This Chicken Taquito recipe is one of the all-time most popular recipes on Our Best Bites. The story behind it is interesting, too. I was actually making something entirely different that I planned on entering into a recipe contest. That recipe was somewhat of a flop, but the filling I came up with was amazing and I thought it would make an incredible filling for a crispy taquito. So I said forget-it to the recipe contest, and re-worked the filling in these crispy oven-baked taquitos, and turns out it was one of the best decisions ever, as this recipe has become a beloved family favorite all over the country.
These come together fairly quickly, and an awesome bonus is that these freeze (unbaked) beautifully so you can make extra and have a meal for later.
You’ll need some cooked, shredded or diced chicken for this recipe. You can use a mix of dark and/or white meat, or whatever is easiest. For me, easiest is often a rotisserie chicken from Costco.
The “creamy” component in this recipe comes from a couple of things. For starters, I use a little bit of cream cheese. It melts together with the shredded jack cheese to make an awesome creamy texture that coats the chicken.
You can use either plain Jack cheese, or pepper jack if you’d like a little more heat.
Some other things go in there for tons of flavor, like some green salsa,
green onions, fresh lime juice, and plenty of seasonings.
Just mix it all up and your filling is done.
You’ll place a few tablespoons on small flour, or corn tortillas and roll them up tight. You’ll want to keep your filling about an inch away from both ends because it will leak out the ends. Another trick is to roll them tight. Don’t be loosey-goosey or they’ll fall apart.
Once you get them all rolled up, you can either bake them immediately, OR
save them for later. I’ve taken these to friends in a bag like this one below. They’re great in the fridge for a few days and you can bake them up as needed. Or you can freeze them and bake them straight from the freezer. It’s totally worth it to make a double batch so you can pop one in the freezer!
To bake them immediately, lightly spray a foil-lined baking sheet with non-stick spray, or brush lightly with oil. Place the taquitos in a single layer, not touching each other, and then lightly brush the tops with olive oil, or give them a quick spray of non-stick spray and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt.
Bake them in the oven until they turn golden brown, especially on the edges.
You can see how the bottoms totally crisp up
and while that outside tortilla is perfectly crisp, the inside layers are soft and awesome.
These are seriously amazing.
It is absolutely mandatory to serve them with our Creamy Lime-Cilantro dressing for dipping, but they’re also good with good ol’ salsa, sour cream, and guacamole.
If you’ve seriously never tried these, today is your day. Put them on your menu plan!
Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup 3 oz cream cheese (low fat is fine, avoid fat free)
- 1/4 cup green salsa
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder
- 3 Tablespoon chopped cilantro
- 2 Tablespoon sliced green onions
- 2 C shredded cooked chicken for extra yumminess, use grilled taco chicken!
- 1 C grated pepperjack or plain jack cheese
- small flour or corn tortillas
- kosher salt
- cooking spray or olive oil
Instructions
For the filling
- Heat cream cheese in the microwave for about 20-30 seconds so it's soft and easy to stir.
- Add green salsa, lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder and granulated garlic.
- Stir to combine and then add cilantro and green onions.
- Add chicken and cheese and combine well.
- (You can prepare up to this step ahead of time. Just keep the mixture in the fridge.)
For the taquitos
- Heat oven to 425. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly coat with cooking spray.
- If using corn tortillas, work with a few tortillas at a time and heat in the microwave, wrapped in damp paper towels until they are soft enough to roll without cracking. Usually 20-30 seconds will do it. If using flour tortillas straight from the fridge, it helps to warm them in the microwave so they're easier to roll.
- Place 2-3 T of chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1 inch from the edges. Roll up tortillas and place seam down on a baking sheet, not touching one another. Spray lightly with cooking spray, or lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle lightly with kosher salt. Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until crisp and the ends start to get golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving. Dip in sour cream, or our favorite: Creamy Lime-Cilantro Ranch.
For the freezer instructions
- Prepare the taquitos through rolling them out and placing them on the baking sheet. Place the baking sheet in the freezer and freeze until solid, then transfer to a large freezer bag. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 425 and place the taquitos on a lined baking sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.
Wanna make it a meal?
Serve with a side of Black Beans and a simple green salad with Creamy Lime-Cilantro Dressing. Wash it down with some Brazilian Lemonade!
Looking for the beef version? It’s right here!
Lastly, recently this recipe was noted in an article in the Chicago Sun-Times where the author noted that they were “some of the best taquitos I’ve ever had”
I’ll take it!
Questions & Reviews
I’ve made these several times, but got the recipe off of “the girl who ate everything.” I don’t know why I didn’t check out the link to your site before! These are delicious, and I often use the spice combo for other thing like chicken tacos and stuff.
I made these for dinner tonight and both my husband and my 3 year old loved them! I can’t wait to play around with different fillings and dipping sauces. Thanks for another wonderful recipe!
OMGosh! I was a skeptic & THESE ROCKED! I used some leftover Greek Lemon Chicken I had. I doubled the meat/cheese mixture because I needed to use the chicken up but they turned out about the same size as yours because I used large tortillas. The baked flour tortillas were so yummy & crunchy baked. If you haven’t made these yet, do it TONIGHT!
This is our new family favorite!! Thanks for a fantastic recipe!!
These are delicious! Almost everyone loved them, my daughters are just strange and dont like Mexican food much, not sure how they are related to me…
Question- mine kind of exploded in the oven, the stuffing oozed out everywhere, making a hard to clean mess and more importantly loss of yummy innards. What did I do wrong? Overcook or overstuff or both possibly?
