Gluten Free Chicken Enchilada Pasta (Top 8 Free, Too!)

If you love enchiladas, you’ll love this spicy pasta casserole. Pasta is dripping with a red enchilada sauce and southwest flavors. A great spin on traditional Italian pastas, this dish is free of: gluten, dairy, egg, soy, peanut and tree nuts. It’s also top 8 free, and there’s a vegan option too.

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One of the things I miss from my former allergy-free days is enchiladas. Blame it on growing up in the West, but I LOVE me some tex-mex. But, I never make them because unless they’re dripping in cheese, I find them to be not the same.

However, when I saw this pasta idea, I thought–now this I can do without cheese! The creamy sauce called to me immediately. Instead of having a dry tortilla shell, this pasta is swimming in a sauce.

I like this variation of a pasta night, because usually my family knows it’s going to mean something with oregano, basil and other Italian flavors. So, this chili spiced pasta was a nice kick–literally.

And, it’s nice to have another stove-top recipe up my sleeve. While we’ve actually been blessed with a bit of a drop in temperatures, since it’s August, it’s bound to be super hot again and so it’s nice to not have to turn on my oven to get a satisfying meal.

This could easily be vegan if you swap out the chicken broth for vegetable broth, and omit the chicken. It’s super filling with just the beans and pasta.

Also, feel free to add more or less pasta. I added more when I tweaked it since it was too soupy for me and I like a more equal sauce to pasta ratio, but if you like more sauce–just leave out some of the pasta. Plus–if you’re like me, my kids LOVE plain pasta (I seriously don’t get it) and they happily devour any leftover pasta I don’t use. In fact, I never measure my pasta anymore. I just always make a decent batch knowing my kids will want any leftovers. Kids and simple tastes!

Lastly, the taco seasoning makes extra, so what I did was put it in a plastic baggy in my spice cupboard. It was nice to have the spice mix ready to go for the next time I made this.

I’m also a big baby–so we just use the Mild option of enchilada sauce, but feel free to use medium or hot if you can handle it! I find since we don’t use cheese anymore, we have to use milder options since cheese can help smother the heat a bit.

This is already a pretty simple meal (all one pan, except for the pasta) and it’s pretty fast. But, if you’re really crunched for time–and since school is almost upon us and all of our nights are about to get a lot more hectic–you can use leftover or even rotisserie chicken to save you some time.

Why is nutritional yeast in this Gluten Free Chicken Enchilada Pasta?

Nutritional yeast is a great dairy-free cheese substitute. It gives that salty flavor cheese would impart. Plus, it helps to thicken the sauce, so it’s a win-win. It might be a new ingredient to you, but if you continue to be dairy-free, it will become a staple in your house.

Here are some other nutritional yeast recipes:

Here are some other dairy free recipes that will allow you to use up the nutritional yeast and get your vegan cheese on!

• Vegan queso (cashew free!)
• Egg free & Dairy Free Frittata
• Dairy free creamy Tuscan chicken
• Gluten & Dairy Free Spinach & Sausage Pasta
• Dairy & Gluten Free Creamy Lemon Chicken

What enchilada sauce is allergy friendly for this Gluten Free Chicken Enchilada Pasta?

I have found that the El Paso Red Enchilada sauce at my grocery store only lists “soybean oil”. But, when I went to link to it on Amazon, it showed soy flour AND soybean oil. So, perhaps they have a new rendition. Be sure to check your local store and see. As FARE states, “*Highly refined soy oil is not required to be labeled as an allergen. Studies show that most people with soy allergy can safely eat highly refined soy oil as well as soy lecithin. If you are allergic to soy, ask your doctor whether you need to avoid soy oil or soy lecithin.

But avoid cold-pressed, expelled or extruded soy oil—sometimes called gourmet oils. These ingredients are different and are not safe to eat if you have a soy allergy.” SOURCE

I’ve also found La Victoria has these ingredients:

• Water
• Red chiles
• Modified food starch
• Dehydrated California chile pods
• Vegetable Oil (cotton-seed and/or Soybean)
• Salt
• Distilled vinegar
• Dehydrated padilla pods
• Garlic
• Spices

Looking for more gluten free tex-mex recipes?

Nothing is more satisfying than some good tex-mex recipes, especially when they’re allergy friendly and gluten free! Here are some of our other favorites:

• Slow Cooker Green Chile Enchilada Soup
• Slow Cooker Pineapple Chipotle Tacos
• Sweet Potato, Black Bean & Lime Tacos
• Meatless Enchilada Quinoa Bowls
• Dairy Free Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili
• Mexican Tuna Salad
• Gluten Free Salsa Sheet Pan Dinner
• The Bomb Gluten Free Baked Taquitos

And, there’s more tex-mex recipes in my allergy friendly cookbook! It has tex-mex soups, homemade refried beans, several kinds of tacos, Mexican rice and more!

And, from fellow blogger if you want more of a pasta salad version, try this Gluten Free Tex Mex Pasta Salad.

Pasta recipe adapted from: A Cedar Spoon and taco seasoning adapted from: Food Renagade