Baked Southwest Egg Rolls with Creamy Chipotle Dipping Sauce
Simple to prepare and healthy to boot these baked southwest egg rolls with creamy chipotle dipping sauce are so very fantastic.
These little babies were good. As in, I’m lucky any of the delicious, flavorful filling made it into the tortillas since I was so busy sampling that I forgot about ensuring quantity control.
Simple to prepare and healthy to boot (read: baked not fried!), these southwest egg rolls, which incidentally are nothing like authentic egg rolls since there are no eggs in the filling, are so very fantastic.

The hearty filling is packed with spinach, peppers, onions, garlic and a myriad of southwest-type seasonings that give the mixture a warm and smoky flavor without killing your tastebuds with spice.
Paired with the creamy chipotle dipping sauce and I was hard-pressed to stop at just one. But I shall not confess how many I actually ingested.
These rolls would be perfect as an appetizer, main dish (which is how we ate them with some crisp veggies and salad on the side), or simply as a snack.
The tasty filling can be adapted to your liking, also – take out the chicken for a vegetarian roll and increase the heat as you like! I hope you like them as much as we did.
One Year Ago: Steak Hoagies with Mushrooms, Onions and Peppers
Two Years Ago: Meatballs with Cream Sauce
Baked Southwest Egg Rolls with Creamy Chipotle Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
Rolls:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium yellow or red onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cubed, (about 3 large breasts)
- 1 green or red pepper, diced small
- 1 jalapeno pepper, membranes removed, seeded and finely minced or 4 pickled jalapeno rounds from the jar
- 1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
- 10 ounces frozen chopped spinach, defrosted and liquid squeezed out (wringing through a kitchen towel works great)
- 1 cup frozen corn
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ cup freshly chopped cilantro
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 2-3 cups shredded cheese, such as Monterey Jack, Pepper Jack or Cheddar
- 2-3 dozen fajita-size flour tortillas
Chipotle Dipping Sauce:
- 1 cup sour cream
- ¼ cup salsa
- 1 teaspoon minced chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, if you are opening a new can to only use 1 teaspoon, freeze the remainder in a freezer-safe ziploc bag and pull out and thaw as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two rimmed baking sheets with foil and lightly grease with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the dipping sauce ingredients. Mix well and set aside or refrigerate until ready to serve.
- In a large 12-inch nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add the cubed chicken breasts and peppers and cook over medium or medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, about 5 minutes. Add the rinsed and drained black beans, spinach, corn, cilantro and seasonings. Mix well and cook until the mixture is heated through. Add the cheese and stir well, cooking, until the mixture is hot and cheese is mostly melted.
- Warm the tortillas. I place 5-6 between two damp paper towels and microwave for about 45 seconds. Place some of the filling on each tortilla and roll up tightly, egg-roll style, folding in the edges. Place seam side down on the prepared baking sheets (secure with a toothpick if needed).
- Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, until the rolls are lightly browned and heated through. Serve immediately with dipping sauce.
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Recipe Source: My Kitchen Cafe
Crystal – I wouldn’t heat up the filling, I would just add a few minutes onto the baking time if needed to get it warmed through.
I’d like to make the filling today so I can quickly put these together tomorrow, if I put the filling in the fridge do you think I need to heat it up before putting it in the tortillas and baking tomorrow? Thanks for all your great recipes!
I made this last night. Prep work was a little long but easy. It was another homerun for us. My husband asked me what I was “sneaking” in the recipe. I said “trust me” and he did. We loved them! The chipotle sauce is a must. That’s what brings it all together. I couldn’t find chipotle chilis but found chipotle peppers and just used the sauce from the can. We added a couple teaspoons more to kick it up. Super super yummy. Another great dish from Mel!
I made these tonight and they were excellent! Had lots of leftovers for lunches. The dipping sauce is the perfect accompaniment! This will be added to my favorites list. I just found your website and I can’t wait to try the other recipes.
We love EVERYTHING about these rolls. Kids are eating the first spinach of their lives in these beauties and love how it makes tons and they freeze SO well. Packing up some frozen ones now for quick dinner at the lake- THANK YOU!
Just want to let you know that I love your blog and recipes. I especially love this one! I posted it on my own personal family blog just because I want to share it with my family/friends. Thought I would let you know so you don’t think I am stealing your recipes! Congratulations on your new baby. She looks so sweet.
I finally got around to making this, and let me just say, WOW!!! SO amazing! And this meal wasn’t nearly as time-consuming as I was expecting! Thank you for always posting such awesome recipes!!!!
I can’t wait to make these! I’m thinking I might try some Talapia as well as chicken. I try to grill up and freeze chicken and fish…thaw and cook. I’m excited! Thanks!
