Back in college I was addicted to chicken taquitos. I'd buy the frozen kind at the grocery store and warm them up in my toaster oven. As an adult I don't like buying frozen foods because they really aren't that great and are unhealthy with lots of salt and preservatives.

I learned to make my own chicken taquitos a few years ago and they are way better than any frozen brands. I love making huge batches of chicken taquitos and freezing them so I can pull a few out anytime I need a quick snack.

The Recipe

Step 1: Cook your Chicken. You need at least 2 boneless chicken breast worth of meat. For my batch, you can see in the picture I cooked a whole chicken. I used half of that for taquitos and the other half for chicken pot pie (another great freezer meal: recipe for another day). I boiled my chicken with half an onion and a few celery stalks so I could get a stock for chicken pot pie. You could just boil the chicken with no additives and it would be tasty.

Step 2: Once the meat is nice and white (no pink) and fully cooked to your liking you will shred the chicken. I just used my fingers but you could also use two forks to pull apart the meat.

Step 3: In a pot on medium high mix one 8 oz package of cream cheese, 1/2 cup of water, 1 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp cumin, and 1 tsp chili powder. The cream cheese will break down into a sauce. Add the shredded chicken and cook until all the water cooks out.

Step 4: Construct your taquito!

• Put a tortilla down flat.

• Put a bit of cheese down in the middle of the tortilla.

• Spoon down some chicken mixture.

• Roll em up!

Step 5: Here you need to decide what you'll freeze and what you'll cook. If you want to eat them then continue to next step. If you want to freeze any then bag them up in a ziplock and freeze. To cook a frozen one you will put it in the microwave 40 seconds then follow the next steps.

Step 6: You can cook these in the oven or in pan. You can bake them at 400 degrees for 10 minutes until slightly brown. Or you can brown them in a pan (just flip them when one side gets brown). If cooking a large batch then I stick them in the oven. If only cooking one or two I use a pan.

Eat plain, with salsa, or a cheese dipping sauce

Happy Eating!!

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