Hello. I decided to whip up some taquitos yesterday for the family. I have been craving them for a while. Here is the delicious recipe for the way I make them:

Taquitos: Crunchy Rolled Tacos

Serving Size: A hungry family of 5 – about 22 taquitos

Note: (I was able to make 22 in all. My husband took some to work for lunch since I always make enough food so he can take for lunch to save money by not eating out.)

Chicken Mix:

1 pkg of Organic (boneless) chicken thighs (mine come with 5 small frozen pieces that I buy from Costco)

1/2 of an onion (diced or in strips, it is up to you. My kids like it diced)

1 clove of garlic

1/3 cup of cilantro

2 tsp of salt

Guacamole:

2 avocados

1/3 cup of onion

1/3 cup of tomato

1/3 cup of cilantro

I squeezed half of a lemon

1 tsp of salt

Optional:

1 full serrano (or jalapeño)

Toppings:

Kale-Spinach mix (I like to add whatever I have on hand for the salad topping. You can use shredded cabbage, lettuce, etc, I had Kale Mix and that is what I used.)

Sour Cream (you can add it on the side, top, or you can make a cilantro-sour cream sauce.)

Green Salsa (I had this on hand because I made it yesterday, you can use red sauce, pico de gallo, whatever you like. For my green chili, you can go to my albondigas soup tutorial.)

Shredded Cheese

Sides:

You can serve this with mashed beans (you don’t need to refry them, just mash them) and rice.

Instructions:

1) Add Olive Oil to the bottom of your pan. Cook your chicken on medium heat until throughly cooked and add half the salt. Once cooked, shred your chicken using two forks or a fork and a knife.

2) Reduce heat to medium-low and add the shredded chicken, diced onion. Add the rest of the salt. After you see the onion cook then add your minced garlic. Note: stir frequently so your garlic doesn’t burn and become bitter.

3) After about 3-5 minutes of frequent stirring, add your cilantro.

4) While you let this cook a little more–about 3 minutes– heat up a separate pan with oil on medium temperature. I used olive oil.

5) Once you see that your pan–with the oil–is hot, turn off your shredded chicken mix.

6) Warm up your tortillas. (sorry, not the best picture.)

7) The tortillas should still be soft, but warm enough where they won’t tear when you fold them. Begin assembling your taquitos with just a little bit of the chicken mix in the middle. You can add cheese if you’d like.

8) Roll your taquitos tightly. You can add toothpicks to secure them closed.

**Note: Please be careful because, if you break them, someone can choke on a toothpick. You can leave them long enough to make sure you don’t forget to take them out, or don’t use them, but place the taquito face down so the flap browns first and doesn’t open.

9) Place, carefully, in the hot oil. Preferably, the tortilla flap that opens, face down.

10) Fry until brown. Rotate as you see it is needed. Most likely, about 2 minutes per side. You can fill the pan, leaving just a little space so you can move them around.

11) Once ready, you can let them strain on a napkin to remove excess oil and serve immediately so they are nice and warm.

12) THIS IS IMPORTANT: Remove the toothpicks!

Optional Guacamole:

Make guacamole while taquitos cook.

Note:You can make Guacamole with just avocado, salt and lemon, but I like to add tomato, onion and cilantro.

1) Cut up tomato in small squares. (Some remove the tomato seeds, I love them so I keep them)

2) Cut onions in small squares.

3) Chop up cilantro.

4) Open avocado and create squares with knife.

5) Spoon avocado into a bowl and add tomatoes, onion, cilantro, salt, (serrano or jalapeno if you’d like a spicy version) and lemon.

6) You can smash using a cup or if you have a molcajete (mortar) begin to press down.

Salad Topping:

1) Chop up your kale-spinach mix or shred lettuce or cabbage.

Optional:

You can squeeze some lemon on the salad mix. It tastes delicious. Also, you can cook onion in lemon and place this on top of the taquitos. Simply cut rings of raw onion and submerge in lemon juice.

Plate your food:

Place taquitos on plate (with toothpicks removed) add cheese, salad topping, guacamole, sour cream and chili sauce. You can plate this with mashed beans and rice on the side.

Enjoy!