These baked chicken chimichangas are so crispy and delicious! They’re easy to make, so you can have a great Tex-Mex dinner any time. Everyone will love these homemade chimichangas, especially if you top them with cheese sauce!
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Cheesy Chicken Chimichangas Recipe
Baked chimichangas are a mouth-watering dinner that everyone will devour. Baking still gives you a super crispy tortilla without having to deep fry them.
These homemade chimichangas are filled with chicken, rice, beans, and so much cheese! That queso on top really makes them perfect.
Why you’ll love this Queso Smothered Chimichanga recipe:
- OVEN BAKED: You can bake these instead of frying and still get a perfectly crispy tortilla!
- CHEESY: We’re putting queso cheese sauce inside of AND on top of these chicken chimichangas. Yum!
- EASY: These are surprisingly easy to make, and it will take you less than an hour!
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How to make Baked Chicken Chimichangas
You can jump to the recipe card for full ingredients & instructions!
- Preheat oven to 450F.
- To make the filling, saute onions with oil, butter, garlic, and other seasonings. Then stir in chicken, tomatoes, lime, and beans, and continue cooking.
- Heat oil and butter together in the microwave. Then use that mixture to coat the baking sheet, and heat it for 2 minutes in the oven.
- To assemble the chicken chimichangas, fill each tortilla with cheese, chicken filling, and rice. Then fold.
- Place each one, seam side down, on the baking sheet. Then brush the tops with the hot butter/oil mixture.
- Bake for 10 minutes at 450F.
- Flip the chimichangas over, brush them again with the butter/oil, and bake another 8-10 minutes.
- If you want, top them off with queso cheese sauce and put them back in the oven for a couple of minutes. Then serve with your preferred toppings and sides, and enjoy!
What’s the difference between chimichangas, burritos, and enchiladas?
There are quite a few traditional differences between these 3 foods, but I’m going to focus on the main things that separate these delicious dishes.
Chimichangas and burritos are pretty similar (lots of ingredients wrapped in a tortilla), but traditionally, chimichangas are deep fried. The good news is we can get that same crispy tortilla by baking instead of frying!
So think of these as crispy burritos. And since they often have sauces or extra ingredients served as toppings, you’ll want to eat them with a fork instead of your hands.
The process of making baked chimichangas and enchiladas is similar, but they’re quite different as well. Chimichangas are going to have a crispier tortilla and usually a lot more filling.
Enchiladas, on the other hand, are usually a bit smaller with only a couple of main ingredients inside the tortilla. They’re also slathered in sauce and/or cheese (although these can be topped with cheese sauce as well).
Try these Cheesy Chicken Enchiladas or Salsa Verde Chicken Enchiladas.
What to serve with these?
There’s a lot of filling in these chicken chimichangas, but we’re not done there. I like to add plenty of toppings as well as add extra ingredients on the side.
Top them off with queso, salsa, diced tomatoes, taco sauce, or guacamole. On the side, I love serving these with refried beans, Mexican rice, and chips and salsa.
And of course these taste even better with a margarita, if you need a refreshing drink.
How do you fold chimichangas?
When assembling these baked chimichangas, you’ll be foliding them like a burrito.
- Fill each tortilla, then fold two sides in over the filling.
- Grab one end of the tortilla and fold that over the ingredients and sides.
- Gently tuck it over the filling, and roll towards the other end.
The real trick is just getting those sides tucked in and making sure the ends fold over them. Don’t overfill the tortillas. It also helps that you’ll be placing the “seam” side down in the baking dish, so you shouldn’t have filling falling out.
Tips!
- Overfilling will make it tough to fold these. Using 10-inch tortillas and the ingredient measurements listed in the recipe card will help to avoid that!
- Coat the baking sheet with butter/oil and heat it before placing the chimichangas on the pan.
- The hot butter and oil mixture is also used top of the chimichangas, and that’s what makes the tortillas super crispy.
- Use pre-cooked chicken in the filling. You can use rotisserie chicken, or make your own cubed/shredded chicken ahead of time.
- If you’re using rice for the filling, cook that separately before adding it in.
Serve these baked chicken chimichangas on Cinco de Mayo, or any night when you’re craving a cheesy Mexican dish. And don’t forget to add your favorite toppings and sides!
