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Pasta Chicken Enchiladas

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Enjoy a delicious Mexican Night with this Low Syn Pasta Chicken Enchiladas – a perfect meal for the entire family.

pasta chicken enchiladas in a metal baking tray with a mixed salad and soured cream in background

Chicken Enchiladas

I was really craving some chicken enchiladas, but of course on Slimming World, tortilla’s are synned apart from a small few which you can use as a healthy extra B and just 1 of those isn’t going to cut it when you fancy enchiladas. 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 number of shells used, as these are slightly smaller than manicotti or you could use some softened lasagne sheets and roll up with the filling inside.

These Pasta Chicken Enchiladas totally cured my craving for the original dish. It’s delicious!!

sliced pasta chicken enchiladas in metal baking tray with soured cream and salad in background

Tips for Filling Manicotta/Cannelloni Shells

Stand them upright on a plate, make them much easier to fill without the filling falling out the bottom. Once you have filling them, you can then carefully lay flat and into the oven dish. 

Some shells are oven-ready too, meaning they don’t need parboiling before adding to the oven. Making them much easier to handle.

Sides for Enchiladas

When it comes to sides for Enchiladas, I like to keep it simple and go for a mixed salad and some soured cream. If I have a few syns spare, then some avocado is great too. Check out my post on Avocado on Slimming World to see why it’s not quite as high synned as you may think.

Wondering exactly what is in my salad? I simply used:

  • Shredded Romaine Lettuce
  • Chopped Grape Tomatoes
  • Baby Cucumber
  • Red Onion

close up of sliced pasta chicken enchiladas in metal baking tray

More Great Sides for a Mexican Fakeaway

Some other great sides for this are this Mexican Rice – yum. You could even make this pea guacamole that is a great lower syn option to the real thing and taste great. 

Some might even enjoy a few Syn Free Chips or Garlic and Herbs Wedges.

wooden spatula serving up slice of pasta chicken enchiladas from metal baking dish

Syn Free & Zero Point Soured Cream

Wondering how to make a simple syn free or zero point soured cream if you want to save syns? I just use plain fat-free Greek Yoghurt, a little juice of fresh lemon and some sea salt.

So simple and a great alternative. 

serving of pasta chicken enchiladas on a light teal plate with mixed salad and soured cream

More pasta bake recipes

Love pasta bakes? Check out these other delicious recipes:

or head on over to my Full Recipe Index with over 850 delicious Slimming World and Weight Watchers recipes all fully searchable by meal type, ingredients, syn value and smart points etc

close up of serving of pasta chicken enchiladas on teal plate with salad

This recipe was originally created on 28 January 2010 and updated on 10th February 2020

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Pasta Chicken Enchiladas

Pasta Chicken Enchiladas

Yield: SERVES 4
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Enjoy a delicious Mexican Night with this Low Syn Pasta Chicken Enchiladas - a perfect meal for the entire family.

Ingredients

  • 450g/1lb of extra lean ground chicken or turkey
  • 1/2 red pepper, chopped finely
  • 1/2 green pepper, chopped finely
  • 1 onion chopped finely
  • 2 cloves of garlic crushed
  • 1 teaspoon of chilli powder
  • 8 manicotti pasta shells or 12 cannelloni shells
  • 4 tablespoons of quark
  • 90g of cheddar cheese (3xHEa's)
  • 50g of mozzarella (1xHEa)

For the Enchilada sauce:

  • 320ml/1.5cup of crushed tomatoes (or can use passata)
  • 1 tbs of tomato paste (up this to 2 or 3 if using passata)
  • 240ml/1 cup of water
  • pinch of cayenne
  • 1.5 teaspoons of chilli powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon of paprika
  • 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of onion powder
  • 1 tablespoon of maple syrup (2 syns)
  • 1 teaspoon of oregano

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 175c or 350f
  2. 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.
  3. In a small saucepan, add all the ingredients for the enchilada sauce, bring to the boil and reduce to a medium heat and add a lid. Leave it to simmer away for approx 20mins to reduce down, while you make the enchilada filling. Ensure it has reduced down and thickened before continue with the rest otherwise your sauce will be too runny.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Fill all the manicotti shells with the meat mixture and lay them all in a ovenproof dish. Top with you enchilada sauce and the remaining cheddar cheese and mozzarella.
  7. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for approx 30mins, remove foil and then continue to bake for another 15 minutes until cheese on top is nice and golden.
  8. Serve with a side salad.

Notes

This recipe is Slimming World and Weight Watchers friendly

  • Slimming World - 1 HEa and 0.5 syns
  • Green WW Smart Points - 10 per serving
  • Blue WW Smart Points - 8 per serving
  • Purple WW Smart Points - 8 per serving

NOTE: For WW use 98% fat-free ground chicken or turkey

SUITABLE FOR FREEZING

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Nutrition Information:
Serving Size: 1 SERVING
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 472Total Fat: 16.8gSaturated Fat: 8.1gCholesterol: 101mgSodium: 663mgCarbohydrates: 43.7gFiber: 4.4gSugar: 11gProtein: 38.7g
© Siobhan (Slimming Eats)
Cuisine: Mexican, American / Category: Main

pasta chicken enchiladas featured Pinterest image

It is the responsibility of the Reader to assure the products or ingredients they use in any recipes from Slimming Eats are allergen-free (gluten-free, egg-free and/or dairy-free, for example) or Vegetarian friendly. Slimming Eats assumes no liability for inaccuracies or misstatement about products, opinions or comments on this site.

Nutritional information is an estimate and is to be used for informational purposes only

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If you wish to share this recipe, then please do so by using the share buttons provided. Do not screenshot or post recipe or content in full.

* Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” Check Legal section, for Full Disclaimer, Disclosure and Privacy Policy.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lisa Evrae

    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

  2. admin

    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.

  4. admin

    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.

  5. Lisa Evrae

    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

  7. admin

    yep you could, I used the manicotti, because it was the closest pasta tube shape to a rolled up tortilla.

  8. StaceyUK

    Yet another winner! I made these last night and they were delish! Definitely a keeper. Thanks again for another great recipe! x

  9. Angela

    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.

  10. silvermaneuk

    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

  11. admin

    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 🙂

  12. Lizabeth

    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.

  13. Lizabeth

    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.

  14. silvermaneuk

    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!

  15. admin

    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.

  16. leanne

    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

  17. Chrissy

    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.

  18. admin

    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 🙂

  19. Chrissy

    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.

  20. redroseexile

    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

  21. Anonymous

    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)

  22. smegs_1978

    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.

  23. kelly orrow

    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

  25. Admin

    I haven’t made it for a while, am planning to make it in the next week. 🙂 Glad you enjoy it.

  28. Helen

    Absolutely delicious, even my teenagers loved it and they can be quite picky! I had all the ingredients in the cupboard apart from the cannelloni so I cooked up some penne pasta, put the dishes together in a casserole topped with cheese and backed in the oven for half an hour. I’ll definitely be doing this again.

  29. Annette

    OMG this was sooooo good! Am missing mexican food so much and this really ticked the box. Used one sweetener rather than maple syrup and it was delicious!

    LOVE LOVE Slimming eats!

  30. Fiona Wright

    Could I use low fat Greek yoghurt instead of quark? Really can’t stand the taste of quark…. love, love your recipes ❤️❤️❤️

  31. Siobhan (Slimming Eats)

    Hi there, I am not keen on quark either, but in this dish you really don’t taste it. But yes you could use Greek Yoghurt or syn some light soured cream.

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