It took me a while to get this recipe to where I wanted it to be. Have you ever ordered Chimichangas from a Mexican restaurant? Chimichangas are one of my favorite things to order so I kind of consider myself a professional on the subject. One thing that I have noticed is that there aren’t a whole lot of ingredients inside the Chimichanga besides the meat. All of the flavor of the chimichanga comes FROM the meat. So for this recipe, we are going to cook the chicken in a slow cooker and cook a ridiculous amount of flavor into it.
When I came up with this recipe, I had passed it along to my mom. She loooooves it. She told me that she almost cooks it once a week. When I went to launch my blog, I had to have her send it back to me so that I had the original recipe. Haha! I am so bad about throwing stuff together and either never writing it down or writing it down and losing it. 🤦🏻♀️ But, she kept this one safe for me.
The chicken portion of the recipe makes a lot of shredded chicken. It fills about 8 large chimichangas or 10-12 smaller ones. If you feel like that might be too much for you to make, you could half the recipe or do something else with the chicken. I have made this recipe and frozen half of the chicken before, saving it for a rainy day. Another idea is to use the chicken for other things- throw it on a salad, make some nachos, make a pizza out of it. This chicken is so flavorful that it would be good for almost anything.
To your slow cooker, add the chicken breasts (I halved 2 large breasts), julienned red peppers, julienned onion, garlic cloves, tomato sauce, fire roasted tomatoes (with juices), tomato paste, onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, oregano, hot sauce, cider vinegar, TWO tsp chili powder and ONE tsp EACH of salt and pepper. Use whatever hot sauce you have and enjoy. Feel free to add more. 😉 Stir everything together and cook on high for 4 hours or on low for 6-8, until the chicken is cooked and easily shreds. It will look like this when it is done cooking…
There is sooo much flavor in there 👆🏻
Remove your chicken from the slow cooker and shred it. Add ONE TSP EACH of salt, pepper and chili powder. Mix in the canned green chilies and, hell, feel free to throw in a few extra dashes of hot sauce. Add in a few tablespoons of the sauce from the slow cooker along with some of the red peppers and onions. You don’t want to add too much sauce because you don’t want the chimichangas to be soggy, but you definitely want some of the flavor from that sauce.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil and spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Make a chimichanga-rolling station. Add about 1/2 cup of the chicken filling to the bottom-third of your tortilla. Top with some shredded cheese. You can use whatever cheese you like- Cheddar, pepperjack, chihuahua would all be good cheese to use in this. I used a shredded Mexican combo blend.
Now tuck the ends and roll it up. Place seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat until you’ve used up all of your shredded chicken. Brush the melted butter over the tops of the chimichangas.
Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes to give the cheese a chance to melt and the tortillas to crisp up and golden. They will look like this when they’re done 👇🏻
Now don’t get me wrong, you could eat them just like this 👆🏻and they would be delicious. Personally, my favorite way to have them is just like at the Mexican restaurant. I spoon queso dip over the top of mine and top with pico de gallo.
When you cut into these delicious things, this is what it will look like…
Enjoy!
| Prep Time | 10 Minutes |
| Cook Time | 4+ Hours |
| Servings |
Chimichangas
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- 2 Large Red Bell Peppers, julienned
- 1 Large Onion, juliennned
- 3 Garlic Cloves, minced
- 8 Oz Tomato Sauce
- 1 14.5 Oz Can Fire Roasted Tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
- 2 Tsp Onion Powder
- 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
- 3 Tsp Chili Powder, divided
- 1 Tsp Cumkn
- 2 Tsp Dried Mexican Oregano May substitute regular Dried Oregano
- 3 Tbsp Hot Sauce Whatever you like
- 2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 Tsp Salt, divided
- 2 Tsp Black Pepper, divided
Ingredients
For Cooking the Chicken
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- To a slow cooker, add the chicken, bell peppers, onion, garlic cloves, tomato sauce, Fire Roasted Tomatoes (with juices), tomato paste, onion powder, cumin, oregano, hot sauce, vinegar, TWO tsp chili powder and ONE tsp EACH of salt and pepper.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours until chicken is cooked and easily shredded.
- One the chicken is cooked, remove to a bowl and shred. Add ONE TSP EACH of chili powder, salt and pepper. Add some of the sauce from you slow cooker along with some of the red peppers and onions. Add green chilies and stir everything together.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick spray.
- Make a chimichanga rolling station. Add about 1/2 cup of the chicken mixture to the bottom third of the tortilla, sprinkle some shredded cheese over top. Tuck the ends and roll up. Place seam side down on your baking sheet and repeat with the rest of the chimichangas.
- Brush the melted butter over top of the chimichangas and bake until the cheese is melted and the tortillas are golden brown, about 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven. Spread queso over the top and top with pico de gallo.
Welcome to Cupcakes and Sarcasm! My name is Maggie and I am the creator of C & S. I am a wife and mom of two beautiful kiddos. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio and now live in Northeast Ohio with my family. I have been cooking and baking since I was a kid. I decided in 2017 that I wanted to share my passion (and recipes) with all of you! On this site, you’ll find easy and delicious recipes- both savory and sweet. I’ll also sprinkle in some stories of parenting and our adventures along the way.