These chicken taquitos are stuffed with seasoned shredded chicken and cheese, then baked or fried to crispy perfection. Serve these taquitos with your favorite dipping sauces for a fun party snack or meal!
Chicken taquitos are an easy yet unexpected appetizer that’s perfect to feed a crowd – I have instructions for both baking and frying these crispy bites of goodness! Serve your taquitos with sides such as salsa fresca, black bean soup, cilantro lime rice and Chipotle guacamole for a complete meal.
I have to admit, for the longest time I thought of chicken taquitos only as a food you buy in the freezer section of the grocery store for a quick snack. Homemade chicken taquitos are SO much better than the store bought frozen kind, and they’re fun to assemble too!
Table of Contents
Chicken Taquitos Ingredients
To make this recipe, you will need chicken, salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, cheddar cheese, Monterey Jack cheese, tortillas, and oil for frying.
How Do You Make Chicken Taquitos?
Make your filling by combining the chicken, cheeses and spices. Microwave the tortillas to make them pliable, then divide the chicken mixture between the tortillas. Roll up each tortilla tightly and secure it with a toothpick. From here, you can either deep fry the taquitos in oil, or bake in the oven on a baking sheet. Serve immediately, with toppings of your choice.
Tips For The Perfect Dish
- The toothpicks are to hold everything together while the taquitos are cooking, and you should discard them before serving.
- Any type of cooked chicken works for this dish. I often use leftover chicken from the night before, or else I purchase a rotisserie chicken to save time.
- Leftovers will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or you can freeze them for 2 months. To reheat, bake the taquitos at 350 degrees F for 7-8 minutes or until crispy and warmed through.
- Serve your taquitos as a snack, or as part of a Mexican inspired meal with other dishes such as taco lasagna, chicken tinga, chipotle salsa, mexican tortilla pinwheels and cilantro lime shrimp.
- I like to add a drizzle of sour cream and some fresh pico de gallo or chipotle salsa to my chicken taquitos. Other great options are ranch dressing, guacamole, grated cotija cheese, chopped cilantro leaves, there are so many possibilities!
Quick Tip
Avoid store bought pre-shredded cheeses, as they often contain preservatives and anti caking agents and will not melt as well.
Recipe FAQs
Chicken taquitos have a chicken and cheese filling that is inside small corn tortillas.
The primary difference is that flautas use flour tortillas, and taquitos are use corn tortillas. Flautas also often use larger tortillas compared to taquitos.
The best way to make taquitos stay together is to roll them very tightly and secure them with toothpicks. Once the taquitos are out of the oven or fryer, they will hold together on their own and you can take the toothpicks out.
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Flavor Variations
While this dish is great as-is, you can change out the ingredients to customize the flavors to your tastes.
- Protein: Instead of shredded chicken you can also use cooked ground beef or ground turkey. Another great option is cooked shredded beef or pork.
- Vegetables: Feel free to add some vegetables to the mix such as sauteed peppers and onions, or even some cooked diced mushrooms.
- Cheese: Swap out the cheddar and Monterey jack for other types of shredded cheese such as mozzarella, pepper jack, queso oaxaca, or queso asadero. You can also stir some cream cheese into the filling.
My kids adore these chicken taquitos so I make them quite frequently. No need to buy the frozen version when you can have fresh, hot taquitos any time!
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Chicken Enchilada Casserole
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Love This Recipe?
Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
Chicken Taquitos (Baked or Fried)
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups cooked shredded chicken
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1/2 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- 12 small corn tortillas
- oil if frying
- cooking spray if baking
Instructions
- Place the chicken, salt, pepper, chili powder, garlic powder, cumin, cheddar cheese and Monterey Jack cheese in a bowl. Stir until combined.
- Wrap the tortillas in a damp paper towel and place on a plate. Microwave for 1 minute or until tortillas are warm and pliable.
- Lay out the tortillas on a flat surface and divide the chicken and cheese mixture among the 12 tortillas. Roll up each tortilla tightly and secure with a toothpick.
- To fry the taquitos: Heat 3/4 inch of oil in a deep pan to 350 degrees F. Add 3-4 taquitos and fry until crisp and golden brown, 3-5 minutes. Repeat with remaining taquitos.
- To bake the taquitos: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the taquitos in a single layer on a sheet pan coated with cooking spray. Spray the tops of the taquitos with the cooking spray. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until crispy and golden brown.
- Remove toothpicks, then serve.
Notes
- Nutritional information is for the baked taquitos as it is difficult to determine how much oil the taquitos will absorb during the frying process.
- The toothpicks are to hold everything together while the taquitos are cooking, and should be removed before serving.
