These crispy baked ground chicken tacos come together so easily with a few simple ingredients! These flavorful tacos make for a simple, healthy dinner your whole family will love. These tacos are so easy to customize that you’ll want to make them every week!
This will be the only recipe for ground chicken tacos you’ll ever need! Saucy, flavorful ground chicken folded inside of a crispy tortilla shell with cheese, you will be looking forward to Taco Tuesday every week!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- This recipe makes 15 crispy ground chicken tacos, and I usually eat 3 tacos per serving, giving me 32 grams of protein per serving! Not bad for taco night!
- These baked chicken tacos are so delightfully crispy and delicious. The crunch is SO satisfying. It’s a nice change in pace with regular tacos.
- They’re so easy to make! Cook the chicken, add them to the tortillas with cheese, and bake until crispy.
Ingredients You’ll Need
oil — you’ll need oil to cook the meat with, and you’ll also need oil to brush onto the tortillas so they’ll crisp up in the oven.
onions — I use a small yellow onion.
garlic — I always have minced garlic in my freezer as part of my yearly prep. I highly recommend it so you don’t have to mince garlic for every recipe!
salt — feel free to add more salt than I do, but I find the taco seasoning to be salty enough.
ground chicken — I’m using ground chicken, but any ground meat can work in a pinch!
taco seasoning — you can use store-bought or make my homemade low sodium taco seasoning for this ground chicken taco recipe.
paprika & garlic powder — I like to add a little bit of extra paprika and garlic powder to the taco seasoning.
chicken broth — I use low-sodium chicken broth or homemade chicken broth.
salsa — I love adding salsa to my taco meat. It adds extra moisture and flavor.
tortillas — you can use white or yellow corn tortillas. I’ve tested this recipe with flour tortillas, but they just don’t crisp up as deliciously as corn tortillas.
cheese — I love to change things up. Sometimes, I use shredded cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, monterey cheddar, three cheese blend, nacho blend, or tex-mex blend! It really depends on what mood I’m in!
extras — I like to serve these ground chicken tacos with salsa, sour cream, lime, lettuce, guacamole, avocado corn salsa, and pineapple salsa. Serve them with what you like!
How to Make Baked Ground Chicken Tacos
- Heat the oven to 400F.
- In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the diced onions. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the salt and minced garlic and saute for another minute.
- Add the ground chicken and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, making sure to break up the pieces with your spatula.
- Add the taco seasoning, paprika, and garlic powder to the ground chicken. Give everything a quick mix, it doesn’t have to be perfectly mixed in.
- Add the chicken broth and salsa to the skillet.
- Stir until everything is combined and lower the heat from medium to medium low. Let the taco meat simmer for 4 to 5 minutes or until the sauce has cooked down to your desired sauciness.
- Meanwhile, warm your tortillas. Wrap the stack of tortillas in a slightly damp towel and microwave on high for 60 seconds, or wrap the stack of tortillas in foil and bake them in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Place the tortillas out on a parchment-lined sheet pan and spray or brush 1 side of the tortillas with olive oil. Then, flip the tortillas over so the olive oil side is facing down.
- Sprinkle around a tablespoon of shredded cheese on half of the tortilla.
- Add around 2½ tablespoons of the ground chicken taco meat on top of the cheese and top it off with a bit more shredded cheese.
- Place the tacos in the oven to bake for 5 minutes.
- Then remove the tacos from the oven, fold the opened tacos over (flip the filling side onto the empty side), and put them back in the oven to finish baking for 13 to 15 minutes.
- Serve with your sides of choice and enjoy!
Recipe Tips and Notes
- I find that if I try to fold the tacos to bake without giving them those 5 minutes of opened-face baking, my tortillas will rip. If you don’t mind a bit of tearing, you can fold them and bake them immediately.
- I like to flip the side of the tortillas with the cheese and ground chicken over top to the empty side as the weight of the filling will keep the tacos closed as they bake.
- Don’t skip warming up the tortillas. Heating the tortillas in the microwave or oven before you assemble the tacos makes them more pliable and less prone to ripping. I also find they will tear as I try to peel them apart if I don’t heat them up first.
- If you have extra cheese, you can place some on top of the corn tortilla shell after folding them. That’ll make for a crispy and crispy exterior!
- Check out my taco recipe with ground beef if you’re in the mood to fry your corn tortillas instead of baking them!
- Meal prep tip: I like to double the taco meat and freeze half for another day. That way I only need to thaw the taco meat and assemble the tacos to bake for an easy dinner.
- I use a small sheet pan for the photos. Using a large sheet pan, you can fit at least 6 tortilla shells on one at a time. A little bit of overlap is fine as you end up folding them in half.
- If you want to make the tacos even more filling, you can add beans, rice, or vegetables to the taco filling!
Storage Tips
- Storage: once cooled, store the chicken tacos an airtight container for up to 4 days in the fridge.
- Reheating: I love to reheat these crispy chicken tacos in the air fryer so they stay crispy (plus it only takes around 4 to 5 minutes at 350F)! You can also reheat them in the oven until warmed through. The microwave will also work but your tacos won’t be as crispy.
- Freezer: allow the taco meat to cool before transferring them into a freezer-safe airtight container or bag before storing them in the freezer. Freeze for up to 3 months. When ready to enjoy, thaw before reheating and adding them to the tortilla shells and baking.
- Reheating Frozen Ground Chicken Taco Meat: reheat the meat in the microwave or on the stovetop. I recommend reheating leftovers with a splash of water or chicken broth to keep the ground chicken from drying out.
Baked Ground Chicken Tacos Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon oil, divided into 1 tbsp and 2 tbsp
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 3 tablespoons taco seasoning
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ¾ cup chicken broth, low sodium
- ½ cup salsa
- 15 corn tortilla, white or yellow
- 2 to 2½ cups shredded cheese
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 400F and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.
- In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and add the diced onions. Saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the salt and minced garlic and saute for another minute.
- Then add the ground chicken and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, making sure to break up the pieces with your spatula.
- Add the taco seasoning, paprika, and garlic powder to the ground chicken. Give everything a quick mix, it doesn’t have to be perfectly mixed in.
- Add the chicken broth and salsa to the skillet and stir until everything is combined. Lower the heat from medium to medium low and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes or until the sauce has cooked down to your desired sauciness.
- Meanwhile, warm your tortillas. Wrap the stack of tortillas in a slightly damp towel and microwave on high for 60 seconds, or wrap the stack of tortillas in foil and bake them in the oven for 10 minutes.
- Place the tortillas out on the parchment-lined sheet pans and spray or brush 1 side of the tortillas with olive oil. Then, flip the tortillas over so the olive oil side is facing down.
- Sprinkle around a tablespoon of shredded cheese on half of the tortilla, add around 2½ tablespoons of ground chicken taco meat on top of the cheese, and add a sprinkle of additional shredded cheese on top.
- Place the tacos in the oven to bake for 5 minutes. Then remove the tacos from the oven, fold the opened tacos over (flip the filling side onto the empty side), and put them back in the oven to finish baking for 13 to 15 minutes. Serve with your sides of choice and enjoy!
Nutrition Per Serving
More Easy Chicken Dinners to Try
- Ground Chicken Parmesan
- Ground Chicken and Broccoli Stir Fry
- Baked Chicken Cutlets
- Honey Dijon Mustard Chicken
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