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Baked Chicken Taquitos

Baked Chicken Taquitos
  • Prep 60 min
  • Total 1 hr 30 min
  • Servings 20
A spicy chicken filling stuffed inside of corn tortillas and baked! Great for a meal or a snack.
By Macheesmo
Updated March 8, 2017

Ingredients

  • 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs
  • 1 whole jalapeños, seeded and diced (2 if you want it spicier)
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 1 can (15 oz) tomatoes with diced chilies
  • 8 oz pepper jack cheese
  • 20 corn tortillas
  • 1 cup vegetable oil (approx)
  • 1 pinch salt and pepper
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne powder (optional)

Steps

  • 1
    Slice your chicken into chunks and add it to a pan with a drizzle of oil. Cook on medium-high heat until the chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from the pan and shred it evenly. You can either use two forks to shred it evenly or just chop it up.
  • 2
    Add diced onions and jalapenos to pan that you cooked the chicken in. If pan is dry, add another Tablespoon of oil. Add a pinch of salt and cook for a few minutes until veggies are soft.
  • 3
    Add shredded chicken back to pan along with canned drained canned tomatoes. Add spices if you are using them and adjust for your tastes. Once filling tastes good to you, stir in shredded cheese and set aside for taquito making.
  • 4
    To make a taquito, add a tablespoon of oil to a small non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add a corn tortilla to the pan and heat it for about 10 seconds on both sides. It should really soften up. Remove tortilla to a clean surface. Add a few tablespoons of filling to the bottom third of the tortilla and roll it away from you. Place the taquito on a lightly oiled baking sheet, seam side down.
  • 5
    Continue rolling tortillas until you run out of filling. You should get close to 20 and fill two baking sheets.
  • 6
    Bake taquitos at 350°F for 25-30 minutes until they are nicely browned and really crispy. Check on them every 5-10 minutes and turn them once or twice during the cooking process.
  • 7
    Serve with guacamole, salsa, and/or sour cream!

No nutrition information available for this recipe

  • As a child, one of my staple meals were those frozen taquitos that you can buy in sacks of, like, 100. I distinctly remember running home from school, slamming down half a dozen taquitos, and immediately running off to soccer practice. You might think that taquitos and two hours of soccer don't mix, but I made it work somehow. These days, taquitos are still a pretty frequent staple in my dinner line-up. The only difference now is I can make them myself, customizing the fillings to my liking! You could easily substitute the chicken in this recipe for beef or mushrooms – and feel free to adjust the spices to your liking. The filling for my version is pretty easy and only takes about 20 minutes to throw together. It would be equally good in tacos. Making the taquitos might take you one or two tries to get right. The thing about corn tortillas is they aren't that flexible when they're cool, so to make them easier to work with, I fry them quickly in a small bit of oil. That makes them flexible – you can roll without a care! So get a small skillet and add a tablespoon of oil to it over medium heat. When it's hot, add a single tortilla and cook it in the oil for about 10 seconds a side, until it's flexible. Beware: if you cook it too long, you'll make one big tortilla chip! You should be able to cook two or three tortillas in a small amount of oil, but when your skillet is dry, add more oil and keep going. Traditionally, you would fry these bad boys, but since the tortillas have some oil on them from cooking earlier, and the pan is oiled also, baking them works just fine. You still end up with a really crispy shell. If you notice that your taquitos aren't staying rolled, you can secure them with a toothpick. This batch my taquitos held together pretty well, so I didn't need toothpicks.
  • I recommend serving these with salsa, sour cream, and maybe some guacamole! These might seem like a bit of work, but the learning curve for them is pretty quick. After you get the hang of it, you'll be making taquitos for every party you host!
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