Chicken Taquitos For The Freezer

Move over grocery store freezer aisle cardboard. These homemade taquitos are so yummy and protein packed.

August 16, 20263 min readJump to recipe

Golden air fried chicken taquitos lined up in an air fryer basket

Move over freezer aisle cardboard, Mom has entered the chat! This recipe came about because my 9 year old wanted chicken taquitos, but I tasted one of the store bought ones and they were so gross. Barely any filling and blah cardboard tasting tortillas.

And for anyone who's making sure they hit their protein, these are estimated to have about 20g of protein per taquito.

The great thing about these is you can cook a whole bunch and even freeze them for later to pull out for a quick protein packed meal. And they taste so good!!

The filling

Chicken, cheese, cream cheese, a little salsa (or tomato sauce or no salt crushed tomatoes), garlic powder, onion powder, salt. The cream cheese is there to hold everything together besides making it extra cheesy.

Shredded chicken, grated cheese, cream cheese and tomato sauce in a red mixing bowl

Mix it until it is moist enough to hold together but not wet. Wet filling steams inside the tortilla and then escapes out the ends, and you end up with a crisp shell full of nothing.

I double the recipe usually and add a whole diced red pepper, which is not traditional but is super good. It adds a bit of crunch and sweetness.

Diced red pepper sitting on top of the mixed chicken filling, ready to be stirred in

The egg wash is the part that matters

Taquitos if not rolled tight can unroll so the eggwash acts like a glue.

Mix together an egg and a tsp of cornstarch in a cup and brush the last unsealed edge of the tortilla before the final turn, roll tightly, press the seam, and put them in the air fryer basket seam side down. Between the wash and the weight of the taquito sitting on its own seam, they stay shut. Well, most of the time. Every once in a while we get one that leaks.

Filling laid in a line near the edge of a flour tortilla

On a six inch tortilla, I use about two heaping spoonfulls of filling in a line about three and a half inches long.

Doubling the filling and rolling them that size it gives me about fifteen taquitos.

A rolled taquito resting seam side down on a blue cutting board

Air fryer

Lightly brush the tops with oil, then 375F to 380F for eight to ten minutes, until they are properly golden brown.

Golden brown taquitos in an air fryer basket after cooking

Inside the Taquito

Storing them

Let them cool all the way down first before putting away in a container, unless of course you're eating them now then as you were. lol

Once they are FULLY cooled, you can keep in the fridge for three to four days. Health Canada says refrigerated leftovers should generally be used within two to four days, and the USDA says three to four.

Anything you are not going to eat in that window goes in the freezer. The USDA puts best freezer quality for cooked leftovers at roughly three to four months.

Reheating

From frozen, air fryer at 375F for about nine to twelve minutes, turning once around halfway. Start checking at eight or nine minutes, because small ones catch up fast.

From the fridge, air fryer at 375F for about four to six minutes.

For reheating you're looking for the outside to go crisp again and the centre to reach 165F, which is 74C. But let's be honest no one's sticking a thermometer in a taquito. But that is the temperature Health Canada recommends for reheating leftovers.