Crispy Baked Taquitos With Guacamole You Mash While They Bake

It is 6:45 on a Monday, the group chat wants to know what is for dinner, and you would like to answer with something that arrives on a plate looking like a decision. Baked taquitos with guacamole take 23 minutes, the oven does the crisping, and the sound of the first bite is a little show-off. They go one at a time, then all at once, and you will deny counting. Dinner you can hold in one hand, and a bowl of green to dip into with the other.

Spiced beef and melted cheese rolled tight in corn tortillas, baked until crackly, with a lime guac on the side.

The beef browns with taco seasoning for 8 minutes, then you stir cheese into it off the heat until it melts into a creamy filling. Spoon, roll, bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, and mash the avocados while the oven works. It is the kind of dinner that works for a weeknight and a casual date, since it comes with built-in dipping.

How to make it

1. In a skillet brown 1 lb ground beef with the taco seasoning packet for 8 minutes.
2. Remove from heat and stir in 1.5 cups shredded cheese until melted.
3. Spoon the filling down the center of each of the 12 corn tortillas and roll tightly.
4. Place the taquitos seam-side down on a baking sheet and bake at 425°F for 15 minutes until crispy.
5. While the taquitos bake, mash the 2 avocados in a bowl with the juice of 1 lime and salt to taste.
6. Serve the hot taquitos with the guacamole on the side.

Notes

Cooked leftovers keep three to four days in the fridge, per USDA FSIS. Taquitos reheat best in a hot oven or toaster oven on a sheet pan, which brings the crunch back. Guacamole is the exception: with avocado, it browns quickly, so keep it in a container with the surface pressed flat under plastic wrap, and treat it as a same-night dip.

The taquitos can be rolled ahead and kept in the fridge on the baking sheet until you are ready to bake. They can also go in the freezer before baking if you wrap them well, thawed in the fridge before they go in the oven.

The beef cooks until browned, about 8 minutes, and ground beef is safe at 160°F, the USDA minimum. Stir in the shredded cheese after you take the skillet off the heat, and it melts into the meat without turning greasy. The filling is thick on purpose, because a loose one leaks out of the tortilla.

The 12 corn tortillas get a spoonful of filling down the center and a tight roll, seam side down on the baking sheet. The recipe does not call for oil on the tortillas, so the crisp depends on a hot oven at 425°F and enough space between the rolls. Keep them from touching so hot air can get all around them.

Swaps that actually work

The point of these baked taquitos with guacamole is a crisp corn shell around a savory, cheesy filling. Leave the corn alone and the rest of your baked taquitos with guacamole can bend.

Ground beef can become ground turkey or shredded chicken. If you use chicken, it should be cooked through to 165°F first. Leftover rotisserie chicken gives you a shredded filling with no extra cooking, and the SwipeCart agent will not judge you for putting a rotisserie bird on the list and calling it meal prep.

The cheese can be whatever melts in your fridge: cheddar, pepper jack, a Mexican blend. A scoop of beans or a spoon of salsa stirred into the filling adds moisture and a bit of tang. Crumbled cheese and a few chopped herbs on top make a lovely finish if you have them, and they cost you nothing in charm.

The guacamole can come from whole avocados you mash yourself or from a tub of the prepared kind, so use whichever your store makes easy. If you mash your own, the lime and salt are what make it taste alive. If you buy it, a squeeze of lime and a pinch of salt wake it up.

The swap that costs you the dish: flour tortillas. They bake soft and chewy, not crisp, and they will not give you the crackle that makes a taquito a taquito. Corn is the point.

If it goes wrong

The tortillas crack when you roll them. Cold corn tortillas break. Warm them for a few seconds wrapped in a damp paper towel in the microwave, or in a dry skillet, until they bend like fabric. Roll while they are still warm.

The taquitos are pale and chewy. The oven was not hot enough, or they were crowded. Return them to the 425°F oven for a few minutes, and give them room next time. A spritz of oil, if you have it, helps them color.

They unroll in the oven. They were not placed seam side down, or the roll was loose. Roll tighter and tuck them against each other on the pan until they set.

The guacamole is dull. It needs lime or salt. Add the juice of another lime and a pinch of salt, and taste again. If it is gone brown on top, scrape off the surface and stir what is underneath.

What to serve with it

The default is the guacamole, since it is already on the plate. A bowl of salsa, a side of sour cream, and some lime wedges round it out.

The better version is a bright salad of lettuce, tomato and a little red onion in lime juice, which cuts the richness. A pot of rice or black beans turns the taquitos into a complete plate.

What lifts them from the fridge: hot sauce, pickled onions, or crumbled cheese and cilantro on top. Leftover taquitos are a fine desk lunch if you can reheat them in an oven, which asks a lot of an office kitchen, though the crunch is worth it.

Why this one earns its place

You swipe it when you want dinner to feel like a snack that went to culinary school. The agent shops the corn tortillas, beef, cheese, avocados and lime, and you get the rolling, the baking and the dipping. Baked taquitos with guacamole also make a good answer to the question of what to bring to a friend's place, since it comes with its own dip.

Baked taquitos with guacamole are hand food for a night in, a dish to share when you do not feel like sitting across a table from anyone formally. They are for the person who picks the crunchy thing off your plate and then looks you dead in the eye.

For more along these lines, try Beef Street Tacos, Black Bean Nachos, or the meal planning for couples post for two-person dinners that do not feel like homework.

More like this: all Mexican recipes in Crave Corner.