Crispy Chicken Tacos are so flavorful featuring seasoned, tender, shredded chicken made in the Slow Cooker, salsa, cream cheese, cilantro, and shredded cheese wrapped inside a pan fried corn tortilla.
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These family-favorite crispy tacos are made with simple ingredients and are the perfect thing to add to your taco night dinner menu. Serve them with my Mexican Rice or Cilantro Lime Rice for a complete meal everybody will love!
Why These Tacos Work
These crunchy tacos are an easy weeknight meal that the whole family can enjoy like these Fish Tacos with Mango Salsa. They're simple to put together and the best part is, they can be customized easily by serving with the toppings that each person enjoys. Serve them with some Homemade Salsa!
Ingredients
- Chicken: I used chicken breast but thighs will also work.
- Taco seasoning: You can use a store-bought taco seasoning package or a few tablespoons of your homemade Chicken Taco Seasoning.
- Salsa: I used jarred chunky salsa, but you can swap this out for whatever you have on hand.
- Cream cheese:
- Chopped cilantro: feel free to omit the fresh cilantro if you don't care for it
- Corn tortillas: heating these up makes these more pliable and easier to work with if you find you're having trouble. Warm tortillas work best.
- Cheese: any shredded cheese you like. Cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, a Mexican blend, etc will work.
- Cooking oil: avocado oil, olive oil, etc.
How To Make Crispy Chicken Tacos
- Step 1: Add chicken to Slow Cooker and cover with taco seasoning, and salsa. Let cook in the Crockpot.
- Step 2: Shred chicken using a fork or meat shredding claws.
- Step 3: Add cream cheese and cilantro.
- Step 4: Stir until mixed together.
- Step 5: Heat large skillet with cooking oil. Add corn tortilla and crisp on both sides. Add a few tablespoons of the chicken mixture and shredded cheese to the tortilla and fold the tortillas over before cooking.
- Step 6: Flip the tortilla and cook on that side until crunchy and golden brown.
Recipe Tips
- Once you've finished cooking the crunchy chicken tacos, remove them from the skillet and pat excess oil off with paper towels. You can store cooked tacos in the oven at 200F to keep warm as you finish cooking the other tacos so you can serve them all together and all of them can still be hot.
- Leftover chicken should be stored in an airtight container and should be kept in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
- Leftover tacos should be stored in a container or wrapped in aluminum foil and kept in the fridge for up to 3 days. To reheat, wrap tortillas with foil and reheat in the oven or Air Fryer until heated through again.
- To make this recipe faster, you could season leftover rotisserie chicken instead of making the chicken in the Crock Pot. While I like the extra flavor you get from the Slow Cooker and the other ingredients added, I know if you're short on time, this option may work better for you.
- These would be delicious with some Cowboy Guacamole.
Recipe Faq's
You could serve these tacos with hot sauce, a squeeze of lime juice, a dollop of sour cream, some pico de gallo, shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, diced green onions, refried beans, a drizzle of avocado crema, enchilada sauce or salsa verde. You can enjoy these with some black beans and Spanish inspired rice too.
The chicken mixture freezes well when frozen in a freezer-safe container. And the tortillas freezer well when wrapped in plastic wrap. But these don't freeze as assembled tacos. I'd keep leftovers of each separate and freeze them that then thaw and finish baking together when ready to use.
Yes dice your chicken up into small cubes, heat a large skillet on medium-high heat, and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Add your chicken and cook until browned. Add in your taco seasoning and salsa and simmer on low for 3-5 minutes. Add in your cream cheese and let it melt.
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Crispy Chicken Tacos
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds chicken breast
- 3 tablespoons taco seasoning or 1 store bought pkg
- 16 ounce jar of chunky salsa
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- ¼ cup chopped cilantro
- 12 corn tortillas
- 3 cups shredded cheese
- Cooking oil
Instructions
- Place the chicken breast, taco seasoning salsa in a slow cooker and cook on low 4-5 hours or high 2-3 hours.
- Shred the chicken with a fork and add in the cream cheese and cilantro.
- Mix until combined and creamy.
- Heat a couple tablespoons of oil in a skillet on medium high heat, add in the corn tortilla. Let them crisp up then flip them. Adding a little more oil as needed.
- Add a couple tablespoons of shredded cheese a couple tablespoons shredded chicken and fold the tortilla over and cook another 30 seconds or until crispy. Flip and fry the other side until desired crispiness.
- Remove to a paper towel or place in the oven heated on 200 to keep warm and repeat until finished
- Serve with your favorite toppings!
So happy you loved it Gwen, it's a huge hit here too 🙂
Delicious and easy dinner!
They are so yummy!
So happy you enjoyed them 🙂
These were delicious and easy to make, perfect for busy weeknights!
I love this Crispy Chicken Tacos. So easy to make but so flavorful!
I made this for our taco Tuesday last week and it was a big hit! So tasty!
Loved the pan fried tortilla!
Loved, loved them , I wish I made more because they were gone in an instant