Baked Chicken Tacos

by Sabrina Snyder

Published on

19 Comments

5 from 7 votes
10 Servings
Prep Time 7 minutes
Cook Time 13 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
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Baked Chicken Tacos are an easy weeknight meal your kids will love with taco flavored chicken breast, chiles and cheese that’s crispy and quick!

These tacos are a perfect family friendly version of a Taco Tuesday favorite meal. Looking for more taco options, try our Oven Baked Beef Tacos, Shrimp Tacos or Carne Asada Tacos which are all easy and delicious weeknight family meals too.

Pan of Chicken Baked TacosBAKED CHICKEN TACOS 

If you’re looking for a fun, delicious weeknight dinner that only takes a few minutes to prep, then you need to try these Baked Chicken Tacos. The taco shells turn out crispy, and are packed full of melty cheese, chicken and rich tomatoes, and you can serve them up with all sorts of delicious sides, like Pico de Gallo, Guacamole, slices of fresh avocado, and your favorite taco toppings.

Listen up to the best part parents. You aren’t spending your entire mealtime adding chicken and cheese to the kids tacos. You can hand them the baked taco on a plate with little piles of toppings and they can make their own tacos on their individual plates while you eat in peace! This alone makes this recipe one of our favorites!

This chicken taco recipe is likely to be one of your favorite new recipes, since it’s so quick and easy, and it goes so well with Mexican inspired appetizers and main dishes.

HOW TO MAKE BAKED CHICKEN TACOS

  • Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray your 9×13 baking pan with vegetable oil spray.
  • Add oil to a large skillet.
  • Add onions and chicken to the skillet and cook until chicken is cooked through.
  • Add in taco seasoning, water and green chiles and allow to cook until water is gone.
  • Line the taco shells in your baking pan until they’re able to stand.
  • Add the chicken mixture to the taco shells.
  • Top the chicken with cheese and bake for 8-10 minutes.
  • Top with lettuce, tomato and sour cream before serving.

Chicken and Cheese Baked Tacos

VARIATIONS ON BAKED CHICKEN TACOS

  • Leftovers: If you’re in a rush and really need to get dinner done in a hurry, you can use your leftover rotisserie chicken from last night. Just shred it with your clean hands, season it, and heat it up in a skillet with the green chiles, taco seasoning, and tomatoes.
  • Cheese: You can use shredded sharp cheddar cheese, pepper jack, or Mozzarella cheese to give your tacos a more complex, savory flavor.
  • Spices: Try mixing in a dash of cumin, paprika, cayenne, or chili powder, or add a drizzle of lime juice to take the flavor of your Baked Chicken Tacos to the next level.

HOW LONG ARE BAKED CHICKEN TACOS GOOD?

  • Serve: Don’t leave your Baked Chicken Tacos out for longer than 2 hours before refrigerating them to keep them from going bad.
  • Store: If you want to keep your Baked Chicken Taco leftovers, they are good for up to 3 days, be sure to wrap them tightly or keep them in a sealable container in your fridge. In order to make sure that the Baked Chicken Tacos don’t make you sick later, you need to let them completely cool down to room temperature before you put them away.
  • Freeze: You can freeze the Baked Chicken Tacos for up to 3 months in an airtight container.

What to serve with Baked Chicken Tacos:

Try serving these Baked Chicken Tacos with a side Refried Beans, Spanish Rice and Elotes. Great Mexican desserts to finish your meal including Tres Leches Cake or Mexican Wedding Cookies.

WHEN IS CHICKEN SAFE TO EAT?

According to the USDA’s official website, chicken is safe to eat when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F (73.8 degrees C.). Visually speaking, chicken should never be pink in color like beef and chicken juice should run clear.

Baked Chicken Tacos in blue baking dish

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Dinner, then Dessert

Baked Chicken Tacos

Baked Chicken Tacos are a delicious Tex Mex dinner, with taco seasoning, chicken breasts, green chilis, beans, and shredded cheese. 
Yield 10 Servings
Prep Time 7 minutes
Cook Time 13 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine Mexican
Author Sabrina Snyder
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

  • 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 pound chicken breast , (boneless and skinless), chopped finely
  • 1 ounce taco seasoning
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 yellow onion , chopped
  • 4.5 ounce can chopped green chiles , drained
  • 10 taco shells
  • 2 cups cheddar cheese , shredded

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and spray your 9x13 baking pan with vegetable oil spray.
  • Add oil to a large skillet.
  • Add onions and chicken to the skillet and cook until chicken is cooked through.
  • Add in taco seasoning, water and green chiles and allow to cook until water is gone, about 6-8 minutes.
  • Line the taco shells in your baking pan until they're able to stand.
  • Add the chicken mixture to the taco shells.
  • Top the chicken with cheese and bake for 8-10 minutes.
  • Top with lettuce, tomato and sour cream before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 183kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 5g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 654mg | Potassium: 150mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 3g | Vitamin A: 497IU | Vitamin C: 10mg | Calcium: 186mg | Iron: 1mg

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Baked Tacos

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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Comments

  1. I made these but I omitted the green chiles since I didn’t have them and I swapped the hard shells for soft and it still turned out great. I also used the taco seasoning linked in the recipe and it was so much better than store bought. My picky eaters enjoyed them so I would highly recommend this recipe!

    Reply

  2. I made these chicken tacos last night, and they were THE BEST chicken tacos I’ve ever had in my life (no exaggeration). My boyfriend agreed saying, “best taco Tuesday of my life.” I used chicken thighs because I’m habitually drying out chicken breasts. I also used soft shelled tacos because they’re my favorite. Everything was perfect and this recipe will forever be in rotation. Lastly, I tried the taco seasoning recipe on this site, and I’ll never use a packet, again! Sabrina is awesome!

    Reply

  9. These were so easy to make and super flavorful! My kids gobbled them up and we didn’t have any leftovers. Will definitely make them again.

    Reply