Baked Beef and Cheese Taquitos

Beef taquitos are a fun Tex-Mex food that are perfect for a weekend dinner! Taquitos are small corn or flour tortilla shells filled with beef and cheese and then baked or fried, perfect for dipping. Your family will love them and request them often! And with my Baked Beef and Cheese Taquitos, you can readily say yes to making these easy baked taquitos made with seasoned ground beef!

What Are Beef Taquitos

Taquitos are typically made in a small corn shell and fried. But as I wanted to be able to enjoy these taquitos sooner, rather than later, I experimented with flour shells and baking and air frying the taquitos. I quickly ruled out using the air fryer for the taquitos. While I love the air fryer for many things, I found that the air fryer dried out the taquitos. So I returned to using the oven.

As I mentioned, taquitos are most often made in a corn shell. But corn shells can be challenging to work with and tend to split. And since I wanted my Baked Beef and Cheese Taquitos to be as streamlined as possible, I decided to use flour tortilla shells. I settled on using the small street taco size to make the taquitos simple to roll, plus easy to pick up and dip!

Are Taquitos Hard to Make?

Taquitos are not complicated to make, but they do have several steps. Using flour tortillas instead of corn tortillas, makes Baked Beef and Cheese Taquitos easier to make, but it still takes a little time to roll the taquitos. If you have purchased my Meal Planner for the Family on the Go, I refer to these types of meals as “Fun Meals.” Fun Meals take a little longer, but since they are usually a family favorite I like to keep them in the rotation for a fun weekend meal at home!

Also beef taquitos with flour tortillas are baked instead of fried. This makes the taquitos easier to cook and to have ready all at the same time! Plus, the ground beef taquitos are healthier when they are baked instead of fried.

And Baked Beef and Cheese Taquitos are made with ground beef, so that means they are budget-friendly as most of the ingredients are already in your pantry!

How to Make Homemade Taquitos

Add ground beef to skillet and start to brown over medium heat on stovetop.

Dice onions and chipotle peppers. Add onions to ground beef when it is about half way through cooking.

Drain ground beef and onion mixture. Add tomato sauce, oregano, cumin, taco seasoning, salt, chipotle, chili powder, and 1/4 cup of water. Stir.

Simmer beef mixture till it thickens slightly and most of the water cooks out.

Turn on oven to 425 degrees. Warm one package of street taco shells in microwave with a damp paper towel for 20 seconds. Flip over flour tortilla shells and microwave for another 20-30 seconds.

Place four tortilla on a plate and add one tablespoon of ground beef mixture. Sprinkle on cheese. Roll taquito as tightly as possible and secure with a toothpick.

Place taquitos on a cookie tray, spray with canola cooking spray, and place in hot preheated oven for 15 minutes. You can flip the taquitos half way through the cooking to brown the other side.

Serve warm with your choice of sour cream, white queso sauce, lettuce, tomato, or guacamole.

Tips to Making Beef Taquitos

Warm Tortilla Shells. Whether you decide to use corn or flour tortilla shells, make sure that your shells are warmed in the microwave before trying to fill and roll them. Place shells on plate with slightly damp paper towel. Pop in microwave for 20 second. Flip over shells. Microwave for another 20 seconds. If needed microwave for another 10-20 seconds.

Don’t Overfill Shells. Keep your beef filling to just about a tablespoon. You can experiment with using a little more, but if you overfill the shells it makes them harder to roll and secure.

Use Toothpicks to Secure. Using toothpicks to secure the rolled taquitos ensures they stay rolled while baking. I pushed the toothpicks through once and found that worked better than trying to loop it through the shell, which often led to tearing the shell. If you don’t have toothpicks, just make sure that tortillas are warm and place them seam side down on baking pan or sheet.

Fill Multiple Shells at One Time. It goes faster to fill up several flour tortilla shells at one time. Then roll all of them. Then start on the next batch.

Make 2-5 Taquitos Per Person. These taquitos are smaller. So a teen boy or grown man will probably eat 4-5. While kids or those with smaller appetites will eat around 2-3.

Best Way to Reheat Easy Taquitos

Beef and cheese taquitos can easily be reheated in an air fryer. Yes, I know that I don’t recommend the air fryer for baking the taquitos. But reheating taquitos in the air fryer, works perfectly. The trick is to keep the heat low. So reheat in the air fryer at 300 degrees for about 2-3 minutes, that way they will be crisp and warm.

If you don’t have an air fryer, I would recommend using your oven. Reheat, again at a lower temperature so you don’t dry them out. Reheat at 300 degrees for 5 minutes, then check.

What to Serve with Taquitos

Beef taquitos are the perfect finger food for picking up and dipping. So they pair perfectly with sour cream, salsa, queso, and guacamole. You can also serve them with tomatoes, lettuce, and avocado.

To make a super simple dipping sauce, mix two parts salsa, to one part sour cream. Add in a little chopped cilantro! Yum! Dip to your heart’s content.