This Chicken Taquito recipe is one of the all-time most popular recipes on Our Best Bites. They can be made in a variety of sizes and on any type of tortilla you like (more details below) and also work great as a freezer meal! These are a go-to for me when taking a meal to a friend. I love rolling them up and including baking instructions so people can bake them when they’re ready. They also work well for making ahead and keeping in your own freezer. You can pull them out for a busy weeknight dinner, or just one or two at a time for a snack in the air fryer.
Ingredients Needed
- Cream Cheese
- Green salsa
- Lime
- Cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic powder
- Cilantro
- Green onions
- Chicken – any kind of cooked shredded chicken will work. Rotisserie chicken is great and works well!
- Pepper jack cheese
- Tortillas – more notes on tortillas below, but you can use corn, flour, or un-cooked.
- Salt
- Cooking spray or oil
Here’s a photo walkthrough of the recipe!
How to Make Creamy Baked Chicken Taquitos
This is just a quick overview, you’ll find a printable recipe at the end of this article.
- Combine a sauce of cream cheese, green salsa, fresh lime juice, cumin, chili powder, onion powder, garlic, cilantro and green onions.
- Mix in shredded cooked chicken and pepper jack cheese and this is the easy flavor-packed filling.
- Now just roll them up in the tortillas of your choice.
- I like to rub them with a bit of oil to help the outsides crisp up and sprinkle the tops with just a bit of kosher salt.
- Bake them up in the oven until they’re golden and crisp on the outside. You might see cheesy filling spilling out the edges and that’s okay! After they come out of the oven you can take a spoon and push it back in.
What tortillas should I use?
You can really use any tortillas you like. I originally created this recipe with small corn tortillas but over the years people kept telling me they loved them with flour so eventually I started doing that too and that’s what you see in my photos. But you can use whatever you like!
- Corn tortillas – you’ll want to buy them fresh so they are less likely to crack. Wrapping in a few damp paper towels and warming in the microwave will help keep them soft and rollable.
- Flour tortillas – I use the soft taco size flour tortilla (which produces about 12 taquitos). They will crisp up brown on the ends, but stay soft in the centers. They’re easy to work with and work great for freezing or making ahead.
- Fresh/raw tortillas – if using this style of tortilla, you don’t need to cook the tortilla before rolling! You can just roll up raw and they cook quickly in the oven. This style of tortilla tends to puff up when baked so you might get some puffs or splits during baking, but they taste delicious.
- Low Carb Tortillas – These work great with low carb style tortillas as well as lavash bread.
Dipping Suggestions
These are great simply served with sour cream on the side, but if you want to kick it up a notch, pair it with my Lime-Cilantro Ranch or some homemade guac and salsa!
Cafe Rio Copycat Creamy Tomatillo Dressing (Lime Cilantro Ranch)
Guacamole
Cantina-Style Salsa
Take a Meal
I love taking this recipe to friends when I’m delivering a meal. I prepare until the rolling step and skip brushing in oil and salt (they’re still great without that step and it’s simpler just to skip it, but that’s up to you! You can also include on the instructions to brush with oil or spray with non-stick oil spray before baking). Just stack the rolled taquitos in a zip-top back or other container and include baking instructions. Some things you can mix and match with this meal depending on what you have time for:
- Sour cream or a container of my homemade Lime-Cilantro Ranch for dipping
- A side of rice and beans
- A bag of chips and a jar of salsa
- A bagged salad
- Fresh fruit
- A quick treat like cookies or a pint of ice cream
Baked Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Ingredients
- 3 ounces cream cheese low fat is fine, avoid fat free
- ¼ cup green salsa
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder
- 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- 2 tablespoon sliced green onions
- 2 cups shredded cooked chicken 10-12 oz
- 1 cup grated pepperjack or plain jack cheese about 4 ounces
- 12 soft taco size tortillas or tortillas of your choice
- kosher salt
- cooking spray or 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, 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 parchment or spray a baking sheet or foil-lined baking sheet with nonstick 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 use them at room temperature or warm them slightly in the microwave if they aren't super fresh. If using fresh, uncooked tortillas you can roll them raw.
