Enjoy a delicious Mexican Night with this Low Syn Pasta Chicken Enchiladas
I was really craving some chicken enchiladas, but of course on Slimming World, tortilla’s are synned. So I came up with an idea of using manicotti pasta shells instead to keep the syns down and OMG it was so good.
If you can not find manicotti shells, then you can replace with cannelloni, but you will need to up the amount of shell used, as these are slightly smaller than manicotti or you could use some softened lasagne sheets and roll up with the filling inside.
You can also make these Pasta Chicken Enchiladas gluten free if you use a gluten free pasta. I like brown rice pasta as I find it is the closest in taste and texture.
This recipes make 4 portions, and I just served it with salad. But you could also serve with some additional sides like syn free chips or seasoned rice.
These Pasta Chicken Enchiladas totally cured my craving for the original dish. It’s delicious!!
Extra Easy - 1 HEa and 0.5 syns
WW Smart Points - 9
- 450g/1lb of extra lean ground chicken or turkey
- ½ red pepper, chopped finely
- ½ green pepper, chopped finely
- 1 onion chopped finely
- 2 cloves of garlic crushed
- 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
- 8 manicotti pasta shells (can use gluten free)
- 4 tablespoons of quark
- 90g of cheddar cheese (3xHEa's)
- 50g of mozzarella (1xHEa)
- 320ml/1.5cup of passata
- 240ml/1 cup of water
- pinch of cayenne
- 1.5 teaspoons of chilli powder
- ½ teaspoon of cumin
- ½ teaspoon of paprika
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon of onion powder
- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup (2 syns)
- 1 teaspoon of oregano
- Preheat the oven to 175c or 350f
- Add the manicotti pasta shells to a saucepan of hot water and cook until they just start to soften (not too soft, they need to have a little firmness to be able to fill with the meat mixture). Then drain hot water, and cover with cold water. Set aside until you are ready to use.
- In a small saucepan, add all the ingredients for the enchilada sauce, bring to the boil and reduce to a low heat. Leave it to simmer away for approx 20mins to reduce down, while you make the enchilada filling.
- Add to a frying pan on a medium heat, the ground chicken, onion, garlic, red pepper and green pepper and cook until the meat is no longer pink and cooked through. Reduce the heat right down.
- Add the 1 tsp of chilli powder and mix thoroughly. Add the quark and a 30g of the cheddar cheese and stir to evenly coat.
- Fill all the manicotti shells with the meat mixture and lay them all in
a ovenproof dish. Top withyou enchilada sauce and the remaining cheddar cheese and mozzarella. - Cover with foil and bake in the oven for approx 30mins, remove foil and then continue to bake for another 10 minutes until cheese on top is nice and golden.
- Serve with a side salad.
Nutritional information is an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only
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Nutritional information is an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only
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These look so morish and just what you want when you are feeling a little naughty. Thanx, will def be giving these a try x
Lisa, you won’t be disappointed (I hope). They were lovely. Even my 3 year old was giving them a try and normally he wont eat anything like that.
Brit Mum – sounds delish! Is manicotti like cannelloni, please?
yes manicotti is similiar to cannelloni, only the tubes are slightly bigger. If you can’t get them, I am sure you could substitute with cannelloni.
Caneloni was a pain so I opted for the lasagne sheets. Altered recipe a little but still tasted great. Just gutted I couldn’t find the shells. Thanx, we now have something else to eat and use up turkey mince! xxx
Could I use large pasta shells?
yep you could, I used the manicotti, because it was the closest pasta tube shape to a rolled up tortilla.
Yet another winner! I made these last night and they were delish! Definitely a keeper. Thanks again for another great recipe! x
What a lovely recipe, I too love enchiladas but have not had them for ages due to the high syns of tortillas. Will try these with lasagne sheets as I think I will struggle to get the larger tubes. Delia did a cannelloni years ago using thin omlettes so might try that too. Thanks for posting.
