Chicken Taquitos

I'll admit it, I am a taquito junkie. I could buy the {crazy expensive} frozen packages from the store and eat them in one or two sittings. I doubt they'd make it to three. Whenever my husband is coming home from work...and I think I'll be up at 3am...I have him stop at Quik Trip to get me one. Luckily, I have an awesome husband who is at my beck and call  loves me.

A few weeks ago, I found a recipe for creamy chicken taquitos on Pinterest. As with most of the things I find on Pinterest, I pinned it and mentally saved it for a rainy day. Well, last week I had that rainy day. We had some extra chicken that I had wanted to add to my white chicken chili from Alex's party but we wound up not adding it. All I had to do was buy some salsa verde and I was ready to experiment.
These turned out amazing and were gone pretty fast in our house. Next time that I make them though, because I like food to have a kick, I plan on adding a dash of red pepper. You'll soon learn that that is my favorite spice.

Recipe:

Yield: 12 taquitos

3 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup green salsa
1 Tbsp fresh lime juice (juice from half a lime)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro
2 Tbsp sliced green onions
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Mexican flavored cheese
small flour or corn tortillas
kosher salt
cooking spray

Preheat your oven to 425˚F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, salsa, lime juice, ground cumin, chili powder, onion powder and garlic. Once combined, stir in the cilantro and green onions. Add the chicken and cheese; mix thoroughly.

(If you decided to prep this in advance, refrigerate the mixture at this point until ready to continue.)

Working with a few tortillas at a time, heat them in the microwave between two paper towels until they are soft enough to roll (about 20 – 30 seconds).

Spoon 2-3 Tablespoons of the chicken mixture onto the lower third of a tortilla. Roll the tortilla as tightly as you can.

Place the rolled tortilla seam side down on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas until the mixture is gone.  Make sure the taquitos are not touching each other. Spray the tops lightly with cooking spray and sprinkle with kosher salt.

Bake for 15 – 20 minutes or until crisp and golden.

Serve with salsa, sour cream or guacamole.

**To freeze:  Before baking, flash freeze the taquitos in a single layer on a baking sheet then place in a labeled freezer bag and store up to 3 months.  To bake a frozen taquito (no need to thaw first): Preheat oven to 425˚F and bake for 20 minutes.