Chicken Taquitos with Avocado Ranch Dip

We’re taking a little break from healthy this week to bring you two worth-a-few-extra-calories appetizers for your Superbowl party next weekend.  Or any little party you may be having that requires some tasty finger food.  These Chicken Taquitos are one of them.

This recipe may not be the healthiest as written, but below we will let you know to make this recipe much lower in calories and still super delicious.

This recipe, as written, is heavy on the calories, but just because there is a lot of cheese in them.  However, the chicken mixture is delicious without the cheese (I know cuz I couldn’t stop taking little bites of it) too so you could use a half the cheese or none at all if you really want to.  That would cut a LOT of the calories from this recipe and as much as we love these with cheese, we will probably make these more often with less or no cheese just so we can enjoy them more often.

This dip is so freeking good and its healthy for you too!  Just avocado, greek yogurt, ranch seasoning, lime, and garlic. We used the ranch seasoning that we made ourselves for our Nuts and Bolts recipe because it doesn’t have a bunch of chemicals and shit in it, but you could also use a package of hidden valley ranch if you like too.  Our homemade ranch seasoning is super easy to make and if you love ranch like we do and haven’t tried it, I challenge you to give it a try.

Side note: This dip also tastes amazing with our Turkey Burgers. 

Debbie figured out a trick to getting the taquitos to stay shut when you roll them up.  You just warm a pan on medium heat, place a corn tortilla in the pan, sprinkle a little cheese on the one edge of the tortilla and spread the chicken mixture in the middle.  Then when the cheese starts to melt, you slide the tortilla out of the pan and roll it up starting with the no-cheese edge.  That way the cheese acts as a glue and holds it together.  It works like magic!   This not very nice picture below shows you how she melted the cheese on the one side.

There’s a couple ways you can cook these.  In a pan, like we did, or in the oven, or you can even deep fry them if you like.   The pan worked best for us because it was quick, easy and made the sides nice and crispy.  If you wanted to do them in the oven, you would just lay them on a parchment lined tray and bake them till they browned at about 400 degrees.  If you are looking to keep these pretty healthy, either baking or pan frying is the way to go.

If your looking to give these a good crunch, here’s a recipe for deep frying them if that’s what you would rather. That would make them super crispy, but would add quite a bit of fat to the recipe.

Your party guests will love these cheesy and spicy little bites of tex-mex goodness.  Serve with a margarita or two 😉

5 from 1 vote

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Chicken Taquitos with Avocado Ranch Dip

Course Appetizer

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 2 hours 15 minutes

Total Time 2 hours 40 minutes

Servings 4

Author Cooks with Cocktails

Ingredients

• 3 chicken breast
• 1 onion , chopped
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 tbsp CWC ranch seasoning or a package of store bought ranch seasoning
• buffalo sauce (below)
• 1 green pepper minced
• 1 cup shredded cheese (Habenero)
• 1 container boursin cheese or cream cheese
• 12 corn tortillas
• Shredded cheese for the edges FOR THE BUFFALO SAUCE
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cups franks hot
• 1 tbsp vinegarFOR THE DIP
• 1 avocado
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup plain greek yogurt
• 1/2 lime
• 1/2 tsp coarse salt
• 2 tbsp CWC ranch dressing or a package of store bought ranch seasoning

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
2. Add the chicken, onion, garlic, ranch seasoning, and buffalo sauce to a casserole dish or oven proof pot and cook in the oven for 2 hours.
3. Shred the chicken.
4. Add the green pepper, shredded cheese, and boursin cheese to the chicken and stir till the cheese melts.
5. To assemble the taquitos, turn a frying pan onto medium heat. Add one taquito to the pan, add a tablespoon or so of shredded cheese to one edge of the tortilla and spread about 1/4 cup of the chicken mixture in the middle of the tortilla. When the cheese melts, slide the tortilla from the pan and roll it up. The melted cheese will hold the tortilla together.
6. Do the same thing with each tortilla.
7. Once all the tortillas are rolled, cook each of them by pan frying them on medium heat or baking them at 400 degrees till they are crispy. If you pan fry them, spray the pan a tiny bit and you will need to fry one side and then turn each one over to fry both sides.
8. Remove them from the heat and place on a plate to serve.
   TO MAKE THE DIP
9. In a small bowl, add the avocado and mash it a bit with a fork, then add the mayo, lime, salt and ranch seasoning. Stir well and serve!