Creamy Chicken Taquitos 🌮🧀 are crispy and crunchy on the outside with warm melted cheese and flavorful seasoned chicken inside. Ready in just 30 minutes with a handful of common ingredients, these EASY taquitos rival your favorite Mexican restaurant and are perfect for parties or casual get togethers.
Easy Creamy Chicken Taquitos Recipe
- These cheesy chicken taquitos are easy to make at home, so there’s no need to head to your favorite Mexican restaurant when the craving strikes.
- They’re ultra-crispy and crunchy on the outside with a creamy, cheesy chicken filling inside, and they’re ready in less than 30 minutes with just a handful of common ingredients.
- Serve them as a snack, party appetizer, or main dish with taco salad, rice and beans, or your favorite Mexican-inspired sides.
- They’re family-friendly, picky-eater approved, and perfect for Cinco de Mayo, game day, fiestas, or casual get-togethers.
Ingredients in Creamy Chicken Taquitos
- Cooked shredded chicken: Rotisserie chicken is the quickest and easiest option, and either white or dark meat works. You can also use poached chicken, leftover baked or grilled chicken, or really any cooked chicken you have on hand that can be shredded or diced small.
- Shredded Mexican cheese blend: A Mexican cheese blend melts well, but cheddar, pepper jack, or your favorite shredded cheese blend will also work.
- Cream cheese and sour cream: Use full-fat cream cheese and sour cream for the best filling texture. Lite or spreadable cream cheese has too much water and can make the taquitos soggy. Full-fat Greek yogurt would likely work in place of sour cream, although I have not tested it.
- Cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, kosher salt, and pepper: These seasonings give the filling plenty of flavor without making the taquitos spicy. Add extra chili powder for more heat, or add onion powder if you like.
- Red salsa: Use any brand and heat level you like, as long as it is not too chunky. For buffalo chicken taquitos, swap the salsa for buffalo sauce.
- Flour tortillas: I prefer 6 to 8-inch flour tortillas because they are pliable, easy to roll, and less likely to rip. Corn tortillas are fine, especially if you need the recipe to be gluten-free, but warm them briefly with a damp paper towel first so they soften enough to roll.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Chicken and Cheese Taquitos
- Stir together the cream cheese and sour cream until smooth and creamy.
- Add the shredded chicken, cheese, salsa, and seasonings, then stir until the filling is well combined.
- Spoon the chicken mixture onto the tortillas, then roll them up tightly.
- Fry the taquitos in hot oil until golden brown and crispy, flipping halfway through so they cook evenly.
- Serve warm with salsa, guacamole, crema, cilantro, or your favorite toppings!
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for step-by-step photos and process shots of the cooking process.
What to Serve with Creamy Chicken Taquitos
Creamy Chicken Taquitos Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 ounces full-fat brick style cream cheese, very well softened to room temp
- ¼ cup full-fat sour cream
- ¼ cup red salsa, any brand, any spicy level, not super chunky
- 2 cups cooked shredded chicken*, See Notes for my recommendations
- 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese blend, or your favorite shredded cheese
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 12 flour tortillas, about 6-inches in diameter
- Vegetable oil, for frying (if frying; if baking or air frying see Notes below)
Instructions
- To a large bowl, add the cream cheese, sour cream, salsa, and stir to combine. Tip – Make sure the cream cheese is very well softened to room temp or this is unnecessarily difficult.
- Add the cooked chicken, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and stir to combine.
- Add about 2 tablespoons filling in a vertical strip at the edge of each tortilla and roll up tightly. Tips – Don't overfill.
- Flour tortillas are easier to work with, more pliable, and don't rip as easily. If you're using corn tortillas, add a stack to the microwave, cover with a damp paper towel, and heat for about 15 seconds to 'steam' the corn tortillas just a bit which will make them easier to work with and roll without ripping.
- To a heavy-bottomed skillet with a bit of depth (cast iron is preferred; don't use a nonstick skillet that's intended to make scrambled eggs!) add enough oil so that it comes up to about 1 to 2-inches high.
- Heat the oil until it's 350F as measured with a thermometer. Tips – I strongly recommend not guessing and using a thermometer. However, if you don't have one and you are going to guess, likely the oil is hot enough when it's bubbling and you can add a small piece of tortilla to the oil and it cooks instantly, but that it's not so hot that the tortilla just burns.
- Add about 2 or 3 rolled taquitos to the oil, and fry for about 2 minutes total, flipping and once midway through. The exterior should be golden browned but not burnt when done. Tips – Don't crowd the pan because the taquitos will not cook properly because the overall temp of the oil will drop too low and/or there isn't enough oil freely flowing and circulating around the taquitos to cook them.
- Place cooked taquitos on a plate lined with paper towels to cool briefly while you repeat the frying process with all remaining taquitos. Discard fry oil safely after you're done.
- Serve immediately. Taquitos are best served hot and fresh. Leftovers will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 4-5 days however there is no way to replicate the crispiness of freshly cooked taquitos after they've been refrigerated. I warm my leftovers if I have any in the microwave for about 30 seconds. I don't recommend freezing taquitos because the texture after thawing won't be very good.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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