I had the best chicken taquitos ever when I visited my Aunt Olga a few months ago. Typically, taquitos are made of shredded meat rolled in a corn tortilla and deep fried. This is why I love them so…and why I don’t eat them. Not that I have a pristine diet by any stretch, but I do try to steer away from fried foods when I can. Imagine my delight when I watched how my aunt made hers and realized that she doesn’t deep fry anything.
Here’s how I replicated her delicious dinner: I started with taking shredded chicken that I had left in the slow cooker all day and shredded it up.
Then I heated up oil in a skillet over medium-low heat. The oil is needed not to deep fry, only to warm up and give a slight coating of oil to the corn tortilla. This makes them pliable for rolling and helps to crisp them up when you bake them. I used extra paper towels to drain, then I rolled up about two small spoonfuls of chicken into each tortilla. You can see here that the tortilla doesn’t even look greasy, but it is still pliable and will hold it’s shape when rolled up and placed in a casserole dish.
Then, I baked for about 20 minutes. The chicken is already cooked, I was just crisping up the tortilla.
Lime and Sour Cream Sauce
While that was baking, I whipped up the lime and sour cream sauce, which is super simple to make. Just add freshly squeezed lime juice, cumin, black pepper, salt, and some shredded Parmesan cheese to a bit of sour cream. Set aside to let the flavors blend.
When the taquitos are done, just dress them up with the lime and sour cream sauce and you’re good to go. You can optionally add fresh cilantro to this, but not everyone in my house likes that, so for me, I garnish the top of my dish with it instead.
I had a little roasted tomatillo salsa on hand, so I served my taquitos with that, too.
I’m getting hungry again, blogging this.
These were as good as they look. In fact, that plate right there was my dinner. They came out perfectly. The taquitos were moist, the tortilla crisp, and the lime and sour cream sauce added the right amount of flavor. The recipe below lists the total cooking time including slow cooking, which isn’t active cooking. The only active part is the hand rolling of the taquitos, and that can be done in about 20 minutes. It was so easy that I’m listing this dish as a “Weekday Dinner” dish. This recipe is perfect for dinner, or for a hearty appetizer for a potluck.
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Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken breast about four large breasts
- 1 tsp each: ground cumin seasoned salt, onion powder, ground black pepper, garlic salt
- 1 cup canola oil
- about 40 corn tortillas regular 5" size, not king sized
- LIME SAUCE
- -1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice about three limes
- -1 cup sour cream
- -1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/2 tsp each: ground cumin ground black pepper
Instructions
- Place chicken in a slow cooker, cover with water and add spices. Turn on low and cook for eight hours.
- Remove from slow cooker and place in bowl to cool slightly, then shred with a fork. Set aside
- Turn on oven to 400 degrees.
- Make the lime sauce. Place all the ingredients for the sauce in a small bowl and stir to combine. Set aside in refrigerator to let flavors blend.
- Over medium-low heat, place a cup of oil in a 10" skillet and with tongs dip one tortilla in quickly to coat. You are not cooking, just lightly coating. Let drain a bit and put on paper towel.
- Fill the tortilla with about two spoonfuls of shredded chicken and roll.
- Place taquito in a 9x13 casserole dish, seam side down so it won't unroll.
- Repeat until all corn tortillas or meat is gone. You'll need two 9x13 casserole dishes to fill.
- When you're finished stuffing taquitos, place in oven and cook for 20 minutes, turning once halfway through.
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