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
Lauryn Jones says
The filling tastes so good. I used mission corn tortillas and heated them up before so they were soft and didn’t crack while rolling. However, they DID crack and split in the oven which was really disappointing. Not sure if I just need to use a different brand or whether I over stuffed them or what. Any thoughts?
Karrie says
Yeah, fresher ones will do better, but corn sometimes can crack anyways… flour ones usually won’t crack though!
Domi says
I’ve made these twice now and omg I’m obsessed with these! So good, so easy!! My 3 year old is chowing one as I type this. This is a keeper. Just a note that I also used “small flour tortillas” and only got 18 with about 2 TBS in each. Not an issue, just a note! Next time I’m going to remember how amazing these are and double batch 🙂
Sarah says
Oops! I misunderstood the directions and cooked them all before freezing. I needed these as meal prep- are they no longer safe to freeze and reheat?
Karrie says
Hi, you can still reheat and eat them, no problem! They might be less crispy if you microwave than if you baked fresh but they will still be yummy!!
Donna says
Do you bake them before you freeze them?
Karrie says
Nope, bake on the day you want to eat them!
Daryanne Shoemaker says
Do you have to cook the chicken first??
Karrie says
Yes you do!
Nicole says
Hello, I am new to your blog. I’m looking for make ahead apps. I am wondering if I can cut these in half before baking? I’d probably wrap them up and put them on a cookie sheet in the fridge and bake when guests arrive.
Any advice?
Karrie says
Hi Nicole, I haven’t actually tried to cut them in half before baking, but I would assume that yes you can. But use a really sharp knife so they make a clean edge otherwise it might look not as pretty. Maybe do a small test run and bake up 2-3 of them to make sure the filling holds up in such smaller portions.
Spray them all with cooking spray so they don’t dry out in the fridge and cover well with plastic wrap. Come back and let me know if it worked good!!.
Kristen says
These were super tasty but all of the filling leaked out. Is there any way to prevent that?
Mads Holm-Jensen says
Hi.
How long would these last in the freezer? Definitely going to try them out.
Thanks!
Karrie says
Hi, these last up to 5 months in the freezer, enjoy!
Brittany says
All of my corn tortillas cracked. What is the secret?!
Karrie says
Having fresh tortillas really matters, the dryer they are, the more likely to crack. Another tip is to microwave around 5-6 at a time around a damp paper towel for about 30 seconds. Try that before rolling.
linda says
can you use taco pkg mix for seasoning or canned enchilada sauce for the seasoning and mix w/ meat …
becka says
These were easy to make and tasted great. We did chicken and also a carnitas version. Thanks for the recipe. Do you have any other 1-hand to eat freezer recipes? I’ve been making freezer meals for a new to be mom.
Lise Payne says
These are delicious. I got two thumbs up from my 9-year-old and my husband loved them too. Nice and crispy with great flavour.
Karrie says
Wonderful, glad you liked them!!
Kami says
Made these today in preparation for baby coming. I guess what I consider a small tortilla is actually a medium haha. I doubled the recipe and got about 32 of them. Sampled some of course and they are approved by my 3 year old as well which is unheard of! Thanks for the recipe.
Liz M. says
I’m currently due with my 3rd child on January 27th and am going to be making some yummy freezer meals that we can just pop out and reheat in order to make mealtime easier on us while we focus on our sweet princess. So something I’m confused about in the instructions above is that you say you “flash freeze” these prior to cooking them? Can you please explain specifically what you do for this process and how long you flash freeze the taquitos? Haha! Have some grace with me please as I’m no professional cook by any means! Thank you!!!! 🙂
Hannah Linde says
Flash freeze means putting them on a cookie sheet separated by an inch and then freezing them for a little bit before putting them together in a freezer bag. This prevents them from sticking together in the freezer bag.
Devon says
THE BEST TAQUITOS.
Made these for dinner last night. Super easy. Froze great and tasted even better! Will never buy box again.
Karrie says
Thank you so much!!! I feel the same way!
Shirley says
I have a question about the nutrition facts. The carb count is 80, is that for 1 taquitos? I’ve made these before and we really like them but I’ve recently been diagnosed with type diabetes and right now can only have 45-60 carbs per meal.
Thank you.
Karrie says
Hi Shirley, I just updated the recipe nutrition calculations. It used to be 1 serving (about 5 taquitos) for 80 carbs. But I just changed it so that it shows you how much each taquito is instead. Each taquito (using corn tortillas) is 12 carbs it looks like and 112 calories. Thanks! Glad you like this recipe!
Katie says
These tasted ahhhhhhhhmazing! So yummy! Thanks for sharing! It’s going in the recipe box permanently!
Julie Hiatt says
Can these be baked, frozen and reheated in the microwave? Wondering how they were if done that way.
Kim says
I want to know this as well
Debbie says
Have you tried freezing the corn tortilla taquitos? I have Frozen the flour tortilla ones in the past. I was searching for answers on why my corn tortillas break up when freezing. I saw your post and your recipe looks similar to mine. I was curious what your results were freezing taquitos with corn tortillas
Karrie says
Hi Debbie, you need to warm the up well before rolling and freezing. If they are warmed up, they roll nicely and you can freeze them in the shape without breaking. Some corn tortillas are dryer than others too so find the softest freshest corn tortillas if possible.
Agness of Run Agness Run says
Yum! These chicken taquitos seem so mouthwatering, Karrie!
Suzanne says
I made these today and snuck a taste of the filling…DELICIOUS! I also only got 18 using small flour tortillas and 2 tablespoons for each. Next time I’ll either use 2 teaspoons or double the recipe. I can’t wait to try them!
Suzanne says
Side note… no matter what size tortilla you use, if you put two tablespoons of filling in them you’ll never have enough to make 30. Keep this in mind when your planning to make this recipe for a small party or pot luck.
Slicey says
Yep. I made a half batch and got exactly 10 taquitos out of this recipe.
I made the recipe exactly as written with a small exception: I forgot to include the lime juice, and I used a little less shredded cheese (probably 1/2 cup instead of 3/4 cup for a half-recipe). They were plenty cheesy with less cheese, if you’re looking to reduce the fat or calorie count a bit.
I boiled some chicken and shredded that and I didn’t bother microwaving the cream cheese, I just added the cubed cream cheese on top of the chicken I had just shredded, which was still hot. The heat from the cooked chicken was warm enough to soften the cream cheese without it being completely melted, which seemed gross to me.
I baked 3 to eat right away and froze 7. Instead of flash-freezing, I just froze 2-3 together, rolled in an aluminum foil sheet, then put the 3 packs of taquitos into one freezer bag.
These taquitos don’t look as appetizing at the restaurant version, probably because they aren’t deep fried. They’re definitely healthier being baked, though, and I liked the texture. They were crisp, but not break-your-teeth crunch like the fried version often are.
I had no problem with the tortillas splitting, and I was using old tortillas. They are the good, fresh kind from a Mexican grocery store, but they had been in my fridge for a week. I just wrapped 4 at a time in a damp paper towel and microwaved for at least 30 seconds. I immediately rolled those four, then microwaved another set of tortillas. I won’t know how they hold up in the freezer, but they held up great in the oven for the batch that I baked fresh. Stayed together and didn’t crack at all, but you need to steam (or microwave in damp towel) the tortillas to prevent cracking.
And note the recipe makes far less than the stated amount, using 2 TBSP and leaving 1 inch of empty tortilla space on either side of the filling. Don’t fill to the sides, or they will leak out when baked.