When I am hungry for something delicious and homemade at lunch time I turn to my freezer for my pre-made Crispy Homemade Chicken Taquitos with cream cheese, Cilantro and Pepper Jack cheese. Creamy and satisfying are the words I would use to describe these. In fact this freezer chicken taquitos recipe is so good I find myself wanting to eat like 10 of them at once. My body says I am full after about 4 but my mind wants more. That’s just how good these are.
Have you tried the Taquitos from the store? I do not like them at all. They have the taste of cardboard and the only way I can choke them down is with sour cream. I don’t know what it inside of them, but they taste nothing like homemade so I am guessing they are full of weird ingredients. Making your own freezer chicken taquitos can be more work but the taste and knowing what is in them is worth it. Once you make this recipe you will never want to go back to store bought ones again!
I make this chicken taquitos recipe as part of my freezer meals. I just make them up as I would directed below, but before I bake them I flash freeze them instead. This way I can pull out just a few and 15 minutes later I am ready to savor a perfect lunch. We have eaten this recipe for dinner too. Hope you try this recipe out and let me know what you think!
Chicken Taquitos with Cream Cheese, Cilantro and Pepper-Jack recipe
Ingredients:
3 Cups roasted shredded chicken breast (or roast beef is great too)
8 oz. Cream Cheese
4 Tablespoons chopped Cilantro
2 Tablespoons Lime juice
1 (6 oz.) can Green Chilis (or ½ cup green salsa verde if you have that on hand)
3/4 teaspoon Cumin
1 ½ teaspoon Chili Powder
1 teaspoon Onion Powder
1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
1 ½ Cups shredded Pepper-jack cheese
small corn or flour tortillas (approximately 30 depending on how full you stuff them!)
fine sea salt
cooking spray
Method:
Melt your cream cheese until it’s soft and melty. Add all spices, cilantro, lime juice, green chilis, chicken and cheese to a large bowl. Mix until well blended.
Heat your tortillas so they are soft and won’t break as much when you roll them. Add a little bit (about 2 tablespoons) of chicken mixture to each tortilla, roll and place seam side down on parchment or foil lined cookie sheet. Spray with a little olive oil spray and sprinkle with a little bit of salt. Bake in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.
To freeze: As you roll your chicken Taquitos, place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet without touching. Then place cookie sheet in freezer. When taquitos are frozen remove them from the cookie sheet and add them all to a freezer safe gallon sized bag. Label and add back to freezer. When you are ready to eat just take a few or a lot of the taquitos, place on a foil or parchment lined cookie sheet. Spray lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Bake in 425 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until crispy.
Like I mentioned before you can use corn or flour tortillas – they are both equally good. And I use whatever tortillas I have around.
I love making 50 freezer meals in a day all at once so I don’t have to cook every day of the year. It’s a real time saver. If you are new to freezer meals see this post here.
Here is the printable version of this recipe if you would like:
Crispy Homemade Chicken Taquitos with Cilantro and Pepper-Jack Cheese
Ingredients
- 3 cups roasted shredded chicken breast or roast beef is great too
- 8 oz Cream Cheese
- 4 tbsp chopped Cilantro
- 2 tbsp Lime juice
- 4 oz Green Chilis, canned ½ cup green salsa verde if you have that on hand
- 3/4 tsp Cumin
- 1-1/2 tsp Chili Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1/4 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1-1/2 cups shredded Pepper-jack cheese
- 30 small corn or flour tortillas
- fine sea salt
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Melt your cream cheese until it’s soft and melty. Add all spices, cilantro, lime juice, green chilis, chicken and cheese to a large bowl. Mix until well blended.
- Heat your tortillas so they are soft and won’t break as much when you roll them. Add a little bit (about 2 tablespoons) of chicken mixture to each tortilla, roll and place seam side down on parchment or foil lined cookie sheet. Spray with a little olive oil spray and sprinkle with a little bit of salt. Bake in 425 degree oven for 15 minutes.
- To freeze: As you roll your chicken Taquitos, place them on a parchment lined cookie sheet without touching. Then place cookie sheet in freezer. When Taquitos are frozen remove them from the cookie sheet and add them all to a freezer safe gallon sized bag. Label and add back to freezer. When you are ready to eat just take a few or a lot of the taquitos, place on a foil or parchment lined cookie sheet. Spray lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt. Bake in 425 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until crispy.
Nutrition
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I really hope you enjoy these as much as I do!
WANNA SEE MORE RECIPES?
- Creamy Chicken Taquitos With Cilantro & PepperJack Cheese
- Chicken Burrito Bowls
- Adobo Chicken with Pineapple
- Easy Burrito Pie
- Chicken Enchiladas (Freezer Meal)
- Teriyaki Beef and Broccoli Freezer Meal
–> See all of my freezer meal recipes here.
