Don’t want to tell you it is the best, but we don’t make any other chicken taco or chicken enchilada filling here at Grit Creek – everyone in the family loves it. When I think of the best types of freezer meals this is what I think about… quick to put together, a few simple ingredients, thaws out quickly, can be reheated in multiple ways, it can be an easy part of a meal prep or freezer meal day. These creamy chicken tacos would also be a great meal to take to another family after a baby or hospital stay or to make when you have friends over for dinner.
You will need Chicken, Cream Cheese, Salsa, Taco Season to make the filling.
GRIT CREEK CREAMY CHICKEN TACO FILLING
Equipment
- 1 slow cooker crock pot, instant pot, dutch oven
Ingredients
- 2 cups shredded chicken
- ½ block cream cheese
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 tbsp taco season
Instructions
- Add all these ingredients to a slow cooker, cream cheese on top. Cook for 4 hours if the chicken is already coked, 6 hours if you use raw chicken.Use the keep warm function until you are ready to eat! Alternative cooking method, heat everything through in a frying pan.
Notes
MAKE AHEAD
You will be adding this to either a slow cooker, sauce pan, and/or freezer bag. Start with cooked and shredded chicken. This can be precooked and frozen, learn more HERE at our blog post about how we constantly cook at home. Or chicken cooked the day you are making these tacos. You will then add 2 cups of chicken, one block of cream cheese, one cup of salsa (any kind will do) and one tablespoon of taco season for a recipe. This ratio is not because it is perfect. This ratio is because it is easy, quick to do and less to think about. This is also the bare minimum ingredients to make this tasty. If we added lime, chicken broth, sour cream, cheese, salt, pepper, garlic, green onion, oregano… it would add to the depth of flavor most certainly. But we are in “tasty, filling, fast” mode here.
FREEZER MEAL
Label and freeze the creamy chicken tacos FLAT in a gallon ziplock bag.
Why freeze flat? Thanks for asking, friend. It stacks in the freezer better and thaws significantly faster.
SLOW COOK
From Frozen: put it under hot water to get is soft enough to break into chunks, add to slow cook for 6-8 hours on low.
From Thawed: in the slow cooker, still on low for 6 hours, then keep warm.
**MEG ONLY SLOW COOKS ON LOW **
FRYING PAN
Another option is to put all these things in a frying pan, let it get warm and serve.
SERVE
Options for creamy chicken tacos start with tortillas, rice or chips… then we move on from there. We love to add fresh tomatoes – if we have some from the garden, that is the very best. Cilantro, lime, and green onion. This could be the topping of a taco salad, eaten with chips, or on a rice bowl. We haven’t had any complaints about it.
Q & A
Is the creamy chicken taco filling healthy?
Well… thanks for asking. Possibly. It will depend on how you serve it, what is served along side the meal and the size of your portion. There is good, whole food in this meal so you can put it on a bed of greens, eat it with carrot sticks, or mix it with cauliflower rice for a more balanced meal. If you want to eat it nacho cheese on top and serve beeritas on the side… it will be less healthy – but still delicious! That being said – it will be more healthy than a creamy chicken taco from a restaurant because you determine the ingredients like salt, sugar, fats and extra calories added.
You mentioned taking these meals to friends or family after a hospital stay, why? We are committed to serving our friends and family well. One way we do that is that after a baby arrives, someone is in the hospital, the death of a loved one or perhaps a family has a long run of sickness in the house – we take them a meal. It is usually hot and ready to eat – we don’t stay to eat it with them, just drop it off so that they have one last thing to think about that day. We also try to take a frozen meal at the same time. So they have one meal for ‘today’ and another for ‘tomorrow’ as well.
NOTE
As I talked about earlier this is my absolutely favorite type of recipe. It is as easy to put together one for tonight and another for the freezer as it is to just make one. The creamy chicken taco filling can be heated in multiple ways – depending on when I think about getting it out of the freezer. This is super easily be mixed up in the frying pan without ever meal planning or making it into a freezer meal. It is just an enneagram nine type recipe – it makes everyone happy.
