This recipe for creamy chicken taquitos is super easy to make with leftover Chicken Tinga Taco meat mixed with just a few ingredients. Baked in the oven till crispy, they’re a little bit healthier than fried taquitos, but without lacking in tons of creamy, delicious flavor. We love these baked chicken taquitos as both an appetizer and full meal when served with an easy slaw or salad.
Chicken Tinga Filling
I first got the idea to make these creamy chicken taquitos on the Super Bowl when we had family over to dinner. We always make this recipe for Chicken Tinga Tacos and I wanted to change it up a little bit. My new cookbook (which just released, yay!) has a great recipe for baked bean taquitos and I knew that baking them for about 20 minutes yields a perfect, crispy shell without a ton of work.
And I promise it’s actually crispy. Not like some of those recipes that tell you it’s going to be just as crispy baked instead of fried and then you end up with soggy cauliflower pieces you expected to taste just like the deep fried original…clearly I still have some issues about this. I blame Pinterest.
What I love about this recipe is that it’s so versatile and quick. If I have extra veggies, I’ll mix those in with the shredded chicken. They’re also not heavy for a dish that normally makes you feel like you weigh 10,000 pounds after consuming. Baking these creamy chicken taquitos just lightens everything up.
How to Make Creamy Chicken Taquitos
For this recipe, I used a crock pot instead of an instant pot for the shredded chicken tinga filling. You can totally use the instant pot chicken tinga recipe, I just prefer to do it in the crockpot when I have a little extra time (and it makes the house smell amazing).
While the meat is still warm, I pull some out (with a little bit of the juices) and shred it in a large bowl. It’s good to do this while it’s still warm because the cream cheese will mix easily. This creates that glorious creamy, cheesy taquito filling.
If I have those extra veggies on hand, like here I had some corn to use, you can mix them in.
I like to spoon the filling on one side of my tortilla so it makes everything easier to roll up, Place your chicken taquitos on the sheet, seam side down. The tighter you’re able to roll these, the best they stay together. Sometimes that means not filling them as much…I know, restraint is difficult.
Ingredients
To make this recipe migraine-friendly, you want to use cream cheese that doesn’t contain carrageenan. Arla used to make a brand without any gums, but I believe it’s been discontinued. Gellan and Locust Bean Gum seems to be the best tolerated of all the gums.
Corn or flour tortillas are fine. I used the ones here from the bakery at Central Market. Some options are
- TortillaLand tortillas (in the fridge section)
- Local tortillas (Whole Foods usually carries different, smaller brands in the fridge)
- Mexican restaurant tortillas - A lot of places will sell theirs to you and make them with simple ingredients…just double check with them.
I also really love olive oil spray to just spritz these lightly before going into the oven.
What to Serve with Baked Taquitos
Usually if I’m making these baked chicken taquitos as an appetizer, I don’t worry about it. If you’re making these for a full meal, here are some ideas.
- Sour Cream Substitute - So if you’re on a migraine diet and missing sour cream, the best sour cream substitute is to whip cottage cheese in a food processor. I typically just dump it in there and call it a day, but if you want, adding a teaspoon or two of distilled white vinegar can help give it a little more tanginess.
- Queso & Salsa Verde - What’s better to add to cheesy chicken taquitos than more cheese? If you’re looking for a simple version, check out this recipe from my new book. This salsa verde is also in the book but on my site too. There’s also a great recipe for Mexican Black Beans in there that would be awesome with these chicken taquitos.
- Simple Slaw or Salad - These are what I typically serve with it. Toss a little bit of cabbage slaw or greens with an easy vinaigrette dressing for a fast and healthy side dish. If you want to make things a little more festive, give this Mexican Brown Rice recipe a try.
More Easy Chicken Recipes
Crustless Chicken Pot Pie
Green Enchilada Chicken Soup
Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken
Italian Chicken Zucchini Boats
Crispy Buffalo Chicken Thighs
Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Ingredients
- 1 pound chicken tinga taco filling
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- any extra leftover chopped veggies, like corn or kale (Optional)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 12 tortillas
- olive oil spray
Toppings
- 2 green onions
- 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
- salsa verde
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine warm shredded tinga chicken with cream cheese and cumin. Add any vegetables you'd like. Mix together and taste to adjust seasoning, add any extra salt and pepper you wish.
- Spoon creamy chicken mixture into one side of a tortilla and roll up, as tight as you can. Place the tortilla seam side down on a baking sheet lined with parchment. Spray lightly with olive oil and bake at 400° for 20 minutes until lightly browned on outside and cripsy. Serve warm.
Notes
- These can be stored in the fridge and reheated at 400 degrees F for 10-15 minutes. They'll still be crispy on the outside.
Question about freezing! Would you bake them and then freeze or prepare the recipe up to the baking point and then just bake when actually ready to eat them? Thanks! 🙂
I think you could do both but I bake and then freeze! They reheat crunchy! If you bake first, you'd just have to make sure you don't get them too dark while reheating. But you can cover with foil in the beginning and then remove it later on when the inside is warmed to crisp it up more.
These are *phenomenal*. I made them with regular cream cheese for my brother’s family, which includes 4 kids who are picky eaters, & it was an easy crowd favorite. I make them with goat cheese for myself & that melts beautifully too, and makes my mouth water as I’m writing this haha. TortillaLand tortillas have changed my life—I don’t even care to reintroduce regular tortillas bc these are so good & crisp up to a crunchy golden!
I am not only gluten free, but dairy free. What can be substituted for the cream cheese?
Hi Karey,
Just leave it out! It's good without the cheese too.
Hi Alicia! Would these freeze well? Maybe not with the cream cheese I guess?
Does the HYH diet allow for much food prep/freezer meals?
Thank you and congratulations on your pregnancy!!
They do freeze very well!! And yes!! There are so many great recipes for food prep and freezer meals. I talk more about this in my cookbook, but a resource here that you may enjoy is this 5 day meal plan which has you freezing some of the meals for the future. Also most of my soups freeze well too. Thank you!
It looks delicious, I have to try it
Love these!! My whole family requests these for dinner every week. Thank you!
Hi. I thought cream cheese is not a good choice for the vestibular migraine diet. Do you use a special type of cream cheese?
Thank you for all your posts and helpful advise.
Hey Sonia - cream cheese is ok, it just can't have carrageenan or live active cultures. Quite a few brands are ok - Philadelphia plain block cream cheese, organic valley, whole foods organic.
Love this recipe. It is always a crowd pleaser. Tou can make these as an appetizer or a meal!
Loved the creamy chicken taquitos!!!
Really quick and easy to make and sooo filling.. I couldn’t eat more than one and a half, saved the rest for later..
Thank you Alicia, can’t wait to get my new recipe book!
Thank you, Jill!! So glad you enjoyed!