo much I’M SO EXCITED TO MAKE THIS!!!!!!!
Hahaha – i knew you would be! i have sancho especial recipe now too – so that might be soon!
WOW WOW WOW!!! Just made these for the the family and they are SPOT ON!!! AMAZING, we’ve been missing these enchiladas for so long! Love this website so much!
Yeah!!!! Glad you liked them!
From Wisconsin & never heard of Carlos O’Kelly’s restaurant. Enchilada sauce requires 1 can Nacho cheese sauce. Wasn’t sure what it was so used 7 oz (1/2 jar) of Tostitos Salsa Con Queso. Hope it’s a good substitute. Made the chicken filling tonight…it has amazing flavor. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s dinner!
This is what I use for the nacho cheese sauce – but i’m sure the queso was fine – even velveeta would be fine – https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ricos-Gourmet-Nacho-Cheddar-Cheese-Sauce-15-0-OZ/10452386
Sauce is on the money. I used La preferida nacho cheese from hyvee. I’ve been making crepes a lot and decided to make a no sugar batch of crepes to sub for tortillas, wow that was good. I will be making this again.
Thanks – i’m glad you liked it!
This is a yummy dish. The chicken filling recipe is spot on. The sauce recipe is a bit different than I remember from working there. The sauce I made had:
1 can cream of chicken
1 can cheese soup
white pepper
sour cream
some diced green onion bottoms
water to thin it out a bit
Regional store recipes might differ. I worked in a Virgina location. They are all closed now. Makes me sad.
Thanks for the notes – a former employee from Iowa passed the recipe on to me. Theyre still open! 🙂
I worked at the one in Newport News, VA back in the early 90s. I remember green chilis in the enchilada sauce too. I’m gonna make both of your recipes and see which one is the closest. Thanks!