Homemade Taquitos – Quick and Easy for Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Homemade taquitos, just in time for Cinco de Mayo! This super simple recipe idea for taquitos only involves four main ingredients: corn tortillas, cooked shredded chicken, shredded cheese, and potatoes.

My hubs is first-generation Mexican American, with his family moving to the United States from Jalisco. Being born and raised in the U.S. I am sure that his Mexican food recipes qualify as Mexican-American, versus traditional Mexican. Whatever you decide they are, they are delicious!

Above, you might have been thrown off by my fourth ingredient… potatoes. I never would have guessed a potato had anything to do with a taquito, but his technique uses mashed potatoes to plug up the ends of the rolled taquito and prevents the filling from getting burnt by oil while frying. This actually made more sense to me after frying these… I had potato fall out of the end of one of my taquitos and it TOASTED the chicken!

The CORE ingredients you need:

• Corn tortillias (10)
• Shredded, cooked chicken. Sorry I am being basic and not giving you a recipe for the chicken! We roast a whole chicken once a week and used our leftover chicken breast from this. You can replace with pan cooked chicken breast, or even shredded rotisserie chicken. (2 Cups)
• Shredded Colby Jack Cheese  (2 Cups)
• Cooked Mashed Potatoes, Dense
• Vegetable Oil or Canola Oil (for frying)

Additional Ingredients I like to add:

• Chopped Yellow Onion
• Corn
• Diced Jalapenos
• Salsa
• Guacamole

Step 1: In a large frying pan, start warming your oil for frying on medium heat.

Step 2: Roll your taquitos. Take your corn tortilla and in the center place a thin layer of shredded chicken, shredded cheese, and any desired extras such as onions, jalepenos, or corn. The taquitos I made shown in these pictures are definitely on the thicker side, about 3/4 of an inch wide when rolled.

Step 3: Once rolled, plug up the ends of your taquito with a tiny bit of your thick mashed potatoes. This is an act of balance; you want enough that the potatoes stay in place and don’t let hot oil past them, but you also don’t want so much that your taquito is overcome by potato.

Step 4: Place your rolled taquito in the hot oil for frying, with the end of the tortilla face-down. By frying the tortillia on its seam you are searing it shut. If you do not fry on the seam it will pop open and fall apart. Fry until golden brown then rotate, until the whole taquito is fried.

Step 5: Serve with a side of salsa, guacamole, and/or sour cream! Oh, and with an ice cold beer 🙂