Get beautifully crisp and perfectly cooked by cooking frozen taquitos in an air fryer in just 8 minutes! Works great for chicken, beef, cheese, or bean taquitos.
So what are taquitos?
Taquitos are a Mexican food consisting of small, rolled up tortillas with a filling of beef, chicken, or cheese. After it's filled, it's then deep-fried to perfection. If you aren't sure what the difference between taquitos or flautas are, taquitos are made with corn tortillas whereas air fryer flautas would be made with flour tortillas.
Cooking taquitos in an air fryer is even easier than frying, plus they're much healthier this way!
For days when you have a little extra time, you should try our air fryer chicken taquitos! They're so simple when you're using rotisserie or leftover chicken.
Ingredients you'll need
We used Trader Joes black bean taquitos, but any grocery store brand will work depending on your preference of beef, chicken, bean, or cheese filling.
- 1 pkg of frozen taquitos - any kind works, chicken, beef, or vegetarian
- Optional sauces/sides - salsa, sour cream, guacamole
How to cook air fryer taquitos
- Preheat air fryer to 400F for 5 minutes.
- Lay the frozen taquitos in the air fryer in a single layer, leaving space around them for the best results. Do not stack them on top of each other, as they won't turn out as crisp.
- Air fry them for 8+ minutes, you can flip them halfway through cooking but we often don't. Feel free to cook them longer if you want them even crisper! Enjoy! Serve with your favorite dipping sauces.
Recipe tips
- Flipping the taquitos is not necessary for even cooking, but we found the result was better to check them and move them around after 5 minutes.
- This same method would be used to make air fryer flautas too, they have similar fillings but just use a different type of tortilla.
- Air fryer models can vary with their cooking time, keep a close eye on things the first time you make these.
How do you air fry leftovers?
Store your cooked taquitos in the fridge for up to 4 days.
If you have leftover taquitos and want to reheat them, simply air fry them for 2-3 minutes until they're heated through.
More air fryer frozen snacks
- Air fryer frozen corn dogs
- Frozen chicken tenders in air fryer
- Frozen fish sticks in air fryer
- Air fryer frozen egg rolls
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Recipe
Frozen Taquitos in the Air Fryer
Equipment
- 1 Air fryer bsket or oven style
Ingredients
- 1 pkg of frozen taquitos chicken, beef, or vegetarian
- optional- serve with sauce like salsa or sour cream
Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer for 5 minutes at 400F.
- Lay the frozen taquitos in a single layer, leaving space around them for best results.
- Air fry the taquitos for 8-9 minutes, shaking or flipping them after 5 minutes. Feel free to cook them even longer if you want them extra crispy! Enjoy!
Notes
- Any type of frozen taquito will work, beef, chicken, or vegetarian.
- Don't stack taquitos, they'll turn out better in a single layer.
- Serve with salsa and sour cream.
- This same method will work for air fryer flautas too, which are made with flour tortillas instead of corn.
Dann Clark says
You have it backwards.. Flautas are flour tortillas where taquitos are corn. Flautas are also usually a bit "fluffier" and filled more fully.
Kevin says
You got it backwards. Flautas are made with flour tortillas, and taquitos are made with corn tortillas.
Pat says
My frozen taquitos say they are flour. They used to always be corn but apparently not now!