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Boy has very odd eating habits. He will become obsessed with one food and eat it at almost every meal for a couple months straight. Currently his food focus, for breakfast, lunch and 3 out of 7 dinners, is on bacon-egg-cheese biscuit breakfast sandwiches… this is coming straight off a sausage-egg-cheese croissant breakfast sandwich bender. For the other 4 dinners a week, he wants a classic steakhouse-style iceberg wedge salad with creamy parmesan peppercorn dressing (don’t try to say that five times fast). Before this breakfast and salad fad, it was anything (and everything) Mexican, specifically Taquitos.

…Do you or your loved one have weird food habits?? If so, please do tell!!!…

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As a foodie, I absolutely detest watching him eat frozen, preservative filled, crap. More so, however, I hate putting that stuff, poorly disguising itself as real food, in my grocery cart. I get BEYOND embarrassed when I have to go one step further and put said box of frozen B.S. on the checkout conveyor belt. I literally cringe and want to shout out, at the top of my lungs, “This is NOT for ME!! Please do not judge!”

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But… he is my husband. If that nonsense type of food makes him happy, who am I to deny him his simple requests in life? So, I don’t. Instead I just develop a recipe, for whatever new frozen food obsession he develops, and make it from scratch. Win-win situation. I know exactly what he is eating, which is not filled with weird ingredients and preservatives. Plus, it requires a few trial-n-error cooking sessions to perfect any recipe. This makes him my taste testing dummy official for the two thumbs up approval. Therefore, I can grocery shop comfortably AND I do not have to watch him shove complete crap-ola down his throat. YAY!! Who said us blondes aren’t smart (and sneaky)?

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I will tell you, in complete honesty: taquitos from scratch… I had WAAAYYYYYYYY more errors and recipe fails than any other thing I have EVER attempted to cook. Maybe I have been lucky in my previous kitchen endeavors? I like to tell myself it’s sheer innate culinary talent, which has allowed me to be successful with my initial attempt in any ‘rough draft recipe’ I have created. At most, I have only had to make minor tweaks and adjustments to any recipe.

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Enter homemade taquitos, AKA pain in my rear end. I just could NOT, for the life of me and not for unfettered determination, figure out how to keep the dang corn tortillas from ripping when I rolled them up. I tried everything… I started to feel like someone put a taquito rolling kibosh on me. Why could everyone else, and their mother, make taquitos and not me??! WHY!!?? What did I do in my previous life to deserve this torture?

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If you have been following my blog, you know I am open and honest about being stubborn, almost to a fault. So of course I refused to give up on creating the perfect taquito for my loving husband. I was going to master these stuffed, rolled, fried to crispy perfection, Mexican deliciousness-es (not a word, I know, but it should be…oh well, let’s carry on) gosh darn it… even if it killed me.

Guess what! I did. I figured out the secrets.

  1. The correct amount of oil when warming the tortilla, before you fill and roll it, is crucial. Not too much, not too little, it has to be just so. It is more of a ‘go by feel’ type of recipe.
  2. Toothpicks to hold the taquito closed after stuffing and rolling. Just be sure to remove them after frying!

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Now if you do not feel like dealing with the oil, the frying, and the possible headache, you could certainly use flour tortillas and bake them. I was going for authenticity, because these were for Boy, and he is worth the effort. Quite frankly, the taste outcome of these are worth the effort… despite my waistline not being a fan of fried anything (I do not have the metabolism of a 10 year old, like Boy).

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So… hop off the couch, jump out of your computer chair and skip to the kitchen to make these with me… Lord knows I could use some friendly company (and maybe a glass of wine) while making these. Happy cooking!

-xoxo-

Cheyanne

Chicken Bacon BBQ Ranch Taquitos

Ingredients 

  • Prep Time: 25 minutes
  • Cook Time: 25 minutes
  • Total Time: 50 minutes
  • Yield: 16 taquitos
  • Ingredients:
  • 2 Heaping Cups – Rotisserie Chicken (Shredded)
  • 6 Slices Bacon – Cooked and Crumbled
  • 1 Jalapeno – De-stemmed (and de-seeded if you can’t stand the heat) and finely diced
  • 1 Packet of Dry Ranch seasoning (1/2 oz serving size)
  • ¼ Heaping Cup BBQ Sauce
  • 1 TB Cilantro – Minced
  • 1/3 Cup Queso Fresco – Crumbled
  • Salt and Pepper to Taste
  • 20-25 Small Corn Tortillas (you want to have some extra in case they tear or break)
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil – For Brushing Tortillas
  • Peanut Oil – For Frying
  • Serving Suggestions:
  • Queso Fresco
  • Tomatoes – Diced
  • Green Pepper – Diced
  • Cilantro – Chopped
  • Mexican Crema or Sour Cream
  • Ranch Dressing
  • BBQ Sauce
  • A Healthy Appetite

Instructions

  • Mix all ingredients up to Corn Tortillas together in a Medium Mixing Bowl until thoroughly combined. Taste and Adjust seasoning according to your taste.
  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  • On a baking sheet, covered with aluminum foil for easy clean up, Lay tortilla and generously brush both sides with EVOO. Repeat, keeping each stack to 3 tortillas.
  • Bake, turning once, to soften, 3-4 minutes.
  • Remove Warmed Tortillas to a work surface.
  • Reduce Oven Temperature to 275 degrees
  • Fill each Tortilla with 2 heaping Tablespoons of the Chicken Mixture. Roll up tightly and secure with a toothpick. (*don’t try to go through the tortilla then back up and through with the toothpick, you will tear the tortilla. Just secure it through, once).
  • Heat about ¼’’ of Peanut Oil in a large cast iron pan (or nonstick skillet) over medium-high heat.
  • Once Hot place Taquitos, about 4 at a time, seam (toothpick) side down into oil.
  • Fry, about 2 minutes. Turn and continue to fry 2 additional minutes.
  • With Tongs, remove the Taquitos from Oil to a paper towel lined plate to drain.
  • Keep warm in the oven while you continue to fry the remaining Taquitos.
  • Serve warm, with or without optional toppings.

Did you make this recipe?

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