Baked Chicken Taquitos with Avocado Cilantro Dipping Sauce
With their quick assembly and creamy, zesty filling, Baked Chicken Taquitos with Avocado Cilantro Dipping Sauce are guaranteed to be a hit with kids and adults alike!
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Whether you’re looking for a yummy dinner to ring in the weekend, garner enthusiasm from the kiddos, or change up Taco Tuesday (Taquito Tuesday, anyone?), Baked Chicken Taquitos are sure to fit the bill!
These flew — flew! — off the baking sheet, y’all. My boys would have happily polished off the dozen between them, but to their disappointment, I’m rather a killjoy when it comes to excessive gorging. So I let them have a couple of taquitos each and made them eat raw celery and carrot sticks to balance out the meal. And then after they went to bed, I had three more of these bad boys for a late-night snack. Excessive wha?
How to Make Baked Chicken Taquitos
Aside from tasting pretty darn good, the appeal of these Baked Chicken Taquitos is that they’re so darn easy to make.
- Inspired to use up some leftover rotisserie chicken, I basically took the filling from my Creamy Chicken Taco Hand Pies recipe (with cream cheese and taco seasoning) and adapted it a bit.
- Then I rolled that good-enough-to-eat-with-a-spoon mixture into some flour/corn blend tortillas (we’ll talk about those in a minute).
- I arranged them on a baking sheet and baked ‘em until the filling was bubbly and the ends of the tortillas were toasty.
While my taquitos were baking, I decided to whip up some Avocado Cilantro Sauce for drizzling and dipping. Yummy doesn’t even begin to describe how deliciously this concoction complements the taquitos. I got all fancy for these photos and scooped my avocado cilantro goodness into a plastic baggie, snipped off the corner, and piped it over the stack of taquitos. But rest assured that it’s equally tasty plopped right on top or used as a dipping sauce.
As an aside, my hubby is allergic to avocado (poor guy), so he enjoyed his taquitos with some leftover Creamy Jalapeño Dip (YUM!) and had no complaints.
Flour Corn Blend Tortillas
And now for those aforementioned flour/corn blend tortillas…have y’all tried them yet?
I really like them for recipes like this because they don’t turn gummy like regular flour tortillas sometimes do, but they’re more pliable than regular corn tortillas and much less likely to split or tear when you’re filling them.
They’re also becoming easier to find in the grocery store…I saw two different brands available at the same store on the day I bought these.
All of that being said, if you can’t find them or would prefer using straight flour or corn tortillas instead, feel free! Just be sure to wrap corn tortillas in a damp paper towel and microwave them until just warm to increase the odds that they won’t split once rolled.
Suffice it to say that my kids are already asking when we can have Baked Chicken Taquitos again. And my answer is SOON! Because who am I to argue with a dinner recipe that’s effortless and enthusiastically received? Not to mention the late-night snacking potential… 😉
More Tasty Taco-Inspired Treats
Baked Chicken Taquitos with Avocado Cilantro Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
FOR THE TAQUITOS:
- 2 cups cooked, diced chicken
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 4 ounces (1 cup) packed shredded cheese , such as Monterrey Jack, Mexican blend, Colby Jack, sharp cheddar
- ⅓ cup salsa
- 1 ½ tablespoons taco seasoning
- 2 tablespoons fresh minced cilantro, optional
- 12 flour/corn blend tortillas
FOR THE DIPPING SAUCE:
- ¼ cup packed cilantro leaves
- 1 large avocado
- ¼ cup milk*, see Tips & Tricks below, plus more to desired consistency
- 2 teaspoons lime juice
- ¼ teaspoon garlic salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to the center position and preheat oven to 425°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a medium pot set over medium-low heat, combine the diced chicken, cream cheese, shredded cheese, salsa, and taco seasoning. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is smooth, melted, and heated through. Stir in the minced cilantro and set aside.
- Lay a tortilla on a plate or cutting board and spoon two heaping tablespoonfuls of the chicken mixture in a straight line about an inch from the bottom edge of the tortilla. Starting at the bottom, tightly roll the tortilla around the chicken mixture. Place the taquito, seam-side down, on the prepared baking sheet and repeat until all 12 taquitos are made, making sure to leave some space between the taquitos on the baking sheet. Lightly spray or brush the taquitos with extra-virgin olive oil. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes or until the filling is bubbly and the tortillas are toasty with lightly browned edges.
- While the taquitos are baking, prepare the Avocado Cilantro Dipping Sauce. Place the cilantro in a food processor or blender and pulse until minced. Add the avocado, milk, lime juice, garlic salt, and pepper. Process/blend until the mixture is smooth and creamy, adding additional milk as necessary until desired consistency is reached. The sauce is supposed to be thick, but it needs to be thinned out just enough so that it blends to a smooth consistency. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more garlic salt and/or pepper, if desired.
- Serve the warm Chicken Taquitos with Avocado Cilantro Sauce drizzled/dolloped on top, or in a bowl on the side for dipping.
These were AMAZING! I doubled the recipe and used a little less salsa and everybody in the family loved them. My kids are 5, 3 and 1 and they all liked it with no complaints about it being "too spicy." Saw this on Pinterest and will definitely be making again.
Yay...so happy to hear that these were a hit with your family, Naphtali! Thanks for stopping back by to let me know. 🙂
Your food always looks so beautiful & tempting! =) So tickled to see your gorgeous cookbook cover too. Congrats to you!! Thanks for sharing with us at Weekend Potluck. (Did I miss seeing a link back?=)
Thanks so much, Marsha! And I apologize! I re-did my footer recently and inadvertently removed the link-back sentence at the bottom. Just added it back! I appreciate you pointing that out. 🙂 Hope you're having a great week!
I appreciate how mentioned that you limit your children's excessive gorging and that you made them eat raw celery and carrots to provide balance. I do the same! I'm a killjoy too! Ha. Ha. Thank you for your candid sharing. Your photographs are beautiful.
Ha, Selina...so happy to know I'm not alone! Killjoy parents are the ones who are really looking out for their kids, right?! 😉 I appreciate your sweet comment and hope you're having a great week! 🙂
Oh my goodness those look perfect! Fantastic recipe, cannot wait to try. PINNED!
Thanks so much, Eric, and I appreciate the pin! Hope you're having a great week. 🙂