Ridiculously easy Crispy Chicken Tacos are the best of tacos, taquitos, and nachos combined! Flavourful shredded chicken and scandalous amounts of melted cheese are baked in corn tortillas until crispy, crunchy and altogether irresistible! This is bound to be your new favourite for busy weeknight meals, friends.
My whole family loved these crunchtastic, crispy tacos. And I was doubly thrilled because it came together in the amount of time it took for my oven to preheat.
You know a recipe is good when someone asks when you can have it again while they’re eating dinner. Such is the case with this crispy baked chicken tacos recipe.
Even better, this crispy chicken taco recipe is very budget friendly! Your taco night or taco Tuesday never had it so good (or so easy!)
You can make these as simple or as fawncy as you like, depending on what you decide to top them with. I love a squeeze of lime, some shredded lettuce, avocado slices, some fresh cilantro, and some sour cream and hot sauce or salsa for dipping.
These crunchy tacos are best eaten shortly after they’re made. If you have leftovers, though, I recommend reheating them for a couple of minutes in an air fryer basket for best results.
Ya’ll. These are so, so good.
Baked Chicken Tacos
Let’s go over a quick ingredient and equipment list for this crispy chicken taco recipe so you can gather everything you need. These simple ingredients are easy to find and are budget friendly.
Ingredients
- Shredded Chicken (rotisserie chicken or leftover home cooked chicken)
- Chicken Taco Seasoning (homemade or store bought)
- Corn Tortillas
- Olive Oil
- Monterey Jack or Pepper Jack Cheese
- Lime Wedges
- Optional but tasty: Shredded lettuce, avocado slices or guacamole, chopped tomatoes or salsa, hot sauce, sour cream, creamy chipotle sauce, enchilada sauce, salsa verde, and fresh cilantro.
You can absolutely use leftover chicken in this recipe! That is part of what makes it so fast to prepare.
If you do not have leftover chicken to shred, you can purchase a rotisserie chicken and shred it up. Or simply cook up three or four boneless skinless chicken breasts (or 6 to 8 boneless skinless thighs) in your air fryer or instant pot and shred that.
Once you’ve tried these with chicken play around with different proteins. Taco seasoned ground beef, pulled pork, and black beans are all good alone or in combination.
The thinner the corn tortillas you choose, the better they’ll fold! Thick corn tortillas have a distressing tendency to split when you try to fold them in half, even when warmed.
I’ve had great luck with the Mission Extra Thin Super Soft Corn Tortillas. They’re far more pliable than any other brand I’ve tried and they taste great.
You can sub in flour tortillas, but keep in mind they won’t get as dead crunchy as corn ones do. Corn tortillas get as crisp as taco shells!
Soft tortillas don’t necessarily yield soft tacos, but flour ones will be softer than corn ones.
When it comes to cheese, I prefer Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack, or a combination of the two for our chicken tacos. It melts like a dream!
You can certainly sub in pre-grated Mexican cheese blend or cheddar cheese or another melty cheese with good results, too. It may be slightly less creamy after melting, but it does make nice crispy bits where the cheese escapes the taco onto the sheet pan.
A word about the optional toppings: these crispy tacos are going to be so crunchy you won’t be able to open them to shove toppings in. That’s okay!
Treat your taco like an open faced sandwich and scoop the goodies on top. It’s a fun divergence from the normal taco eating experience.
Equipment
This recipe requires nothing you don’t have in a normal kitchen already, in all likelihood. One or two of these are even optional depending on circumstances!
- Mixing bowl
- Measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- 2 Half sheet pans
If you have leftover shredded chicken in a zipper top bag already, skip the mixing bowl. Just add the chicken taco seasoning directly to the bag and shake it around to distribute it.
And if you opted for a packet of store bought chicken taco seasoning, you can skip the measuring spoons, too! Simply dump the packet right over the shredded chicken and toss to coat.
Crispy Chicken Tacos
Preheat your oven to 450ºF.
Toss the shredded chicken with the chicken taco seasoning and set it aside.
Wrap corn tortillas in a damp tea towel or paper towels and microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until pliable. Set the warm tortillas near your sheet pans.
Spritz the two sheet pans lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Brush one tortilla on both sides with the olive oil.
Stack another tortilla on it and brush the top side. Continue stacking and brushing the top of the tortillas until they are all oiled.
Place a tortilla on the greased pan. Scatter about 2 tablespoons of grated cheese on half of it. Arrange about ¼ cup of the chicken mixture over the cheese and top with another 2 tablespoons or so of grated cheese.
Press the filling gently so it holds together. Fold tortillas over the pile of chicken filling and carefully flip over so the chicken weighs down the tortilla. Make sure your tacos are in a single layer on the baking sheet and leave a little space around each one for air to circulate.
Continue filling the tortillas until all of them are full and the filling is used up. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and use a spatula to carefully flip over the tacos. Return the pan to the oven and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes, or until the tortillas are crispy and the cheese that has escaped them is crunchy and deep golden brown on the pan.
Allow your crunchy chicken tacos to rest for 3 minutes before serving. The tacos will continue to crisp up as they cool.
Squeeze a little fresh lime juice over the tacos as you serve them. Serve with your favourite taco toppings!
Crispy Chicken Tacos
Equipment
- 1 mixing bowl
- 1 sturdy spoon
- Measuring Cups
- measuring spoons
- 2 half sheet pans
Ingredients
- 4 cups shredded chicken leftover is ideal
- 2 tablespoons chicken taco seasoning
- 14 corn tortillas
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 lb shredded Monterey jack cheese or pepper jack cheese
- Lime wedges
- Optional for serving:
- Avocados or guacamole
- Chopped Tomatoes or salsa
- Fresh cilantro
- Sour cream
- Shredded Lettuce
- Hot sauce
- Creamy chipotle sauce
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 450ºF.
- Toss the shredded chicken with the chicken taco seasoning and set it aside.
- Wrap corn tortillas in a damp tea towel or paper towels and microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds to 1 minute, or until pliable. Set the warm tortillas near your sheet pans.
- Spritz the two sheet pans lightly with nonstick cooking spray. Brush one tortilla on both sides with the olive oil.
- Stack another tortilla on it and brush the top side. Continue stacking and brushing the top of the tortillas until they are all oiled.
- Place a tortilla on the greased pan. Scatter about 2 tablespoons of grated cheese on half of it. Arrange about ¼ cup of the chicken mixture over the cheese and top with another 2 tablespoons or so of grated cheese.
- Press the filling gently so it holds together. Fold tortillas over the pile of chicken filling and carefully flip over so the chicken weighs down the tortilla. Make sure your tacos are in a single layer on the baking sheet and leave a little space around each one for air to circulate.
- Continue filling the tortillas until all of them are full and the filling is used up. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and use a spatula to carefully flip over the tacos. Return the pan to the oven and bake for another 8 to 10 minutes, or until the tortillas are crispy and the cheese that has escaped them is crunchy and deep golden brown on the pan.
- Allow your crunchy chicken tacos to rest for 3 minutes before serving. The tacos will continue to crisp up as they cool.
- Squeeze a little fresh lime juice over the tacos as you serve them.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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