These ground chicken tacos are stuffed with perfectly seasoned chicken and shredded cheese and then baked to crispy perfection for a leveled up version of the classic. Garnished with chopped tomatoes, fresh onion, cilantro, and an easy 3-ingredient ranch-style sauce, these tacos are about to change your Taco Tuesday game!
Table of Contents
This recipe is…
Crispy. Baked. Tacos. Three words that belong together, am I right? These crispy chicken tacos are what taco dreams are made of. Stuffed with seasoned ground chicken and shredded cheese, baked to actual perfection, and then topped with fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and a creamy, dreamy, EASY ranch-style sauce, I feel confident that this recipe is the missing link in your weeknight dinner game.
Serve these bad boys alongside a side of rice and beans or all on their own – either way, they’ll be gobbled up in record time and have your family begging for them week after week!
Looking for more taco inspo? You’re on the right site – we have no shortage of excellent taco recipes! A few reader favorites include: crispy black bean tacos, shredded chicken tacos, and easy chicken tinga tacos!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s easy – brown the meat, spoon in to tortillas, fold, and bake – that’s it! This recipe is really easy to pull off.
- It’s different – we love a classic taco just as much as the next guy, but there is something so deliciously fun and different about these baked tacos! The crunch, the toppings, all of it!
- It’s family-friendly – this is such a fun meal to serve family-style – set down the whole tray of tacos and let everybody grab and dig in as they please!
Recipe Ingredients
You’ll need a couple of ingredients for the tacos themselves, a handful for the ranch-style sauce, and then a couple of fresh toppers. Find ingredient notes (including substitutions and swaps) below.
- Corn tortillas – though any corn tortillas will work here, we’ve found that white corn tortillas are slightly more pliable than yellow corn.
- Taco seasoning – when it comes to taco seasoning, you can use any store-bought taco seasoning or make your own (our homemade taco seasoning is a great, easy recipe for this!).
A full ingredient list with exact amounts can be found in the recipe card below.
Recipe Variations and Modifications
- Use any ground meat – we used ground chicken here, but ground turkey, beef, or pork would all work great too!
- Make it dairy-free – the only dairy in this recipe is the shredded cheese, so if you’d like a dairy free version of these tacos, simply sub in a dairy-free shredded cheese.
- Change the toppings – we used fresh chopped onion, tomato, cilantro, and our homemade ranch-style sauce as toppings here, but you can absolutely use ANY toppings you love! Guacamole, pico de gallo, or creamy jalapeño ranch would all be delicious here.
How to Make Chicken Tacos
These baked chicken tacos are really easy to pull together! Follow along below for a full how-to.
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 425°F. Brown the ground chicken in a skillet for 10-15 minutes, until the moisture has evaporated off of the meat. Once cooked through, add the taco seasoning and lime juice and stir.
Step 2: Wrap the tortillas in a towel and microwave on high for 60 seconds. Then, lay the tortillas out on a sheet pan and spray or brush 1 side of the tortillas with olive oil. Flip the tortillas so the olive oil side is down.
Step 3: Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cheese on half of each tortilla. Top the cheese with 2 tablespoons of the ground chicken mixture.
Step 4: Add another tablespoon of cheese on top of the ground chicken mixture, then fold the tortillas in half.
Step 5: Bake the tacos at 425°F for 20 minutes.
Step 6: While the tacos are baking, make the ranch-style sauce by adding the mayonnaise, dill, and lemon juice to a bowl and whisking until smooth.
Step 7: Garnish the tacos with chopped onion, tomato, and cilantro, and serve alongside the ranch dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Recipe Tip
Microwave the tortillas before assembling the tacos – heating the tortillas in the microwave before assembling the tacos makes them more pliable.
Use white corn tortillas – while yellow corn tortillas *will* work, we found that white corn tortillas are slightly more pliable and do not break as easily when baking.
How to Serve
Serve these crispy chicken tacos topped with tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and homemade ranch-style dipping sauce. They’re a delicious complete meal all on their own, but if you’d like to serve them alongside a few sides, black beans and/or white rice would make great accompaniments.
How to Store and Reheat
Store any leftover tacos in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. If you’d like a longer storage option, you can freeze your leftovers for up to 3 months in advance.
To reheat your tacos, simply pop them in the microwave for 1-2 minutes (they’ll lose some of their crisp this way), in a 350°F oven for 8-10 minutes (this is a great way to keep the crisp on your tacos), or in an air fryer for 4-5 minutes (air frying will also make for a nice, crispy reheated taco).
Frequently Asked Questions
We just used a shredded Mexican-blend here, but Monterey jack and cheddar would also be great.
If your tacos aren’t crispy, there’s a good chance you either forgot to brush the tortillas with olive oil or forgot to flip the tortillas after brushing them with olive oil. You’ll want to make sure that you brush each tortilla, then flip them (so the olive oil-ed side is touching the baking sheet), and then fill them up!
You can absolutely use any taco seasoning you’d usually use for ground beef with your ground chicken. Our homemade taco seasoning is delicious, easy to make, and great with either protein.
More Favorite Taco Recipes
If you tried this Ground Chicken Taco recipe or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below!