Mmmmm this looks delicious and my partner loves Mexican and really misses it, but its too high in Syns usually, so I am going to cook this for her to give her a treat! TY xxx
I love Mexican too and was thinking how could I make enchiladas lower in syns and then thought I will use pasta tubes. It works really well. I hope you and your partner enjoy it 🙂
Provided chicken was fresh, would these freeze welll? I am thinking of making a batch and freezing individual portions as hubby not keen on pasta and so it would only be for myself.
Just had to let you know, I made these for tea tonight and they were absolutely fantastic!
I used canneloni tubes (didn’t have to pre-cook them either) and the whole dish came out great. Only thing I will change next time I make them is to cut down to one tspn sugar as I felt it was a wee bit too sweet for me, but still nice.
Thanks for another great recipe.
OMG cooked these tonight and YUMMY!!! I served it with salad as you suggested.
A few things I did slightly different was use my splenda brown blend sugar, which reduced the syns a tiny bit.
Couldnt get manicotti shells, I looked all over,so used cannelloni as suggested alternative. I did an extra red pepper, as was cooking for 5, to make the filling stretch, the extra pepper did the trick, and doubled the tomatoe sauce,but not the spices. Couldn’t get chicken mince, so used Turkey mince.
My OH loved this, and said defo cook it again! She loves Mexican so big thumbs up from her! The whole family loved it, including the kids!
It is yummy isnt it, I love mexican food and was wondering what I could use to replace the tortillas. Great idea re: using the splenda to reduce the syns too. My 3 year old was having it too, when I cooked it, so didnt want to use sweeteners. Has made me want to do this again, I have some mince to use up, so might do it tomorrow.
Oh wow just had this for tea, yum, yum what a treat – have used a few of your recipes now and have got to say you never dissapoint – I think it’s fabulous you putting all your wonderful recipes on here thank you so much x
I am gradually working through your yummy recipes, thanks. I am preparing this one just now. One thing I am never sure of is your herbs. When you include 1tsp of oregano for example, are you meaning fresh or dried? Thanks
I got a bit confused about garlic powder & garlic salt, typically had garlic granuals in my cupboard, so just a teaspoon of that in instead of both the salt & powder.
usually if I put tsp it will be dried, although you can use fresh if you have it (and it tastes better too). Hope that helps 🙂
Bloomin heck that was a fast reply, thanks. 🙂 I .I thought it would be some ungodly hour in your neck of the woods.
I have used dried as I haven’t fresh. Being English, of course it’s turkey mince, as our supermarkets don’t seem to stock chicken mince.
It’s all prepared now ready to go in the oven for tonight, my 17 year old son has already been sniffing around it and I can’t wait to eat it too.
Well, we have just polished off Chrissy’s enchiladas, and they were positively gorgeous. Stunning, brilliant, wonderful, yummy, plenty more superlatives where these came from to describe them. These aredefinitely on the “to have again” list
Made this last night, but instead of the minced chicken used breast strips and omitted the quark and cheese in the filling (more like a fajita filling), also assembled like a normal lasagne with sheets instead of tubes, FANTASTIC! Recommend everyone tries it! Thanks for the inspiration!
(foodiejouk)
Just made this, but with steak mince instead of chicken, i thought it was gorgeous, but forgot to pre cook the pasta so most of it was not quite cooked. I don’t mind pasta like this but the rest of the family just ate the filling. Will definitely be trying again but will remember to precook the pasta this time.
can i ask what onion powder is? i’ve looked in various shops/supermarkets and can’t find it anywhere. can it be replaced or omitted?
thanks
by the way the sweet potato, broccoli and cheese patties are a huge favourite x
Still having this regularly after 6 years, still love it 🙂
I haven’t made it for a while, am planning to make it in the next week. 🙂 Glad you enjoy it.
Made this tonight with lasagna sheets, was extremely yummy! Will make again for sure.
Lovely dish, went down a treat.