Healthy Baked Chicken Taquitos
Healthy baked chicken taquitos with spicy salsa is a surprisingly healthy, low-fat dinner entree, appetizer, or snack. Baked taquitos are lightly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside without adding extra grease from frying.
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When you have leftover chicken, beef, turkey, and even pulled pork, taquitos are a perfect quick and easy dinner solution. There are many different recipes for taquitos, but I prefer to keep mine simple using ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen.
To Make Healthy Baked Chicken Taquitos, You Will Need These Ingredients:
- Shredded chicken
- Refried beans
- Mexican blend cheese ~ omit for dairy-free
- Salsa ~ I used Fody No Garlic No Onion Medium Salsa
- Taco seasoning ~ I used Fody Taco Seasoning; it’s perfect for adding a little spice
- Olives ~ optional
- Corn tortillas
- Olive oil
- Guacamole for dipping, more salsa, or light Ranch dressing ~ dairy-free if needed
For something a little different but amazing, try a barbecued pulled pork taquito, following the same method for chicken below. Use leftover pork from pulled pork sandwiches.
To Make Pulled Pork Barbecued Taquitos, You Will Need These Ingredients:
- Shredded pulled pork ~ 3 cups
- Barbecue sauce ~ I used Fody Foods Original BBQ Sauce
- Cheddar Cheese ~ 1 1/2 cups
- Corn tortillas ~ 8
- Sliced olives ~ optional
- Olive oil ~ 2 tbsp
- Extra barbecue sauce for dipping or light Ranch ~ dairy-free if needed
I prefer to bake my taquitos in a conventional oven, but this is now you would use an air fryer instead:
To air-fry chicken taquitos, preheat the air fryer to 375.
Cook prepared taquitos on each side for 5-7 minutes. Lightly spray the taquitos with a cooking spray if desired.
Dipping baked taquitos is half the fun. Here are some popular dipping sauces we like to serve with ours:
-
- Salsa
- Light ranch dressing ~ dairy-free if needed
- Guacamole
- Sour cream ~ dairy-free if needed
- Barbecue sauce ~ definitely for pulled pork taquitos
- Queso
- Jalapeno Dip ~ recipe below
Homemade Jalapeno Dip:
Ingredients:
2 fresh jalapenos ~ no seeds
1 cup chopped cilantro ~ tops and stems
1 clove fresh garlic ~ 1 tsp FreFOD Garlic Replacer for Low FODMAP
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/2 tsp cumin
3/4 cup sour cream ~ dairy-free if needed or light sour cream for low-fat
1/4 cup mayonnaise ~ dairy and/or egg-free if needed or light for low-fat
juice from one fresh lime or about 2 Tbsp
Directions:
Add all ingredients to a food processor or blender and blend for about one minute or until smooth.
Refrigerate the jalapeno dip until you are ready to serve.
Check out these silicone liners I use in my kitchen when not using parchment paper.
Enjoy!!
Healthy Baked Chicken Taquitos
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups Shredded cooked chicken ~ varies 2-3 cups
- 1 cup Refried beans ~ varies 1-1/2 cups
- 1 cup Shredded Mexican blend cheese ~ omit for dairy-free
- 2 cups Salsa ~ I used Fody No Garlic No Onion Medium Salsa
- 2 tsp Taco seasoning ~ I used Fody Taco Seasoning, it's perfect for adding a little spice
- 8 Corn tortillas
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 8 ounces Guacamole for dipping ~ more salsa, or light Ranch dressing ~ dairy-free if needed
- 1/2 cup sliced black olives ~ optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
- Mix together shredded chicken, 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup salsa, and taco seasoning.
- Lay tortillas out on a flat surface. You can heat each tortilla for a few seconds in the microwave to soften it, but I skip this step. I personally don't find enough advantage from it.
- Spoon about 2 tbsps of chicken mixture lengthwise across the tortilla.
- Add 1-2 tbsps of refried beans on top or next to chicken lengthwise.
- Add 1 tbsp or less of salsa over chicken and beans. Sprinkle some cheese overall and a few slices of olives.
- Carefully roll the tortilla up somewhat tightly and place the seam down on the baking sheet. Sometimes a little oil on the seam helps it stay closed. If you place the taquitos right next to each other side by side this helps too.
- Continue until all the taquitos are filled. If you like you can lightly brush the taquitos with oil before baking. Omit the oil for less fat.
- Bake taquitos for 15-20 minutes, checking at 15. They will become lightly browned.
- Remove from oven and serve with guacamole, salsa, queso, or jalapeno dip.
Notes
Nutrition