- Any type of cooked chicken works for this dish. I often use leftover chicken from the night before, or else I purchase a rotisserie chicken to save time.
- Avoid store bought pre-shredded cheeses, as they often contain preservatives and anti caking agents and will not melt as well.
So simple and delicious! These were a hit with the family and I’ll have to make a double batch next time. They gobbled them up and are already asking for them again.
This looks amazingly delicious. Thanks for the recipe. Pinned to try this soon.
Simple and easy. I omitted the cheese, and had leftover filling. Made flour tacos with it. Thanks for the recipe ! Exactly what I needed.
Pretty cool I love it thanks 🤗😘
These were so good!!! Absolutely delicious and crispy! Exactly what I was craving
I have a Cinco de Mayo gathering tomorrow for maybe 30-40 people. Can I make the taquitos ahead of time to make tomorrow’s prep easier?
Yes that’s fine!
Absolutely delicious! Thank you for this recipe 😊
Thank you for this recipe! I finally found something all three of my boys loved! These were quick and easy. I used some crockpot shredded chicken I already had, and flour tortillas since I didn’t have corn. I opted to bake them and they turned out really crispy! I served them with a dipping sauce lof sour cream and taco seasoning. SO yummy! Adding this to our favorites!
When you baked them , did you spray them w cooking spray to make them crispy?
Thank you
Can you fry these ahead of time and reheat in the over?
Yes that’s fine!
One of our favorites! I have my hubby pick up a rotisserie chicken from Costco to make this even easier to make. Love it!
Sam’s has monster Chicken 🐓 ret to go $5.88.
Just had one,best Ever.
Will do taquitos tomorrow with some of the leftover z.
I’m embarrassed to admit that we have purchased these from a frozen section before… and yeah they were okay. But homemade… SO EASY and so so delicious! Thanks for this easy to follow recipe. We’ll never need to buy them frozen EVER again! Our new favorite.
I add a spoonful of salsa to the mix and a half can of drained black beans.
Served these for a small gathering at my house and they did not disappoint! Enjoyed them with sour cream, salsa and avocado and everyone loved them! Putting these on my go-to list for tasty appetizers!
These Taquitos were ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!!! I used the breast meat from a rotisserie chicken from Sam’s. I added a 4 oz can of green chiles. To complete the meal I prepared a box of Zataran’s Cilantro Rice and Goya Black beans. The entire meal only took an hour.
I used this recipe as a base but put my own spin on it! I used leftover cilantro lime chicken that I had made a few nights ago and put a half a block of cream cheese in it and extra sharp cheddar cheese. I then put them in the air fryer at 4 min each at 390 degrees F. My husband enjoyed it and so did I! It made a big batch so I will be freezing.
Recipe sounds great. Quick questions: can you use flour tortillas? Thanks!
Yes that’s totally fine!
Canned chicken from Costco worked great .
Thank you for sharing. I buttered a griddle, doubled the recipe and made quesadillas with your filling for my large family. It was faster and almost as good as frying.
These were great! For the record, I turned leftover red beans and rice into the filling. I added taco seasoning and shredded chicken and cheese to my red beans/rice and it made like 60 taquitos!
Also, I didn’t need to use the toothpick trick if I put the taquitos seam-side down on the cookie sheet.
👍🏼😉 Same thing I did they turned out perfect I add a green onions because we love that flavor!
Great! We loved these
Delicious! I multiplied the recipe by 2 1/2 and made with shredded rotisserie chicken. Rolled them up and froze them and then put them in freezer bags to fry from frozen later. Making that many used about 1 Costco rotisserie chicken worth of meat…all told it was about $0.33 per taquito. I can get them at Aldi for $0.25 apiece (prob with way less chicken and way more filler!), but these definitely taste better so if I have the time I will definitely make them from scratch.
Thank you so much! Our usual taquitos from Aldi have been unavailable due to a recall. I used some leftover chicken breast and baked them but they came out kind of dry- I think using leftover dark meat might work better for us. Still tasty! Will try using flour tortillas next.
I’m planning to make my own corn tortillas from scratch. Just wondering if I still need to cook the tortillas first before I roll the taquitos, or if I can make them with the raw tortilla dough and just deep fry them?
I’m concerned that they wouldn’t hold together with uncooked dough, I think it would be better to cook the tortillas first!
Yes, it is better. Takes a little longer but worth not having your tortillas come apart. That’s what I do for corn tortillas. You don’t need to with flour since they don’t tear as easily. This is a good versatile recipe for enchiladas, tacos, etc. You can use the same seasoning for potato, cheese and onion also.