About Karrie
Food is my love language. But so is saving money. So I like to combine the two a lot and make thrifty make ahead and freeze meals to save time. Because life is busy, and freezer meals can come to the rescue for all of us. And yes, they actually CAN taste good. Read more...
Comments & Reviews
Emily says
Hi. When you say small tortillas do you mean like the taco size? I’m confused on the sizing of the tortillas
Karrie says
Anywhere from like 6-8 inches would be great.
Monica says
if you use flour tortillas to make these….. you have made “flautas” not taquitos, which are always made with corn tortillas and fried and crispy rather than baked. If you want to play “substitute this or that” for real Mexican cuisine then you aren’t respecting the art of Mexican cooking!
Angel says
This recipe is right up my alley. Simple, healthy and “OMG delicious!” My freezer is now joyously stuffed.
Brody says
Fantastic recipe, however I really want to know where the “10 minute” prep time came from lol. Even if you don’t include the chicken in that, assuming it’s leftover or rotisserie, it feels like it takes way longer than that to soften, measure, chop, combine, and roll 30 rolls lol
Wanda says
These are great! I made them with steak like you’d use for Philly cheese steak sandwiches.
I tried a batch with corn tortillas but they want to flake apart. So we ate them instead of freezing them. Then I make more with flour tortillas and that worked nicely! Great flavor! Thanks for the recipe!
Candice B says
My son begs me to make these every week. These taste like green chili enchiladas all rolled up a nice little packet. So yummy !
Happy-Money-Saver says
I love this!
Marcia says
These are way better than the frozen store bought ones.
Happy-Money-Saver says
So glad you like them! I think that, too!
Nicole Hansen says
This was really easy and my toddler who is addicted to corn tortillas loved it, with regular green peppers and mozzarella (I didn’t have pepper jack).
Sarah says
I tried this recipe to use when making lunches for work. Although I made small adjustments to fit me being a picky eater they were still good. I was wondering if I could switch out the shredded chicken for ground turkey instead, still making some adjustments.
Happy-Money-Saver says
Sure!
Jacque says
Can I cook chicken , soften tortillas and wrap and then freeze before cooking? Will they defrost okay? I want to deep fry them, so can I defrost or add to hot grease frozen?
Karrie says
Yes that would work great!
Jessica Wallwin says
I’m starting to prep/plan meals for when my 2nd little baby comes in about 4 months and was wondering how long these stay good in the freezer. ((They are SOOO good!! They’ll be such a great treat when I’m deliriously tired haha!))
Karrie says
best if used up within 4-6 months!
JoAnn says
I found this recipe a few years ago. It is one of our favorites! I always keep these handy for a quick snack or impromptu dinner. These are easy and taste like I slaved away over them haha. Even the most picky of our 4 children loves these.
Courtney says
Any tips other than heating corn tortillas to avoid splitting during the freezing process? Heated mine and they still split in the freezer. :/
Wayne says
I do mine in wet paper towels. Place 6 tortillas in the middle and fold paper around them. Wet paper and microwave 30 seconds. Adjust time so they are very warm if 30 seconds is to hot or not hot enough.
Danielle says
Just made these and they are delicious!! Winner all around – kids and husband loved them.
Rachel says
I am hoping to make these soon. When you say 3 cups roasted chicken breast. Is there a recipe you use to roast the chicken or any seasonings you add?
Karrie says
I will sometimes just buy a rotisserie chicken to save time, but otherwise I put my raw chicken breasts in a baking pan (sprayed with cooking spray) and bake covered with foil at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until the chicken is shreddable. For this paticular recipe I usually will sprinkle on some ground cumin and salt for extra flavoring.
Rachel Larsen says
Perfect! Thank you so much. I can’t wait to try these!
Robert says
The taste was delicious. I used corn tortillas and they all split and made these unusable 🙁
Lol at Robert says
User error. Don’t rate the writer poorly because you don’t know how to work with corn tortillas.
Carolyn says
Can you bake these then freeze? Pop in the microwave when you take out of freezer?
Karrie says
Yes but they won’t get as crispy this way.
Marie says
Did you do this? Did it turn out good?
How long in microwave?
Jen says
We loved these chicken taquitos! They were quick to assemble with the right amount of spice and cooked up quick. We’ll definitely be making these again and trying them out as a freezer meal. Thanks so much for this yum recipe!
Keri says
Absolutely DELICIOUS!! This recipe is definitely a keeper! It was even called “one of my new favorite foods” from my picky 11 year old daughter 🙂 these were super simple to make, I had no problems with them cracking and breaking, and ended up making – if I remember correctly, right at 28 taquitos – so that’s close enough for me 🙂 just wanted to say thank you so much for sharing this wonderful recipe! Oh and by the way – it was even HUSBAND approved with many compliments…lol… definitely making a double batch next time so I have plenty in the freezer for those busy work days, and not enough time to slave away in the kitchen…
Karrie says
Yay!!! So happy you liked it!!