These Easy Rotisserie Chicken Tacos are a quick and delicious weeknight meal, and a great way to feed a crowd at your next game day party.
Taco night just got a lot easier – and even more delicious – thanks to this Easy Rotisserie Chicken Tacos recipe! This is a great way to feed a hungry family – as well a crowd of friends when they come to your house to watch the game.
How do you make Easy Rotisserie Chicken Tacos?
We started with a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken – removing the meat from the bones and shredding the meat.
Next, we tossed the shredded chicken in a mixture of salsa (you can make your own, or use your favorite jarred variety), water, tomato paste, and seasonings including coriander, chili powder, and cumin.
Then we placed corn tortillas on a baking sheet and brushed both sides with oil. Shredded pepper jack cheese and the shredded chicken mixture were placed on top of the tortillas – then placed in the oven for an initial bake to begin cooking the tortillas and melting the cheese.
Once the edges start to turn golden brown, remove the pan from the oven and place the shredded lettuce on top.
Then fold each tortilla in half, nestle them into a baking pan and top with shredded Monterey jack cheese. Return to the oven, just long enough for the cheese to melt and the tortillas finish cooking.
While we made these Easy Rotisserie Chicken Tacos with shredded cooked chicken, you can just as easily follow this same method using cooked ground beef, pulled pork, fish, or any other favorite taco filling.
Feel free to serve these Easy Rotisserie Chicken Tacos with your favorite toppings as well. We served them with black olives, pickled jalapenos, sliced red onion, avocado wedges, sour cream, freshly squeezed lime juice and cilantro. Guacamole, more salsa, this fantastic red chile sauce, or a cheesy queso would be other delicious options.
We think corn tortillas work best for this recipe but flour tortillas can also be used.
You may enjoy these other taco recipes:
- Confetti Chicken Tacos
- Fish Tacos
- Blackened Tilapia Soft Tacos
- Pork Lomitos Tacos
- Pulled Chicken Tacos
Easy Rotisserie Chicken Tacos
These Easy Rotisserie Chicken Tacos are a quick and delicious weeknight meal, and a great way to feed a crowd at your next game day party.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 tacos 1x
- Category: entree
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
2 cups salsa (see our homemade recipe here, or use your favorite jarred salsa)
1 cup water
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small rotisserie chicken, meat removed from the bones (you’ll want about 1 1/2 pounds of picked chicken meat)
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
12 white or yellow 6” corn tortillas
8 ounces pepper jack cheese, shredded
4 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
8 ounces Monterey jack cheese, shredded
Toppings
Sliced black olives
Sliced pickled jalapenos
Thinly sliced red onion
Avocado wedges
Sour cream
Lime juice
Fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Have a roasting pan with high sides ready that can hold 12 completed folded tacos (or 2 pans with 6 each).
- In a large skillet, place salsa, water and tomato paste. Start burner on medium, stir and combine.
- Add the coriander, chili powder and cumin and stir again.
- Shred the cooked chicken pieces into the salsa mixture and heat to hot then hold to keep warm.
- Brush two sheet pans with half of the oil. Lay out the corn tortillas, 6 per tray and brush the tops with the other half of the oil.
- Divide the pepper jack between the 12 tortillas.
- Divide the warm chicken mixture between the 12 tortillas, on top of the pepper jack but not completely to the edges.
- Place in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until the edges start to get a little crispy and the mixture is hot and bubbly. Rotate pans half way through for even browning.
- Remove one pan at a time from the oven and quickly top with half the lettuce. Then pick up each tortilla, fold in half and place in the reserved dish or pan, letting each taco stay folded by leaning on the one next to it, or the side of the pan. They will stay in this shape once folded hot. Repeat for the second pan. Turn off oven. (Note: Tacos are hot so we suggest that you use tongs to remove and fold.)
- Then take the 12 folded tacos and top with the Monterey jack cheese and place back in the oven with the oven off for 4-5 minutes. The residual heat will melt the jack cheese over the lettuce.
- Serve hot with whatever toppings you want including sliced back olives, pickled jalapenos, thinly sliced red onion, avocado wedges, sour cream, lime juice, fresh cilantro, etc.
Making this tonight. Can I substitute flour tortillas? My family doesn’t care for corn.
Hi Meredith – The flour won’t crisp up the same way as the corn does in this recipe, plus you wouldn’t want to oil the flour tortillas as that step/ingredient helps the corn tortillas crisp up in the oven. You can certainly use the filling with flour but the overall recipe is designed for corn.
Flavot was really good. Premise behind the easiness of the recipe makes sense. I followed this to a T and the tortillas all stuck to the sheet pan. I don’t know if my salsa was too watery and caused that problem or if maybe I didn’t use enough oil (which they were pretty greasy). I would like to give them another try or just go back to my old way of making chicken tacos
Thanks for your feedback Jennifer-it’s always hard to troubleshoot without being there with you….do you have a non-stick pan you could try the next time?
Loving this recipe! It happily feeds the two of us many nights.
Thanks so much Karen!
Could I make these with flour tortillas?
Hi Kelly – They won’t crisp up in the same way as the corn tortillas (and may burn in the oven) but generally yes, you could use the filling in flour tortillas.
These were dank! The baked shells were so much better than fried which is what I usually do. Didn’t follow the chicken recipe due to allergies but I have been looking for a fantastic baked shell and this was it. I used olive oil to brush + vegan cheese. You could do any filling as long as it is not super wet and have a great result
Thanks Emily! (Call me old…in my day, dank meant wet and dark and mildewy so you had me worried at first when I started to read your comment!) 🙂 Glad you were able to adapt this recipe to suit your diet!
SO GOOD! I wanted to make them again right away.
Thanks Sheila – so glad you enjoyed the tacos!
Easy and delicious main dish! Getting the tacos folded and into the baking pan was a little challenging (I suggest using at least one heat resistant oven glove), but the overall dish was a big hit with my family. I thought the lettuce would wilt when placed back in the oven, but it held up to the heat just fine. A definite winner!
Thanks Melissa!
We loved these. Only substitution was cabbage for the lettuce as it was all I had and it worked great. Thanks for a great dinner!
Great suggestion Sara! Glad you enjoyed the tacos!
Banging tacos! I made these for my family and they were a big hit. I substituted the salsa with Rotel Diced Tomatoes w/Lime Juice & Cilantro because that’s what I had on hand. Will definitely make this again!
Thanks Annmarie!
These Tacos were a huge hit my picky husband. I loved using my leftover rotisserie chicken which was a welcome time saver after a busy day. We both think this probably is the best taco recipe .This recipe is a keeper for sure.
Thank you so much Peggy – glad it was a hit!