Baked Chicken Taquitos

More About 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!