Green Chile Ground Turkey Enchiladas

Wondering what to make with ground turkey? I have just the recipe for you. These ground turkey enchiladas combine extra lean ground turkey with zucchini, poblano pepper, fire roasted corn, shredded Mexican cheese, and green chile enchilada sauce. They’re easy to make and are perfectly Kinda Healthy with 15 grams of protein and only 230 calories per enchilada.

Making a High Volume Ground Turkey Enchiladas Filling

The recipe calls for 99% lean ground turkey, but any ground protein works for this recipe. You could toss some chicken breast in a food processor and make ground chicken enchiladas, if that’s all you have on hand.

Whatever protein you go with, be sure to take the time to develop flavor in the pan via browning (the Maillard reaction).

Make sure the pan is hot before adding the ground turkey. And once it’s in the pan, leave it untouched until it’s developed a golden brown crust on one side. Color is flavor!

In case you want to skip the ground turkey or chicken, you could also make these enchiladas with other cooked proteins like my rotisserie chicken enchiladas.

The Veggies

With just 30 calories in a medium zucchini, it’s a magical ingredient for high volume cooking. You can seriously bulk up meals by adding zucchini. Check out my teriyaki ground beef bowls for another great use of this magical squash.

Peppers also fall into the high volume superstar category, and the poblano peppers in this recipe go perfectly with the flavors of the green chile sauce and corn. Poblano peppers are on the milder side, so you could add a jalapeño or a Fresno chile like in my air fryer roasted veggie enchiladas for a bigger kick. Or go with bell pepper for a milder substitution.

If you’d rather skip the veggie prep, check out my ground turkey enchilada casserole that uses frozen onions, peppers, and other shortcut ingredients.

Speaking of corn, I used Trader Joe’s frozen fire roasted corn. If you don’t have access to a TJ’s, you may be able to find another frozen alternative. A drained can of corn also works in a pinch. And if corn is in season when you’re making these turkey enchiladas, you could use 2 ears of fresh corn like in my green chile beef enchilada skillet.

And since you’ll have an opened bag of fire roasted corn in the freezer, bookmark my recipes for cheesy cowboy corn dip and honey harissa ground chicken bowls.

Mexican Cheese

The recipe calls for adding two ounces of shredded Mexican cheese in the filling. This acts as a binder and makes assembly a bit easier. If you’re looking for an easy way to reduce the fat and calorie content, you can omit the cheese at this step.

As for cheese selection, I’d be a hypocrite in telling you freshly grated cheese is best (though it is) when I used Tillamook Mexican 4-Cheese blend. But for best results, I’d use a blend of freshly grated Monterey or Colby jack with a bit of asadero and cheddar.

Best Tortillas for Enchiladas

Traditional enchiladas use corn tortillas, but I like to use a hybrid corn and flour tortilla for these ground turkey enchiladas. You get the sturdiness of flour tortillas for easier filling and the flavor of corn tortillas. If you’ve seen my air fryer quesadillas, I used the same Mixla tortillas from H-E-B here.

You can use something like the extra thin corn tortillas from my beef taquitos or Carb Balance tortillas from my Tex Mex enchiladas to save some calories. If you use corn tortillas, you’ll want to wrap them in a damp paper towel and microwave for 30-60 seconds before filling and rolling to prevent cracking.

Using standard 6″ tortillas, this recipe makes fourteen turkey enchiladas. You’ll need to squeeze them into a 13″x 9″ baking dish going ten in a straight row and four on the empty side. If you’d rather, you can bake in two separate dishes. Just be sure to split the green chile enchilada sauce in half for each dish.

You can also use larger burrito-size tortillas to fill the width of the baking dish.

And finally, there’s always the option of placing the tortillas flat in the baking dish to create layers or chopping into small triangles and stirring into the filling to make a ground turkey enchilada casserole.

What to Serve with Ground Turkey Enchiladas

Starting with the garnish, I like to go green with chopped cilantro, diced avocado, and a Greek yogurt and avocado crema (in the recipe card below). My jalapeño ranch yogurt dip and creamy salsa verde would also work great with these enchiladas.

As for side dishes, you can never go wrong with rice and beans. I’d go with black beans or refried black beans, charro or borracho beans, and Spanish rice or Mexican cauliflower rice.

And that should cover everything you need to know. I hope you enjoy these green chile ground turkey enchiladas. If you do, I always appreciate recipe reviews!