Crispy baked corn tortillas filled with chicken, black beans, spices and fresh salsa. An easy, quick, healthy meal that would be perfect for any Cinco de Mayo celebration.
Last week at Harmons, they were sampling a Hearty Taco recipe made with Harmons fresh mild salsa. It was a great combination of flavors, so I brought the recipe card home and put it on the menu for this week.
My kids like to order hard shell tacos when we eat out, so I thought it would be fun to make them at home. Eating Well posted an easy, baked Crispy Taco Shell recipe that was a perfect match for the Chicken and Black Bean filling.
If you drape the tortilla over two of the oven rack rows, you’ll get a flat bottom taco shell like Old El Paso’s Stand and Stuff Taco Shells. Then you’ll have more room to load up your taco with all your favorite toppings.
My daughter was visiting and stayed for dinner the night I served these tacos. She declared them muy deliciouso!
If you’re looking for more delicious Cinco de Mayo recipe ideas, Pam, For the Love of Cooking, and Rachel, Simply Fresh Cooking, did delicious recipe roundups; and Anna, Cookie Madness, and Liz, Hoosier Homemade, posted Cinco de Mayo treats. So there’s no excuse for not eating well on Saturday.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts, about 2 breasts, diced
- 1/4 cup onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can (15 oz.) black beans, drained and rinsed
- 3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, minced
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 cup mild salsa
- 8 6-inch corn tortillas (I used white corn tortillas)
- Canola oil cooking spray
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
- Sauté chicken, onion and garlic in olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat until the chicken is no longer pink. Stir in beans, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper and salsa. Cook until heated through.
- Serve on crispy baked taco shells with shredded cheese, lettuce or your favorite taco toppings.
- adapted from Eating Well
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Heat tortillas in microwave on High until softened, about 30 seconds. (Alternatively, wrap in foil and heat in preheated oven until steaming, 5 to 7 minutes.)
- Coat one side of tortilla with cooking spray and sprinkle with a little chili powder and salt.
- Drape each tortilla over two rows of the oven rack and bake until crispy and brown, 7 to 10 minutes.
Notes
Crispy Baked Taco Shells adapted from Eating Well
Crispy Baked Chicken and Black Bean Tacos adapted from Harmons Healthy Living Recipe
More recipes perfect for Cinco de Mayo:
Super Fast Salsa, Barbara Bakes
Stacked Green Chile and Chicken Enchiladas, Barbara Bakes
10 Top Tomatillo Recipes, Foodie Crush
Grilled Shrimp Taco, Everyday Southwest
Key Lime Tart, Two Peas and Their Pod
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I love to bake, especially cookies, cakes, and pies. I’ll post my adventures in the kitchen, my favorite new recipes, as well as our family favorites.
Those look incredible, Barbara! Thanks so much for sharing my Cinco Desserts!
~Liz
What a great idea!
Those taco shells are seriously calling my name! Perfect for cinco de mayo.
We just had fish tacos last night, but now I think tacos might be on the menu again next week! I love the idea of making your own stand and stuff tacos. Thank you for the idea!!
I love tacos. Those look so scrumptious!
Cheers,
Rosa
Barbara – i love that idea of homemade taco shells baked upside down on oven racks. I saw that on pinterest and haven’t tried it yet. These tacos look perfect, esp with that fresh avocado. Yum!
I have never made taco shells like this – thanks for posting that tip! And, I am loving the simple, clean design of your blog – great updates!
YUMMY!!! I can’t wait to make this…
Oh Barbara… that looks excellent! I never knew how to do taco shells like that. Can’t wait to share that idea with my husband. He’ll flip. Also, thanks for giving my Cinco de Mayo post a shout out! I appreciate it!
I’ve seen that trick before and love it! So cool. I love that you can stuff it even more full that way
Thats a good idea, the tacos look so tasty too! My daughter klikes the soft corn tortillas, especially the ones that are made on site.
These look so delicious! I’ve never tried making my own taco shells like that but would love to try it soon.
Barbara, I wondered when I saw these, how do you eat them? I love the cool baking-the-tortilla idea. But how do you bite into it without it breaking up? do the sides fold down a little?
You’re right, almost impossible to eat without making a mess. I definitely used a spoon to clean up all the bits that fell on to the plate.
Thank you Barbara for the inspiration! Those look so delicious and perfect for Cinco de Mayo.
Cheers
I love the way you cooked those taco shells
That taco shell trick is ingenious, I love it! I’m so excited to make tacos now
You can’t go wrong with hard shell tacos, especially with such yummy looking fillings. Thanks for the hint on baking the shells barbara. That’s really a neat idea to try!
Bookmarked. My kids will love these! Happy Cinco de mayo!
Baking in an oven rack…wow thats a nice idea. I shud try this option. Am sure all of us wud love this one!
Who doesn’t love tacos! Those look delicious!
Hi! Wow, these tacos look incredible and I love the idea of the crispy taco shells. I know we would devour these at our house!
I’m enjoying looking at all the yummy recipes on your beautiful blog and subscribed by email so I can follow along! Have a great evening!
Made this for dinner tonight!!! It was soooo. Good!!!
i can’t wait to try this taco shell trick!
What a scrumptious weeknight dinner! Crisping the shells in the oven is a great idea. I usually warm the tortillas in a skillet for soft tacos. My family would love crispy, crunchie!
Awhile back I tried that method for baking the tortillas and we really liked it. It’s nice to have more room for all that delicious filling. Your tacos look incredibly tasty!
Oh yum! I love the crispy shells. And black beans and chicken filling? Double yum!
Yum, I really want to make those baked crispy shells.
These look amazing. And I had no idea you could crisp up the tortillas that way!
Seriously too good! How easy, flavorful and healthy and it looks delicious to boot! I want to move in with you…
The taco filling has so much flavor but I have to say I really love the idea for the taco shells. I am definitely trying this!
What a great idea for baked taco shells! I’ll definitely have to give it a try!
These Look Fantastic!!!!!! Totally a great idea to hang the tortillas from the rack like that versus holding them in loads of oil. Love it!