Ground Chicken Taco Recipe
Ingredients
For the Tacos
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 2 tablespoons taco seasoning, store-bought or homemade taco seasoning
- Juice of 1 lime
- 2¼ cups shredded Mexican-blend cheese
- 12 corn tortillas
- Olive oil, for brushing each tortilla (approx. ½ teaspoon per tortilla)
For the Ranch-Style Dipping Sauce
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon dried dill
- ¼ cup lemon juice
Optional Garnish
- Fresh chopped tomatoes
- Fresh chopped white onion
- Fresh chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Brown the ground chicken in a skillet for 10-15 minutes, until the moisture has evaporated off of the meat. Once cooked through, add the taco seasoning and lime juice and stir.
- Wrap the tortillas in a towel and microwave on high for 60 seconds. Then, lay the tortillas out on a sheet pan and spray or brush 1 side of the tortillas with olive oil. Flip the tortillas so the olive oil side is down.
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of cheese on half of each tortilla. Top the cheese with 2 tablespoons of the ground chicken mixture.
- Add another tablespoon of cheese on top of the ground chicken mixture, then fold the tortillas in half.
- Bake the tacos at 425°F for 20 minutes.
- While the tacos are baking, make the ranch-style sauce by adding the mayonnaise, dill, and lemon juice to a bowl and whisking until smooth.
- Garnish the tacos with chopped onion, tomato, and cilantro, and serve alongside the ranch dipping sauce. Enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- Use any ground meat – we used ground chicken here, but ground turkey, beef, or pork would all work great too!
- Make it dairy-free – the only dairy in this recipe is the shredded cheese, so if you’d like a dairy free version of these tacos, simply sub in a dairy-free shredded cheese.
- Change the toppings – we used fresh chopped onion, tomato, cilantro, and our homemade ranch-style sauce as toppings here, but you can absolutely use ANY toppings you love! Guacamole, pico de gallo, or creamy jalapeño ranch would all be delicious here.
Nutrition
Can you made these ahead and freeze them?
Hi Stephanie! We haven’t tried to freeze them, but don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work! For best chance at success, either store each taco in its own plastic baggie or place a piece of parchment paper between each one and store in a freezer safe container for up to 3 months:)
Tasty, easy, quick. Only took my tacos about 8 minutes total to be very, very crispy so keep a close eye on them.
Yay! We are so happy you enjoyed them, Emily!
Folding the tortillas and following the recipe was hard. the tortillas would not stay folded in half and a lot of them I had to either press down or put a toothpick through. I doubt any will still be folded when time is up.
Hi! They can be finicky… we had luck removing the tacos from the oven after 10 minutes and then folding them in half before putting them back in for the remaining time. The melty cheese helps them stick together!
my whole family loved these. I did bake for 5 minutes open faced and then folded for another 17-20 and they were perfect. some of us doctored them up, some ate as is. all loved! thanks! these are going into the rotation!
Yay! We are so happy y’all loved them, Mary!
how do you keep the tacos folded? They just pop open and lay flat.
Hi Gina! They can be finicky! Try baking them for 10 minutes open, pulling them out, then folding them together! The melty cheese will help them stick!
We LOVED these. Will definitely be making this again!
Oh yay! We are so so happy you enjoyed them, Marnie!
Just came across this recipe and I am so excited to try! With a 7yo celiac to feed, tacos are challenging to say the least. He gets sooo mad when they fall apart, which happens every single time. Giving this a try tonight!!
Awe yay! Let us know how they turned out and if they were a hit with the little on!
Made ’em; went over well. Change a few things, we did rotisserie chicken (had some left over in frig) and (pork rib meat, again left over) used BOTH corn and flour tortillas (medium sized); again used combo of leftover cheeses from frig! Sprayed them down like in the video, stuffed them “plumply” dropped temp to 400F. Noticed fillings were spreading out a little too much cuz we over stuffed them … no worries … pulled them, stuffed back in fillings and flipped them couple of times until we got the color and crispness we liked. Fam then doctored them up with a plethora of extras they wanted and gobbled them down! The nice thing about this was; when our crew arrived … we had 40 tacos at the ready!
That its awesome, Rickie! We are so happy they were a hit with the fam!!
Hi there- can you use flour tortillas instead of corn? Thanks!
Great question, Jackie! We haven’t tried to use flour but think it should work out fine! If you try it, please let us know your thoughts!!
Followed recipe exactly, but 425° for 20 minutes was too long. Tacos were practically burnt. May try again at a lower temp for less time.
I was so surprised that my tacos really did require the 20 minutes to bake. That was the perfect amount of time. We all loved the baked tacos here. Thank you!
Haha it is surprising!! We are so so happy y’all loved them!
I want to know what garbage oven you have that it takes 425 for 20 minutes to make this happen? my tacos were burned by the 7 minute mark
Rude! It cost $0 to be kind. Obviously, you were never taught to be nice or be quiet. Grow up!
Very rude. Move on and keep your negativity to yourself, please and thank you!
What if you don’t like dill for the dipping sauce, can I use some other herb?
Great question, Paulina! No worries! You can sub it for parsley!
At 425 degrees is 20 min too long? Chance of burning
We made these tonight with beef and they were so delicious and easy! All the kids loved them, even though they definitely crossed over the line from crispy to burnt! We’ll make these again but start checking at the 15 min mark. Thank you for a win!