El Monterey Chicken Enchiladas Review

El Monterey Chicken Enchiladas

It seems that every frozen food manufacturer under the sun has their own take on enchiladas — this includes everyone from Lean Cuisine to Stouffer’s to Trader Joe’s. So it should come as no surprise that a brand like El Monterey, which specializes in southwest-style frozen food (burritos, mostly), would offer their own take on this dish.

Now, we’ve actually tried El Monterey’s enchiladas before. We thought their Cheese Enchiladas weren’t astounding, but they were still a lot better than we were expecting. So that makes us feel pretty good about today’s frozen food review: the El Monterey Chicken Enchiladas.

For an El Monterey frozen meal, these enchiladas actually have a pretty substantial cook time. Sure, these need to be zapped for less than five minutes in the microwave, but this comes from a company that makes frozen burritos that can be heated from frozen in about 75 seconds.

When we first picked up this box of enchiladas, we were expecting these to be very similar to the vegetarian-friendly version, only with the addition of chicken. That’s not the case.

El Monterey Chicken Enchiladas

The differences begin with the sauce. Instead of the orange-and-brown-colored, cheese-heavy verde sauce we were expecting, this is a white, creamy sauce that relies heavily on sour cream. That’s not a bad thing. In fact, the sour cream really adds a lot here — it’s a pretty tasty decision that increases our enjoyment of these enchiladas substantially.

The filling is the obvious difference here. The vegetarian version had mostly cheese inside the enchiladas, while these ones are mostly chicken. There are thin, fibrous strips of pulled chicken in a tomato-based salsa that’s rich with a chicken broth flavor. While this is certainly no high-class meal, we find this flavor combination to be quite enjoyable.

The rice, which makes up the “side dish” portion of this meal, is different as well. Instead of a lime-spritzed white rice, this is a more traditional spanish rice. It’s not amazing, but it’s pretty decent. The rice portion is hardly substantial, though, so it’s not going to have much impact on your overall opinion of the dish.

If you’re a dieter, you’re probably going to want to pass these by. With 520 calories (240 from fat) and 910 mg of sodium, these enchiladas are enough to spike your calorie count and sodium intake, so be careful about that. One positive thing we can say about this, however, is that El Monterey was at least honest enough with their numbers to post a two-enchilada box as a single serving rather than two. Everyone knows that you’re going to eat both rather than splitting this or saving half of it for later.

The El Monterey Chicken Enchiladas are surprisingly good. While this is certainly not an authentic Mexican-style dish, it combines a lovely series of flavors that work really well together. In fact, we think these are better than the El Monterey Cheese Enchiladas. The big downside, of course, is the calorie count and sodium, both of which are unreasonably high. If you decide to pick some of these up, be careful to watch your calories for the rest of the day. You might end up needing to replace your next meal with a simple salad to make up for all this.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for these frozen enchiladas, check out our package scans below.

El Monterey Chicken Enchiladas
El Monterey Chicken Enchiladas
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