Chile Cheese Shrimp and Spinach Enchiladas

We love Mexican food!!! The flavors, the spice, the taste, we LOVE it all! Also, you can make a Mexican-inspired dish that's fairly quick to prepare and often can even be made ahead of time. There are so many great ways to make enchiladas. This is one of our go-to dishes. We also love enchiladas with steak and cheese. So, on those busy weeknights, dinner is ready in a few minutes with very little effort!!! Chile Cheese Shrimp and Spinach Enchiladas can be made ahead and even frozen so dinner is super easy to make. Plus, it is one of those dishes everyone in the family will love. Hey, it's an easy way to get everyone to eat spinach! 😉

Why use shrimp?

Shrimp is easy and fast to cook. They're great with all kinds of sauces or just as a snack. I think if we lived near the beach we might have shrimp even more often!! But you know, I hear Shrimp is frozen right on the fishing boats or as soon as they dock, so I'm wondering if shrimp really is better on the coast or do they taste the same anywhere?? Maybe it's just that everything tastes a little better when you're staring out at the ocean. 😁 I do know some shrimp has that shrimpy smell which can make it where the shrimp doesn't taste as good. We do have a proven way to eliminate that shrimpy smell. Click here to see how to eliminate that smell!

It is fun to serve this with a small green salad and avocado or some homemade guacamole , corn chips and Pico de Gallo!

How to Make this Spinach Enchilada Recipe

The most time consuming part of this recipe is grating the cheese. I don't like to buy the already grated cheese it never seems to taste as good as the block cheese. Also, have you ever noticed that already grated cheese never molds. Have you ever wondered about that. . . Anyway, no matter if you grate your own cheese or buy the already grated cheeses this recipe is really good!!!

Prep Work

I always think that if everything is pulled out for a recipe prior to cooking it really takes the stress out of the cooking process. And if you have an ingredient that's missing you can try to figure out a substitute without having to be rushed because something is boiling or starting to REALLY sizzle.

Sauce and Shrimp

First step for this recipe is to get the sauce and shrimp ready. Grate the cheese and mix with the sour cream and chiles together. We love Anaheim chiles but Hatch chiles or even Poblano chilies will work. The cheese and sour cream are what give this recipe that creaminess for the sauce. Next, clean the shrimp and mix with the marinade. The shrimp should not marinate for more than 30 minutes. The lime juice will start to cook the shrimp if they are in the marinade too long.

Cooking and Assembly

Sauté the spinach in olive oil and garlic. (NOTE: We used fresh baby spinach. Frozen spinach can also be used. Just use 2 Cups of frozen spinach.). It takes about 5 minutes for the 16 ounces of spinach to cook down to about 2 cups. Remove the spinach from the sauté pan and then add the shrimp. The shrimp will take 3 to 5 minutes to cook completely. Do no over cook the shrimp. (NOTE: The shrimp can be substituted with chicken. Just add 2 Cups of cooked shredded chicken instead of shrimp)

Let the spinach and shrimp cool for a few minutes before adding in the Colby Jack Cheese . Once the spinach, and shrimp have cooled stir in the Colby Jack Cheese. Fill the Flour Tortillas with the mixture. Place the filled flour tortillas into a casserole dish. Cover the tortillas with the sour cream mixture.

Place the casserole in a preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling. It's fun to serve this with a small green salad and avocado or some homemade guacamole , corn chips and Pico de Gallo or salsa! Always have Chips and Salsa available!!!! 😃

Spinach Enchilada TIPS:

• Shrimp can be replaced with roasted chicken.
• If shrimp has a shrimpy smell check out our blog post on removing that smell. . .It works!!!!
• Use light sour cream. It does save some calories.
• Make sure to measure the cheese. It's easy to add more than what is needed. Again, this saves some calories.