Air Fryer Chicken Taquitos

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Air Fryer Chicken Taquitos. How to make taquitos in an air fryer. An easy to follow air fryer recipe for either air fryer taquitos or air fryer flautas, using up leftovers for a fantastic brunch, lunch, dinner or supper.

Air Fryer Chicken Taquitos

We all have our thing, don’t we? That thing we are obsessed with that drives our family mad.

Sometimes we are so bad with our thing, that we will often be told that it is OCD.

My obsessive compulsive thing is leftovers. I love to save money on food and I have to use every last bit of food from a meal otherwise it drives me crazy.

When Kyle asks for leftovers when he has finished what is on his plate, I will often roll my eyes, thinking that I had that planned for my next meal. Even though I have other food in the house.

Plus, I get so excited when I get more and more meals out of a small tiny amount of leftover food.

Making air fryer taquitos can be like that. Because you can grab whatever spare ingredients you have in the fridge that need eating and transform them into something amazing.

Give your kids air fryer taquitos in either packed lunch box, take them to work with you, have them for brunch, take them to the beach in your picnic and the list goes on and on.

Bookmark our air fryer chicken taquitos as it is one of those, I must eat this forever and ever and adapt it to my fridge ingredients, type of recipe.

What Is A Taquito?

Though, maybe before we dive into our recipe for chicken taquitos in the air fryer, you might not have heard of taquitos and are wondering what I am talking about.

Well a taquito is Spanish for “small taco”. In Mexican cuisine a taquito is a rolled-up tortilla that has been deep fried and is loaded with popular Mexican fillings.

The fillings you can expect in a taquito can typically be cheese, chicken or beef.

Though our recipe today will be for a chicken version of taquitos.

What Is The Difference Between A Taco & A Taquito?

You’re probably thinking that it is very similar to a taco. The only way a taquito differs from a taco is that:

• Tacos are not rolled up and are folded instead
• Tacos use much bigger tortillas
• Tacos are rarely deep fried

What Is The Difference Between A Flauta & A Taquito?

Just like the taco vs taquito queries many people also want to understand taquitos vs flautas. When you look at them in photos both taquitos and flautas look the same, so what is the big difference between the two?

• Air Fryer Flautas – Made with corn tortillas instead of flour tortillas
• Air Fryer Taquitos – Made with flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas

Though do note that flautas and taquito fillings are often the same, they can swap names depending on what region of Mexico you are in. Quite often, you can order a taquito and then you will be asked if you want corn of flour tortillas.

Another big taquitos vs flautas difference is the size. Taquitos use small tortillas and flautas use big ones like the ones you see on burritos.

Can You Air Fry Taquitos?

Absolutely! Air fryer taquitos are AMAZING. They are one of those great hidden Mexican air fryer gems like making air fryer chimichangas.

You can load the taquitos into the air fryer basket, add some egg wash to make them golden and they taste better than deep fried taquitos.  

Taquitos Ingredients

Taquito ingredients are all about what type of taquitos you want to make. Today I am showing you how to make chicken taquitos but here are a few other ideas:

• Air Fryer Black Bean Taquitos
• Air Fryer Beef Taquitos
• Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Taquitos
• Air Fryer Pork Taquitos
• Air Fryer Shrimp Taquitos

Use salsa, grated cheese, cream cheese as your main taquito ingredients. Then mix and match.

We are adding in air fryer shredded chicken to our taquitos but you could use leftover pulled pork for pork taquitos or maybe shrimp taco leftovers to make air fryer shrimp taquitos.

It is all about what food you have in as for me taquitos will always be a leftover food.

How To Make Chicken Taquitos?

To make chicken taquitos you load into a bowl the following ingredients:

• Shredded Chicken – Can be rotisserie chicken, leftover roast chicken, just cooked shredded chicken, chicken thigh meat etc.

• Cream Cheese – We love this soft cheese the most and it is easy to mix and I can never use any other brand as this one here is the best.

• Salsa – Depending on how you like your taquitos you can use any level of heat. As I am also feeding a 3 year old, I have opted for this mild version.

• Grated Cheese – I love cheese and any cheese that melts well is good for using in taquitos. Authentic taquitos would require Mexican cheese but I can’t get hold of it so used an English cheese instead.

You then mix them with a fork until you have a creamy chicken filling. It will be of a similar consistency as buffalo chicken or chicken sandwich filler.

How To Air Fry Taquitos?

Once you have made your chicken taquitos filling it is all about learning how to air fry taquitos.

You load your chicken taquitos mix into 8 small tortilla wraps and fold up until they look like ours:

Then find a cute five year old to egg wash your taquitos for you and then load them into the air fryer basket.

I used a Philips Air Fryer XL for my chicken taquitos and it would fit 4 in at once. If you have bigger then do more, or if smaller do less, until all your taqutos have been cooked.

How Long To Air Fry Taquitos?

A good cooking time for air fryer taquitos is 8 minutes. This ensures that the taquitos are fully cooked, that your chicken is piping hot, that your cheese is melted and that you have a lovely crispy crunch on your tortilla wraps.

Make Ahead Taquitos

Even better, you can make ahead taquitos. Simply make your filling, roll up your taquitos, add egg wash and fridge.

Or ignore the egg wash and have them cold without being air fried.

Or even better make ahead your chicken taquitos and pack them for work or take them down the beach as an alternative to a sandwich.

How To Reheat Leftover Taquitos?

You can also reheat your leftover taquitos too. Simply place your leftover taquitos in the air fryer, with extra egg wash and cook for 5 minutes at 160c/320f. It will make them piping hot again without overcooking them.

Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Taquitos

To cook frozen chicken taquitos in the air fryer is EASY. Place your frozen taquitos into the air fryer and add a little egg wash. Cook for 12 minutes at 180c/360f or until they are fully cooked.

Air fryer frozen chicken taquitos vary in size and the little ones would require JUST 8 minutes compared to larger ones that would need 12 minutes.

Also make sure that when you cook your frozen taquitos that you only have a single layer in your air fryer otherwise they will stick together and wont cook properly.

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