Homemade is better for your budget, body, and taste buds. All you do is prep, combine, and roll the ingredients up in tortillas then bake.
Yield:
12 taquitos
Tessa's Recipe Rundown...
Taste: Much, much, much more flavorful than the store-bought freezer taquitos.
Texture: The tortilla is beautifully crisp while the filling is meaty and creamy. The addition of cream cheese to the taquitos is just magical.
Ease: All you do is mix the ingredients together, roll them up in the tortillas, and bake.
Appearance: Like little bundles of deliciousness.
Pros: Tastier and healthier than the store-bought variety, can be frozen.
Cons: None.
Would I make this again? I’ve got some in the freezer!
A Homemade Kitchen series includes recipes that feature homemade versions of your favorite store-bought meals, snacks, treats, condiments and more. Homemade is better for your budget, body, and taste buds.
My little brother was pretty much fueled by frozen chicken taquitos this past summer. What else do teenage boys eat when there’s no one home to feed them lunch? Now that he’s back in school and has access to an array of fresh, tasty, healthy cafeteria foods (sarcasm!), I imagine the taquitos have begun to gather freezer burn.
This got me thinking about how many people rely on freezer foods to feed themselves when they’re usually super easy to make. Take these taquitos as an example. All you do is prep, combine, and roll the ingredients up in tortillas then bake. Or you can hold off on the baking and freeze for those days when you’re too busy or lazy to make something. Or for when your kids are home for a school break and need to feed themselves. You can easily double the recipe to make a large freezer batch. If you wanted to make things easier for yourself, grab a rotisserie chicken at the store for this recipe. Or, if you’re really into homemade, roast your own chicken and make your own tortillas. To amp up the health factor go with whole-grain tortillas, switch the cream cheese to neufchatel cheese (1/3 less fat), and finely chop whatever fresh veggies you have on hand to add to the filling. You could even go vegetarian and swap the chicken for beans. As we’ve learned in culinary school, a recipe is simply a guideline. You don’t have to follow it exactly. Add or subtract what you like and don’t like and follow your instincts.
What are your favorite freezer foods? (I know you all have one!)
How to make
Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Yield:12taquitos
Homemade is better for your budget, body, and taste buds. All you do is prep, combine, and roll the ingredients up in tortillas then bake.
Ingredients
3ouncescream cheese, at room temperature
1/4cupsalsa
1tablespoonfreshly squeezed lime juice
1teaspoonchili powder
1/2teaspooncumin
1/2teaspoononion powder
1garlic clove, finely minced
3tablespoonschopped cilantro
1small roasted red bell pepper, finely chopped
2green onions, sliced
2cupsshredded cook chicken
1cupshredded Mexican cheese
10-126-inch flour tortillas
kosher salt
Directions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a large mixing bowl combine cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, chili powder, cumin, onion powder, garlic, cilantro, roasted red pepper, green onion, chicken, and shredded cheese. Mix thoroughly until well combined.
Briefly heat the tortillas in the microwave to make them soft and pliable, about 20-30 seconds. Place a tortilla on a work surface. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons filling down the middle. Roll the tortilla up tightly around the filling. Place seam side down on baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Spray with tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with salt.
At this point you can freeze the uncooked taquitos by chilling the entire baking sheet in the freezer until taquitos are solid, about 30 minutes. Transfer to an airtight container and store in freezer for up to 2 months.
Bake 15-20 minutes (a few minutes longer if frozen), until crisp and golden around the edges.
I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)
About Tessa...
I share trusted baking recipes your friends will LOVE alongside insights into the science of sweets. I'm a professionally trained chef, cookbook author, and cookie queen. I love to write about all things sweet, carb-y, and homemade. I live in Phoenix, Arizona (hence the blog name!)
Seriously? You call your site “handle the heat” and this is the type of recipe you publish? This recipe lacks depth, spice and HEAT! Pretty isn’t everything darlin’…..
I just have to say that I am loving reading your blogged recipes. I stumbled across your site when someone shared a post/recipe on to my facebook. My husband and I are eating healthier – that means less eating out and less store bought pre-made junk. I was taught at a young age how to cook from scratch but then lost that in the hustle of life, working and raising two kids and then being a single mom.
Thank you for these recipes as I will be trying plenty of them and adjusting them to our family’s food allergies.
I made these last night — sooo good! I'm thinking next time I might add black beans to the filling – it'd add some added fibre and it would yield more taquito deliciousness!
As a trained chef and cookbook author, I share trusted baking recipes your friends & family will love alongside insights into the science of sweets. I help take the luck out of baking so you *always* have delicious results! Learn more here.
Over 200 pages with 50+ cookie recipes that'll make you a COOKIE PRO. Discover how to turn your biggest cookie flops into WINS by mastering the sweet science of baking. Even learn how to customize your own recipes! Beautiful, hardcopy, full color, photos of every recipe so you know EXACTLY how your cookies should look. Order now to have the book delivered to your doorstep!
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Seriously? You call your site “handle the heat” and this is the type of recipe you publish? This recipe lacks depth, spice and HEAT! Pretty isn’t everything darlin’…..
Can I make this in a crock pot?
I just have to say that I am loving reading your blogged recipes. I stumbled across your site when someone shared a post/recipe on to my facebook. My husband and I are eating healthier – that means less eating out and less store bought pre-made junk. I was taught at a young age how to cook from scratch but then lost that in the hustle of life, working and raising two kids and then being a single mom.
Thank you for these recipes as I will be trying plenty of them and adjusting them to our family’s food allergies.
These are fantastic! I have made them twice now and I have a batch in the freezer! Just put them up on my own blog. Thanks!
These have become a favorite in our house (We serve them with a chipotle crema). Thanks for the recipe!!
MMMM…I used your pulled mexican chicken in these. So yummy.
I made these last night — sooo good! I'm thinking next time I might add black beans to the filling – it'd add some added fibre and it would yield more taquito deliciousness!
loving this recipe. I have featured it in this weeks inspiring recipes post here pop over sometime and take a look.
This is my kind of freezer food… These look amazing! Definitely need to give this a try.
These look awesome! I'm raiding my kitchen as we speak.
This is one of my absolutely favorite things I have made. And it's even better because you can freeze it!
Great minds think alike! I just made these last week. Yum!! http://danielledeskins.blogspot.com/2011/10/weekl…
This is one of our very favorite dinner recipes! So easy and they're beyond delicious.