Creamy Green Chile Leftover Chicken Tacos

These green chili leftover rotisserie chicken tacos are a love child of two of my most popular recipes—baked chicken tacos and cheesy beef tacos. They pair the onion and garlic base of the beef tacos with the cheesiness of the chicken tacos.

If you’ve made any of my baked tacos, you know this recipe is fairly simple and makes a big ol’ batch of tacos. So whether you’re feeding a crowd or need a quick snack to pop in the air fryer, you’re in the right place. 

How to Make Green Chile Leftover Chicken Tacos

Part of the beauty of rotisserie chicken tacos is the fact you won’t need to cook any chicken. Just pick up a rotisserie chicken or if you have a Costco nearby, some of their pre-pulled rotisserie chicken, and you’re good to go. 

Before we get to the chicken, though, you’ll need to sauté some diced onion in a tiny bit of olive oil before adding minced garlic, diced chiles, cream of chicken soup, and shredded monterey jack cheese. Fair warning: it’s not going to look all that pretty!  

Cream of Chicken Soup Alternatives

If you wanted to skip the cream of chicken soup, you could go with a more classic cheese sauce in a separate saucepan. My Cajun mac and cheese is a great example of this. And another option might be jarred queso like I used in my chicken fajita pasta bake. 

You can also take the flavor profile in a different direction with the sauce from my chipotle rotisserie chicken tacos recipe.

Rotisserie Chicken Nutrition Info Note

If you’re a macro counter extraordinaire, I used the USDA food database entry for rotisserie chicken breast without skin to calculate the nutrition facts. This is a great resource to use if you’re unsure about nutrition content for certain foods that may not be easy to locate on calorie tracker apps like MyFitnessPal. 

In case you wanted to make your own chicken instead of using rotisserie chicken, check out my Mexican shredded chicken recipe or chicken carnitas.

Filling the Tortillas and Baking the Chicken Tacos

Unlike my original chicken, beef, or breakfast tacos, I went with white corn tortillas here instead of the extra thin corn tortillas. I didn’t notice much difference in the way they baked, so I’d venture to say you could use the extra thin tortillas to save a few calories (though the difference is rather small). 

No matter which tortillas you use, be sure to wrap them in a damp paper towel and microwave for long enough. They should be warm to the touch and pliable. If they’re cool and keep flopping open when folding, heat them a bit longer.

I’ve tested several different methods for baked tacos, and the wire rack over a baking sheet seems to make the crispiest tacos. If you don’t have a wire rack, you can bake them directly on the pan. Flipping 16 tacos halfway through baking is a pain, but it will help them get a bit crispier if you go this route. 

The second baking sheet on top is entirely optional. I tested a batch with no sheet on top, and the tacos bake fine with minimal flare ups around the edges. 

And that’s it for baking. You’ve got 16 creamy green chile chicken tacos on your hands. Serve with creamy avocado and jalapeño salsa or spicy zucchini salsa.

Now let’s talk about reheating. 

How to Reheat the Chicken Tacos

These tacos are best when reheated in an oven or air fryer. The air fryer method is my favorite since you won’t need to preheat anything. My 6.5qt Ninja Foodi at 400F for 8 minutes reheated and crisped 3 refrigerated tacos perfectly! 

If you have questions about freezing or other reheat methods, check out my free Facebook group. There are more than 14,000 home cooks there who know way more about making and reheating things than I do! 

These would also be great with my air fryer Mexican potatoes! 

And if you have any other questions about these rotisserie chicken tacos, ingredient swaps, or cook methods, drop a comment at the bottom of this post. You can find the printable recipe card below along with the creamy jalapeño dip in the notes section.