Made with your black bean soup also yummy, my son liked dipping the taquitos in the soup- which was a tasty treat!
Yep- probably overstuffed! Keep the filling about an inch away from either rolled end to leave “oozing” room 🙂
I made the Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos for Cinco De Mayo and they were delicious! My 3yr old twins also loved them, and I couldn’t wait till the next day to eat the leftovers. Thank you for sharing, these are being added to my recipe box!
I made these last night for my family for Cinco de Mayo. SUCCESS and easy! Only ingredient I didn’t have on hand was onion powder, but it tasted just fine without it.
Had some trouble working with my first round of towel-covered corn tortillas but ended up heating the others for 1 minute instead of 30 seconds. Like you said, the hotter the better!
They were delicious. I’m very proud of my end result! Thanks!
~E
The BEST taquitos EVER!!! I can’t say how much I love them! I add a few more calories and get some queso to dip them in! haha but everyone loves these! I make these all the time for work functions or for families who are in need of meals for whatever reason. It’s easy to fill and roll up and hand them off to the family to heat up whenever they need! I’m about to go make more for a work lunch! YUM You must try this!!
We love these!! I make them probably once a week because it’s quick and I have most of the ingredients already. As I was making them yesterday I decided that it would be a great filling for enchiladas! So I think I’m going to try that next week.
Tried them last night with whole wheat tortillas and they were WONDERFUL!!! Both the husband and I loved them!
Do you think whole wheat tortillas would work as well? Wanting to make these tonight, but only have the whole wheat tortillas! Might just have to try it to see!
I made these last night for dinner and I love them! Very, very good. Thank you. We ate them with the guacamole you also have posted and it was fantastic.
Very impressive. These are the first taquitos I’ve made and liked! They were delicious. I made it a meal with the black beans and Brazillian Lemonade. So wonderful! Thanks for your great recipes and your easy-to-follow (and understand!) instructions. =)
These were AMAZING!!! My daughter was literally licking her plate off! Thank you!!! My husband says they taste just like in Mexico! We’ll definitely be having these again!
I made these last night, took pictures for my blog, and can’t find my pictures anywhere in my camera. I posted your picture but linked it back to your site. I have made a lot of your recipes and am a huge follower. I sing your praises as much as I can.
I am making these tonight! I already put together the mix to go in the tortillas and it smells delicious! I can’t wait to try them! I love all of your recipes that I have tried so far!
I’ve made this twice in the last two weeks and my mouth is watering now as I think about them! Delicious! Dipped in salsa and sour cream, I am in heaven!
I made these last night for dinner and they were Amazing!!! I really liked how the tortilla was a bit crunchy. I also made it with the Brazilian Lemonade and the lime cilantro dressing. So good! I am excited to try out more recipes and am hoping I get your recipe book for my birthday next month. 😉
Made these for dinner the other night and they were great. I substituted the green salsa with a creamy cilantro “dip”-perfect!!!
There are a few times in my life where I find something that I think everyone should know about (like when I discovered the magic eraser). When I found this blog I knew it was one of those times. I love it! And I made these taquitos tonight and all three of my kids loved them. My husband did too. They are easy and super good. I would use this recipe to entertain. Note- I used the uncooked tortillas from Costco and it made them all the more amazing. Thanks ladies
Can you make these with the cook and serve tortillas from Costco? Should you cook them first or can you make them with the raw tortillas and let them bake??
I made this but substituted the verde salsa for a small can of chopped hatch green chilis and put a few tablespoons of water to this mixture to compensate for the salsa. I also used flour tortillas… They came out FANTASTIC! I’m definitely going to play with this recipe some more, I see some creamy chipotle taquitos in my near future… Thanks for sharing 🙂
Yep, these were really THAT good. I made them for book club last night and all the ladies were impressed. (Especially because I’m typically the gal that brings a bag of chips and a jar of salsa!) Thank you!
We loved these with flour tortillas – I think we just don’t like baked corn tortillas.
Also good using garam masala instead of cumin for an Indian twist to the recipe!
I made these last night.( WE LOVED THEM) My friend told me about them and said her family loved them so I double the recipe and am excited to have leftovers!!!
I just made these (w/ flour tortillas)- YUMMMMMMM! Thanks for the great recipe. And they were so easy. I’m hoping the hubby listens and gets me your cookbook for mother’s day like I asked for 🙂
We made these for dinner last night and my 6 year old consumed 4 dubbing it her most favorite dinner ever…and that says a lot because my kids all eat like birds.
I wanted to let you know I made a “super healthy” version of this yummy recipe on my blog and linked it back to you. My family LOVES these!
http://turbobubblegum.blogspot.com/2011/04/creamy-chicken-taquitos-healthy-version.html
These turned out fantastic! Crispy and full of flavor, definitely better than the fried versions.
Just made these for dinner (I had originally planned chicken tacos) and they were scrumptious!!! My hubby loved them and looked longingly at the 2 I had earmarked as going in the freezer for a future easy lunch. I didn’t have green salsa or lime juice so I subbed regular salsa and lemon juice and about 1/2 tsp dried cilantro since I didn’t have any fresh. I also was using up tortillas from the freezer including a lone homemade wheat tortilla which was equally as tasty (if not more so) as the white flour ones. We will definitely make these again – it was super easy to put together! The filling filled 6 medium size tortillas. I bet it would get the 12-16 mentioned on your recipe if I was using small taco-sized ones. But we just cut them in half to make them easier to eat and it was awesome!
Just found your site and these are the first thing I made. LOVE them!! Made them for my 65+ y.o. parents and 14 y.o. son and they were a HUGE hit! Thank you!