More Cinco de Mayo Recipes we Love
- Baked Chicken Empanadas
- Chicken Mole
- Beef Empanadas
- Air Fryer Chicken Taquitos
- Beef Folded Tortilla Quesadilla
- Chicken Taquitos
- Homemade Tamales
- Chicken Tinga
- Queso Smothered Chicken Fajitas
If you make this recipe be sure to upload a photo in the comment section below or leave a rating. Enjoy! You can also jump to recipe.
Chicken Chimichangas Recipe
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Ingredients
- ½ cup canola oil divided
- ¼ cup unsalted butter, divided (4 tablespoons)
- ½ medium yellow onion diced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 cups pulled chopped or cubed cooked chicken (rotisserie works well)
- ½ can Rotel-style tomatoes & juice from ½ can (5 ounces)
- Juice of 1 medium lime divided
- 1 can Black beans drained
- 2 cups shredded Mexican-style or Monterey Jack cheese
- 2 cups cooked Mexican or white rice; optional
- 6 tablespoons canola oil
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 8 soft flour tortillas (10-inch)
- Queso Cheese Dip see recipe
Toppings & Sides for Serving:
- Pico de Gallo see recipe
- Refried Beans see recipe
- Mexican Rice see recipe
- Sour Cream
- Sliced Jalapenos
- Shredded lettuce
- Tortilla chips
- Salsa see recipe
- Lime wedges
- Best Margaritas see recipe
Instructions
- Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Sauté diced onion, in 2 tablespoons oil and 1 tablespoon butter, over medium heat, until translucent – about 4 minutes. Add minced garlic, cumin, chili powder, salt and black pepper. Stir, set heat to low, and cook 30 seconds, stirring often.
- Add chicken and tomatoes. Stir and cook until liquid evaporates, about 1 minute.
- Add juice of ½ lime and beans, stir and cook until beans are heated through.
- In a small microwave-safe dish, heat 3 tablespoons butter and 6 tablespoons canola oil until butter is melted. Stir well.
- Brush a rimmed baking sheet with 1/3 of the butter/oil mixture and set it in the oven for 2 minutes.
- Spread 1-tablespoon Queso cheese in the center of a tortilla. Add ½ cup chicken/bean mixture and 2 tablespoons Mexican rice. Top with 2 tablespoons shredded cheese. Fold the sides and one end of the tortilla over the filling and roll it up to the other end.
- Remove the hot baking sheet from the oven and brush it liberally with the melted butter/oil mixture.
- Press the filled tortilla down a little and place it seam-side down on the hot sheet pan.
- Repeat the process with all tortillas.
- Brush the tops of the Chimichangas with the melted butter/oil mixture and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and flip the Chimichangas over. Brush the seam side with melted butter/oil and bake an additional 8-10 minutes or until golden and crispy.
- Turn off the oven and remove the Chimichangas from the oven.
- If desired, spread 2 tablespoons Queso cheese on top of each Chimichanga and return them to the oven just to melt the cheese a little.
- Serve Chimichangas with Mexican rice, beans, pico de gallo, shredded lettuce, sour cream, tortilla chips & salsa – whatever Mexican side dishes you love. Give a little squeeze of lime juice, and…The Best Margarita!!!
- Enjoy!
Last step! Don’t forget to show me a pic of what you made! Upload an image or tag me @thecookierookie on Instagram!
Nutrition Information
What is the best advice to make ahead? Looking at a day or 2. Company in town and want an easy mexican style meal when we return home at the dinner hour.
You could cook the filling ahead of time, but we don’t recommend assembling until you’re ready to bake them!
My family loved these and I will definitely make them again. Do you know if they would freeze well?
These absolutely freeze well, Kim! Simply wrap each chimichanga tightly in foil and place them in a Ziplock bag for up to 3 months. Let thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating!
they turned out perfect! I couldn’t believe the crunch it gave. The oil and butter in the beginning of the pan is less than what was indicated on the ingredient list, which brought the calorie count down quite a bit by my manual calculations at about 555 per chimichanga.
Thanks for sharing, Kristie!
These hit the spot and even my 15 year old approved!! I substituted olive oil for the canola and used spinach herb tortillas along with the regular. Will be making these again for sure!!
Sounds amazing, Jerri!
These look really good, but I’m a little confused on the portion size. Recipe says it serves 6, but you use 8 tortillas? 1.5 per person, or 1 each with leftovers?
Whatever you prefer! That’s just how it ended up working out!