Baked Southwestern Pork Taquitos

Dang taquitos.

We devoured these, but much too quickly after I had taken a photo of them. You see, I had this beautiful shoot set up, and snapped some photos that I just couldn't wait to put up on the blog last week. Then, the unthinkable happened...

My camera ATE the photos.

In one gulp.

I died.

I was more than a little cranky about it. Here I was with a sure-fire recipe, but also with no pictures to show. So I opened up the fridge to take a look over the not-so-lovely-looking-leftover taquitos from the previous day. I was positive we had eaten all the "pretty-looking" ones... and I was right.

So here's my second taquito-shoot of the week (UGH). I didn't care that they weren't as cripsy, or that I had basically thrown them right on a pile of cilantro ends. I wanted a picture, dang it! And after shooting them, I realized they tasted just as delicious as the previous day. 

Originally, this recipe called for rotisserie chicken. Apparently, at my busy local supermarket on a Saturday afternoon, everyone and their dogs cleaned house in the rotisserie section. So I just planned on trying again a few days later when I was making the recipe. With a half-of-a-beautiful-half-pork-roast sitting in my fridge from Sunday, on Monday I decided to use it up in this recipe (versus spending more money on a rotisserie chicken). I'm sure the chicken would have tasted lovely, but the slow-cooked pork really did well with these typical southwestern flavors. The insides of the taquitos were killer (why wouldn't they be? Check out those ingredients!), and the outsides were perfectly flaky. Using egg-roll wrappers was genius, and I'm pretty sure you can toss in just about any veggie in the chicken/pork mixture to sneak in a few more veggies to their day.

You could totally use these as an appetizer, but we used them as our complete meal (with fresh fruit on the side).

Baked Southwestern Pork Taquitos
makes about 20 taquitos

Ingredients:
1/2 slow cooked pork roast, or 1 rotisserie chicken (fully cooked and seasoned), shredded
2/3-1 C jarred (or fresh) salsa
1 C Mexican blend shredded cheese
1 can sweet corn, drained
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed well
1 t cumin + more for sprinkling
1 t chili powder
1/4 C chopped fresh cilantro
salt and pepper
1 package of egg roll wrappers

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix chicken/pork, salsa, cheese, corn, beans, cumin, chili power, cilantro, salt & pepper together in a large bowl.
3. Add a couple spoonfuls of the mixture into an eggroll wrapper. Form the mixture on the eggroll into almost a small hot-dog shape (will make folding easier). Pull the two corners on the thin sides together, then flop over one of the remaining sides and tuck under. With remaining flap/side, wet corner section with water (generously, but not too much), and tightly (but carefully) pull over the rest of the egg roll on outside so it sticks to itself.
4. Spray cookie sheet generously, and arrange taquitos (I fit mine all on one very large pan). Spray the tops of them with cooking spray (or brush on egg/butter - whichever you prefer). And top with sprinkled cumin and pepper.
5. Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until golden. Flip taquitos halfway through baking, if you can. Serve with salsa or sour cream.

Recipe inspired by: Menu Musings of a Modern American Mom