- The amount of filling you use will be different depending on what size tortilla you use. For soft taco size tortillas place about ¼ cup of the chicken mixture on the lower third of a tortilla, keeping it about 1 inch from the edges as you roll to prevent filling from leaking out. Roll up tortillas and place seam down on a baking sheet, not touching one another.
- Spray each taquito lightly with cooking spray, or lightly brush with olive oil and sprinkle with just a little bit of kosher salt, if desired.
- Place pan in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the ends start to get golden brown and crisp. Different types of tortillas will bake differently so set a timer for less and keep an eye on them. Sometimes seeing a bit of filling coming out is a good indicator. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving. If filling has leaked out just use a spoon to push it back in.
- Dip in sour cream, guacamole or my Lime-Cilantro Ranch.
- Air Fryer Instructions: All air fryers will cook differently, but in mine I do 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees. I suggest checking them at the 6-8 minute range.
Notes
Nutrition
More recipes to love!
Here’s some recipes that pair nicely with these taquitos if you want to bulk it up into a bigger meal!
Questions & Reviews
Hey! I made these last night and they were DELISH… but I couldn’t get them to stay closed. I tried using toothpicks but I ended up having to settle with them looking terrible. Any thoughts on how I can make them stay round without breaking??
Have to comment because these saved my life tonight. My night became something from “Dinner Disasters.” (Is there such thing? Should be.) It involved massive amounts of dough, an absent husband, a screaming baby . . . then I remembered I had a bunch of these in the freezer. Popped them in the oven, made a quick salad and dipping sauce, and there you go, miracle dinner my kids LOVED. It was good enough to ignore the fact the smoke alarm woke up the baby and my kids subsequently sang, “Fire Burning” variations all through the meal. (Nothing was burning, my smoke alarm just doesn’t like it when I open the oven. Another story.) So, yes, thanks!
If anyone ever reads this comment looking for tips, when they come from the freezer they don’t turn out looking all lovely like pictured. I don’t care, but just in case you do. Also, this is obvious, but a while back I cooked some from the freezer and forgot to put the seam sides down. Tostadas!
Made these last night, and found out while preparing them that I had run out of chili powder so I used Chipotle chili powder- it’s all I had, and they were heavenly! Everyone raved about them. Thanks for sharing!
This is one of my very favorites. I slow bake the taco chicken recipe all day so it’s fall apart tender and dip them in your guac recipe! To die for!
Made these tonight for something different after Christmas. Everybody L.O.V.E.D. them – even the picky teenage daughter. 🙂 Tried them with white corn tortillas but will use flour tortillas next time. The corn rolled great when warm but cracked as soon as they cooled. Thanks for such an easy, yummy recipe.
OK I am the one who asked if you could make these with shrimp. I finally did it and they were so yummy! The only change I made to substitute the tiny (what we call) gumbo shrimp. OK now that I look at the actual ingredient list- I didnt have green onions so I didnt put that in, but that would have made them better. So if you can get your hands on some fresh Louisiana shrimp, give it a try! Actually mine were not fresh they were frozen. 🙂
Just turned the rest of my leftover turkey into a double batch of taquitos for the freezer!! YUMMM, and way better than choking down leftover turkey for another 3 days 🙂 Thanks for the awesome recipes!
oh haha, I guess Jaime and I had the same idea! 🙂
They turned out delicious with the turkey! 🙂
I’m allergic to gluten, so I make these ahead of time when I come home from college, and then whenever I need a quick dinner back at school, I just pop them in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes and I have a quick, healthy, freezer meal.
(A lot of people asked when they freeze them. I cook them until they’re ALMOST done and then freeze them in giant zip lock bags)
I made them today with a bunch of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, they turned out great! 🙂
Thanks again! I love these! …and pretty much everything on this website! 🙂
-Anita
I made these again tonight with leftover turkey. Followed all directions, just substituted the chicken with all the left over turkey we had from Thanksgiving dinner. They were delicious! Just thought I’d let you know, so if you make a post about what to do with thanksgiving leftovers, you could include this one. 🙂 Thanks!