Chicken Taquitos Recipe
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When I worked as a nanny, it seemed no matter what family I worked for, every household had a steady supply of those frozen taquitos you can buy at Costco. (Certainly nowhere near as healthy as this clean eating taquitos recipe!) You know, those big orange boxes that just call your name from the freezer? I think I put on more weight eating taquitos in those years than any other food. But when I stopped being a nanny, I completely forgot about taquitos. Until recently.
I’m not entirely sure what made me think of them, but all of a sudden, I had the most intense craving for some microwaved, greasy, processed, chicken taquitos.
Well, I can tell you that that craving made it about as far as a fruit fly drowning in fruit syrup. I was not about to bend to that craving for anything. So instead, I got into the kitchen and created my own. Not too bad if I do say so myself!
YOU MIGHT ALSO ENJOY THESE CLEAN EATING RECIPES:
CHICKEN TAQUITOS RECIPE:
Ingredients
- 3 ½ lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 4 tbsp. garlic powder
- 4 tbsp. onion powder
- 1 cup salsa
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast (not the same as yeast for baking bread!)
- 48 small corn tortillas
Instructions
- Bake the chicken breasts in the oven at 350 with half of the onion and garlic powder sprinkled on them, until done.
- Cut off any unwanted parts and put the cooled chicken breasts into a food processor.
- Add the rest of the garlic and onion powders, salsa, olive oil, and nutritional yeast. Blend until you have a well blended, “crumbly dough” looking mixture.
- Warm the tortillas in the microwave, wrapping them in a wet paper towel. Get them nice and “pliable” so they don’t rip while you are rolling them. They will be hot, so don’t burn yourself!
- Put about 1 tbsp. of meat on a tortilla, and roll up like you are rolling a carpet.
- Place the taquitos in an oiled baking pan and spray the tops with olive oil using an oil mister/sprayer. This will give you the browned crunchiness that everyone loves in a taquito.
- Bake at 400 degrees F. until they are golden brown (About 20 minutes, but the time can vary from oven to oven. So keep an eye on them).
- Cool and serve with salsa for dipping!
- Note: These freeze well. To eat after freezing, defrost overnight in the fridge and then warm in the oven. You can microwave them, but they get soggy.
Notes
Nutrition
I'm Tiffany, a writer for MSN and the AP Newswire, a cookbook author, digital publisher, food lover, and mom. I create healthy, clean eating recipes for everyday living.
When buying “clean eating corn tortillas” what should you look for?
When buying “clean eating corn tortillas” what should you look for?
Felicia – They are tough to find these days. But generally, they have only corn, water and lime.
Felicia – They are tough to find these days. But generally, they have only corn, water and lime.
Thank you for this! We love taquitos, but haven’t had them since starting clean eating! I am so making these this week!
gonna have to this ;]
We are new to clean eating. I made these last night, and my super-duper-picky-eating, chicken-nuggets-only-please kids LOVED them! Thank you so much for a recipe that was clean AND so very tasty!
My pleasure!
I always cook meat to temperature. It’s far safer. (And thermometers are cheap!) Cook until it reaches at least 165 F.
Please explain clean eating? I have poly cystic ovarian syndrome and I have to eat very healthy this would be great to start.. Thank you for this recipe! 🙂
Here you go: https://www.thegraciouspantry.com/what-is-clean-eating/
Forgive me for saying so, but putting the chicken in the food processor sounds gross. Wouldn’t shredding the chicken then adding the other ingredients work just as well? Granted, it would be a little more trouble.
Do whatever works for you. I put it in the processor because it made the texture of the chicken more like regular taquitos.
These look great! What is considered clean salsa??
You have to read labels to find a clean salsa. Here’s some info on how to do that: https://www.thegraciouspantry.com/reading-labels-for-clean-eating/
I love these and so do my grandkids. easy to make and clean up
I have been making these for a couple of years now for my kids tweaking the recipe here and there but I today substituted garbanzo beans for the chicken and used fresh pico de gallo instead of jared salsa. They are absolutely amazing and a great vegan alternative!
Oh yummy!!!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! I made them (a half batch) exactly as written and they turned out so yummy! Quite easy too! Now on to make more of your delicious and clean recipes – can’t wait!
Jennlovinglife – Wonderful! Glad you liked them! 🙂
In step 1, it says to bake the chicken at 350 but doesn’t say for how long…… please advise. I could eyeball it, but I’d rather pinpoint a time. 😉
LBJ – Depends on if you cook them from raw or frozen.
YUM!!! Dinner is planned 🙂 Thank you 🙂 I have really enjoyed exploring your website and learning all about clean eating.
Jennifer – Thanks! I hope you enjoy them!
made these this past weekend and they turned out okay…mine weren’t so tight, however I couldn’t find the nutritional yeast so I added cheese instead I’m assuming that’s why. But they were a hit anyway.
Melissa – Glad they turned out okay!
Dumb question, would you freeze after baking or before? 🙂
Briana – I do it after baking. Enjoy!
Am new to nutritional yeast, i live in the woods and cant get it at my locl stores:( i wanted to know what is a good brand to buy that is msg and gluten free. I went to order it n amazon and there are just far too many options! Help pleeeease
Kelsey – It’s hard to say when looking at online products, but I know that the following two brands are pretty reputable companies:
http://www.amazon.com/Now-Foods-Nutritional-Flakes-10-Ounce/dp/B000MGR1N6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1384840768&sr=8-5&keywords=nutritional+yeast
http://www.amazon.com/Frontier-FRT23261-Nutritional-Yeast-Flakes/dp/B00016XJM4/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1384840789&sr=8-7&keywords=nutritional+yeast
Thanks so much- im going for my first gf dairy free thanksgiving, wish me luck! 🙂
Ps these look delicious! Looking forward to trying them as well
Kelsey – My pleasure! Happy Thanksgiving! 🙂
mmmmm. Now how about a vegetarian version? We often get the black bean taquitos from Trader Joe’s. I’d love to make my own though.
Lisa – Black beans and organic tofu would be a good sub.
I like the idea of using garbanzo beans instead of chicken. Would you use about three cans?
I never had taquitas much, but ate a beef and bean burrito at work lunch for two years.
The only clean corn tortillas I can find are 8″ so may take a little more filling.
Gail – I wouldn’t know. I haven’t tried it myself so you’d have to improvise. Let me know how they turn out!
Did you use Nutritional Yeast Flakes or Powder?? I am making these tonight for my family and want to grab the correct form.
Kimberly – It was the flakes.
I made these last night and they were delicious! I ended up putting the tortillas in a steamer and that helped them roll easier. They were still not very crunchy and crisp. I wonder what would happen if I put some egg wash on them? Or maybe I just need more oil. Any ideas Tiffany? Thanks for the great recipe.
Kristina – That’s odd. Maybe they didn’t bake long enough to get crispy? You could always try putting them under the broiler for 30 seconds or so. But you’ll have to watch them carefully so they don’t burn. My guess is that your oven just bakes a little different and that you need to bake a bit longer.
Can you make the “dough” and then prepare the taquitos the next day? Or it all needs to be done at once? Thanks!
Tiffany – You mean the filling? Sure! You can make that ahead of time. I wouldn’t do more than 1 or 2 days ahead though.