Jennifer Garner and Her Mom Made This Cozy Casserole, and I Need It ASAP

There comes a time in every family when the lead cook, who has prepared countless family dinners and planned grand holiday feasts for decades, passes the torch on to the next generation. With this handoff usually comes the transfer of cherished family recipes, too. 

I can remember the first time I took the lead and cooked Thanksgiving for the family. My mother-in-law just had knee surgery and wasn’t up for being on her feet all day. While she let my sister-in-law and me take the reins, she made sure to supervise and offer plenty of helpful tidbits along the way so we could accurately recreate the feast she so lovingly had prepared for the past 35 years.

Watching Jennifer Garner prepare the chicken enchiladas she ate throughout childhood with her mom at her side is another shining example of this inevitable changing of the guard. Shared as a reel to her Instagram as part of her viral Pretend Cooking Show, Jennifer takes the reins early on, telling her mom, “I will chop. You can be cute.” Her mother obliges, but rest assured, like my mother-in-law, she’s not going to sit back with her feet up; she’s got plenty of pearls of wisdom up her sleeve.

How Jennifer Garner's Mom Makes Chicken Enchiladas

Jennifer begins by explaining that she’s making the chicken enchiladas “she loved to eat as a kid.” Her mother then chimes in, stating that the enchiladas “are fairly mild and are not a hot enchilada,” while holding up the original faded recipe card and giving credit to her friend for sharing the recipe so many years ago. 

Now, I’m not sure how I knew her mother’s recipe wouldn’t include a traditional green or red enchilada sauce; perhaps I was reminiscing about my own mother’s creamy chicken enchiladas. As soon as I saw the can of soup, large tub of sour cream, and cans of green chiles on the counter, I knew exactly where this recipe was going, and I could not have been more thrilled.

Her sauce reminds me so much of my childhood and the many casseroles my mother made. While I don’t often cook with canned soup as an adult, I will always return to nostalgic recipes like this one because they’re a great reminder that sometimes the best recipes are not about authenticity; they’re about simple, home-cooked comfort made with heart.

And that simplicity extends to the filling, too. Hold the fancy spice blends and complex blend of chiles for this one. They’re not necessary. Instead, a straightforward filling of shredded chicken (this is definitely a candidate for using rotisserie chicken), onions and celery sautéed in a generous amount of butter is all you need. From there, roll up the filling in fluffy flour tortillas and finish with a full pound of sliced Monterey Jack cheese before baking.

Jennifer’s mother shares that for the best taste, “it’s important to bake the enchiladas until the top begins to brown.” To which Jennifer nods along loyally with just a smidge of a mischievous grin.

How to Change Up These Enchiladas

If you’re looking for variations, Jennifer offers options that you can reduce the amount of sour cream in the recipe, withhold a few of the green chiles for a milder taste (just make sure Momma Garner isn’t watching), or even add a bit of the creamy sauce or extra cheese to the filling for added moisture and a nice cheese pull.

That said, if you ask her mother about variations, she will tell you there are no variations (although she concedes, “if you want more heat, add it”). She’s “been making them for many years,” so mother knows best.