Healthier Chicken Taquitos – Easy 30 Minute Family Dinner or Meal Prep

Healthier Taquitos (Crispy, Easy, and Family Approved)

What Are Healthier Chicken Taquitos?

Healthier taquitos are a lightened-up version of traditional fried taquitos. Instead of deep frying them, these are baked, or you can air fry them until they are crispy and golden brown.

These are made from some of your favorites and can easily have substitutions to make them even easier to prepare.

• Chicken – I like to poach mine, but you could easily grab rotisserie
• Neufchâtel cheese
• Ranch – I use my cottage cheese ranch recipe, but you can use whatever
• Hot sauce
• Tortillas – whatever kind you like best, low carb, protein, corn, or flour

By baking these chicken taquitos and not frying them and using really balanced ingredients, you are going to be able to get the crunch, flavor, and convenience of regular taquitos without all the heaviness.

The best part about this recipe? My kid ate them all. Literally, he had them for breakfast the next day. They are healthy and addictive!

Another best part of this recipe is that they are freezer-friendly. So instead of buying the premade fried ones, you can whip up a batch of these to keep in the freezer. It honestly would take you less time making these than it would running to the store to get a box and then making them.

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Why You’ll Love This Healthier Chicken Taquitos Recipe

1. They are ready in 30 minutes or less. It would take even less time to make the chicken taquitos if you use some rotisserie chicken.
   • I always poach my chicken because it is just chilling and cooking in the water while I do the other steps, and it eliminates me going to the store, but you can grab whatever chicken you like best!
   • Check out the proper internal cooking temps for chicken here at the USDA.
2. You love a crispy crunch but don’t want the fried? Same.
   • Healthier chicken taquitos will do that for ya! Just spritz a little olive oil spray on top, and they crunch up without being soaked in oil.
3. High protein recipes can sometimes get a little blah. Not these chicken taquitos. They are so satisfying and so easy to make. You seriously need to save this because they will be on repeat.
4. My favorite reason to make these: they are kid-friendly.
   • Kids love finger foods, kids love tortillas, and kids love chicken. There is literally nothing in these that the kids won’t eat (you can use less hot sauce if it is too spicy – make it your own!).
5. Meal prep-friendly meals are basically the only thing we make around here. If I can’t stash it in the freezer or take it for leftovers, we probably aren’t making it. Chicken taquitos are going to be a staple in this area!
6. Healthier chicken taquitos are also budget-friendly. You can use whatever chicken you have: canned, rotisserie, leftovers, or freshly made it is going to work in this recipe, so buy bulk! You can use whatever tortillas you want, and the cheese involved is also cost-effective. Make these your own to fit your grocery budget.

Tips for the Best Crispy Texture for Chicken Taquitos

Don’t overfill your tortillas or they may burst. This leads to more moisture on the outside of the tortilla, and that makes it soggy, not crispy. Spread the filling as thinly as you can across the tortilla, too. This will also help prevent the bursting.

Spray the tortilla tops and sides lightly with some olive oil spray, or lightly brush it on if you don’t like the spray. This will crisp up when they are cooking in the oven and make them so tasty!

To make sure your chicken taquitos stay closed, you should put them seam side down. The seam is the open part of the tortilla. This way, when they are baking, they won’t pop open, once again keeping the moisture on the inside of the tortilla and not on the outside.

Budget-Friendly Tip for Healthier Chicken Taquitos

You can use what you have for this recipe. Check through the fridge and find the leftover chicken you made earlier this week, or leftover taco meat if you have that. Just throw it in the mix! This also helps prevent you from having to do this step in the recipe, too, yay time saver!

Buy chicken in bulk, and you can prep it for these taquitos and store it in the freezer. This way, you save money and time when you go to prep them!

Our Aldi has the 0-carb tortillas on sale often, so I bulk buy these too. You can easily store them in the freezer to help maintain freshness.

Meal Prep and Storage Tips for Healthier Chicken Taquitos

To make them ready to grab and go you have a couple different options.

1. You can store them in an airtight conatiner for up to 4 days in the refrigerator.
2. Freeze them – Freeze your baked healthier chicken taquitos on a sheet pan so they are laying flat and freeze quickly and evenly. Then move them to a baggie or your favorite freezer container for 3 months.

How to reheat:

You can use the oven (my favorite) and preheat to 375 F and bake for 10-15 minutes.

Use the air fryer for 3-5 minutes.

Or, microwave them. This will make them soft, but it is the quickest option.

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