Mini Chicken Tacos
Mini Chicken Tacos- Rotisserie chicken and corn tortillas are transformed into adorable, crispy, oven baked mini tacos perfect for any fiesta.
May 2, 2022 by Nicole Collins
I feel like this spring season has been full of whammys for me.
I’ve been complaining about this for weeks, but it is still unbearably cold in Maryland right now.
What’s worse, is we’ll get these little pockets of absolutely gorgeous weather. It’s just long enough to make you think winter is officially over. And then, BAM. Freeze warnings flashing across the TV screen because temps will be dropping to unseasonably cold levels.
My poor herbs can’t even be moved outside yet!
But on top of the bitter cold, I think I’m starting to develop allergies.
I’ve been very aware my entire life that I’m extremely lucky to not have any allergies at all, at least none that I’ve found yet.
However, any time that I spend outside this year, no matter how short or long, leaves me feeling a little itchy, snotty, and scratchy.
Insert stressed emoji here -->
That hasn’t stopped me yet. And it probably won’t stop me, honestly. But, when I’m feeling down in the dumps from the inconveniences of MD weather right now, today’s recipe is the perfect pick me up.
Today, we’re making Mini Chicken Tacos!
I’m not gonna lie to ya…these tacos are a little bit of a labor of love. The require a little patience to assemble, but that’s just the price we pay for cute mini things. On the flip side though, they’re really pretty easy to make thanks to a shortcut ingredient. And, they are literally bursting at the seams with incredible flavor.
They’re sooooo worth any little extra bit of effort, so let’s get to it!
To make things nice and easy on us, we’re going to start with store bought rotisserie chicken. We’re going to shred it up, toss it in a skillet with lots of taco inspired spices to infuse that juicy meat, and that’s all there is to the protein component of these tacos. Now when it comes to what kind of meat to use, light or dark meat, use what you like! I like to use a mix of both, and I recommend making sure you have at least a little dark meat in there. But, it’s ultimately totally up to you.
To make these tacos mini sized, we’re going to use a biscuit cutter to cut 3 ½ inch circles out of corn tortillas. We have to heat them up a little bit to make them pliable so that we can stuff them, and we’ll do that by brushing them with a little avocado oil and heating them in a skillet for just a few seconds. Depending on the size of your skillet, you’ll have to do this step in a couple of batches. But with only 20 seconds in the pan per tortilla, this process still goes pretty quickly.
Once our tortillas are ready to work with, we’re going to fill them with some shredded cheese and that scrumptious chicken mix. When we fold them, we’ll give them a good press to help encourage them to stay closed, then we’ll transfer them to a non stick baking sheet.
There are a couple things to note before we bake them. One, we don’t need to add any additional oil to help these crisp up, because they already have that avocado oil we brushed on them from when we heated up the tortillas. And two, we’re going to throw a baking rack right on top of the tacos on the baking sheet to keep them from popping open in the oven. These babies can be a little fickle, so that baking rack is truly the perfect trick.
From there, pop them in the oven for about 15 minutes. And, that’s it! The end result is a crispy, crunchy, cheesy taco that you’ll never ever know started with store bought rotisserie chicken.
These are so fun to serve as an appetizer. They work perfectly on the Fiesta Board we made over the weekend. They’re an interesting new way to switch up taco night. They’re just so amazing however you serve them!
And bonus, you don’t have to feel bad about tossing those tortilla scraps. You can brush them with more oil, pop them in the oven, and make rustic tortilla chips to serve with all the dips alongside these mini tacos!
Ok, everyone! We have one more Cinco de Mayo recipe before we transition right into a Mother’s Day recipe. So, stay tuned!
Make sure you tag me on social media if you make these mini tacos or the Fiesta Board so I can see too!
In the meantime, enjoy! And, let’s eat!
Mini Chicken Tacos
Serves: 20 Print
Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup rotisserie chicken, shredded
½ tsp chili powder
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp chipotle chili powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
1/8 tsp paprika
1/16 tsp dried oregano
1/16 tsp garlic powder
1/16 tsp onion powder
1/16 tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 cup water
2 tbsp avocado oil
20 yellow corn tortillas
1 ½ cups shredded pepperjack cheese
1 ½ cups shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
Season the chicken: Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken, both chili powders, cumin, salt, pepper, paprika, oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne, and water to the skillet. Mix well to combine. Cook for 5 mins to infuse the spices into the chicken. Remove from heat, and set aside.
Prepare the tortillas. Using a 3 ½ inch biscuit or cookie cutter, cut circles out from each tortilla. Discard scraps or set aside for another use. Heat a large non stick skillet over medium high heat. Lightly brush both sides of each tortilla with avocado oil. A couple at a time, place tortillas in a single layer in the skillet. Allow to cook on one side until you start to see bubbles in the tortilla, about 10 seconds. Flip, and cook the other side another 10 seconds until the tortilla is pliable. Set aside on a plate, and repeat with remaining tortillas.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. While the oven preheats, assemble the mini tacos.
Mix pepperjack and cheddar cheeses together. Take one tortilla circle, and place about 1 tbsp of the cheese mix over the tortilla. Take about ½ tbsp chicken mix, and spread it over one half of the tortilla. Fold the tortilla in half, and press together to help the taco stay closed. Transfer taco to a non stick baking sheet, and repeat with remaining tacos.
Place a baking rack over the tacos on the sheet pan. Bake for 14-16 mins until the tacos are crispy and lightly golden on the outside. Serve, and enjoy!
Recipe notes:
*1/16 tsp is not a typical measurement for a measuring spoon, so just use half of an 1/8 tsp to get this quantity.
*Placing a baking rack over the tacos before baking helps the tacos stay closed while they’re in the oven. Don’t skip this step, or they’ll pop open while baking.
*You could replace the chipotle chili powder with more regular chili powder in the same amount, but I like the extra sweet smokiness that the chipotle seasoning adds.
*If you don’t want to make your own taco seasoning, you could also use ½ tbsp of a store bought taco seasoning.
*You can cut up the tortilla scraps, brush them with oil, and bake them in the oven with the tacos to make quick, rustic tortilla chips. They will bake faster, so check them at 6-7 minutes for doneness.
*This is the biscuit cutter set I used. It has every size you could ever need!
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