I’ve made these twice now for dinners they are awesome! We buy the uncooked tortillas, cook them up and then put the filling in and bake them. They are super crunchy and so so so tasty! We also cook the chicken in salsa in the crockpot during the day, so it has an awesome flavor when we shred it and put it in. Thanks for the great recipe!!
Holy Moly! Just got down making these and scarfing them down! They were supposed to be for dinner, but I couldn’t wait. My hubby is passing them out to the neighbors right now and everyone wants the recipe. They are delicious! Thank you!
I despise cooked spinach so subbed about 1/2 head of steamed cauliflower, chopped pretty fine, in its place and they came out wonderfully!
This was dinner tonight. Yum!! Super easy… and I have a lot left that I froze and pull out later for a quick meal:)
Thanks for the AWESOME recipe. I just added this to our regular meal rotations. I don’t usually (ever) comment after making something from a food blog but my husband and I were REALLY happy with this one so I had to let you know what a fabulous job you did on this one 😉 Plus we have enough filling left in our freezer for 2-3 more dinners! Thanks again!!!
Thanks for another great recipe – so glad it was on your sidebar so I could find it. Worked great as a 5 de mayo meal. I also loved the discussion on picky eaters in the comments. I have a 2 yr old who is super picky. I thought I was good at getting my kids to eat, but none of my tricks work for this little guy. He just spits everything out, and/or gags on it. I did magically get him to take a bite of these last night because he could only see tortilla, but it came right back out. 🙁
These are fantastic! I came across your website this weekend and made these last night (and will be having some for lunch today). I’ll be passing this on to friends and family 🙂 Thank you!
Yum! Thank you. I made these exactly like the recipe called for the first time and was very pleased with the results. We didn’t use as much of the filling as I thought with our small family, so I was glad that the filling freezed well. Yesterday I pulled it out to thaw and whipped some more dipping sauce (THANKS for the tip on freezing the chiles. I found another recipe previous to this one and was resenting wasting a can for a single chili). This time I fried them…just a little bit of oil..(I worked out in the morning so it was justified). Oh so dDelish. My husband raved again. Now I will find something else on the menu at a resturant. I try to order things I CANT make at home. 🙂 Thank you!
Not that this is needed, but I just wanted to let you know that we too thought these were delicious! I imagined they would be simliar to your southwest chicken wraps or baked chimis, but was happy to find they had their own original flavor! So I guess we will continue to eat all three! Thanks.
Thanks, Kira!
Looks delicious! You could also make avocodo mousse dipping sauce.
These are delicious! I made some substititons because I’m lazy and didn’t want to go to the grocery store. I used fresh spinach instead of frozen, and chipotle chili powder instead of Chipotle chilies in adobo sauce. Everyone loved them!! Thank you!! 🙂
Whitney – I’m glad I’m not the only one who gets lazy sometimes and doesn’t feel like a trip to the store! That’s great that your changes worked out so well!
Just made them tonight even though I printed the recipe a few weeks ago, OMG delicious!!!! Even my oldest son who hates beans ate them and said they were good, mind you he is almost 16 and eats everything in sight, but usually still avoids beans. I had some issues wrapping them, don’t have a microwave to warm the tortillas, so they look ugly, but tasted amazing!
Cathy – well, first, I’m glad you loved these, but second, I can’t believe your 16 year old son still avoids beans! I’ve been hoping my 6, 4, 3 and 1 year old boys will learn to love them but I’m afraid your comment isn’t giving me much hope. 🙂
These were wonderful!!!
Out of curiosity, have you ever tried using fresh spinach? My husband has a weird aversion to the frozen stuff, and that was his only complaint tonight (although I don’t think he would have even noticed if he hadn’t helped me make them). Do you have any idea how much fresh spinach I would even use?
Thanks again! I will be making these regularly!
Liz – I’ve never used fresh spinach in this recipe because frozen spinach is so inexpensive and simple to use. I’ve read online that you need about 1 1/2 pounds of fresh spinach to equal one 10 ounce box of frozen spinach. Glad you liked it!
Fantastic! We had them last night for dinner and though my picky children didn’t love them (they don’t love anything but plain rice and peaches), my husband and I both adored them! Mmmm … thanks for another winner!
Emily – oh, the woes of feeding kids! I’m glad you and your husband liked these, though!
Do you ever get tired of reading comments that all say how amazing a recipe is? Hope not. Because I am about to be the 30th-ish person to leave such a comment. I loved these. The dipping sauce was amazing. Even better than what I’ve had at restaurants. It was easy to throw together and the filling had such pretty coloring. I halved the recipe because I have a small family. It made 10 very stuffed egg rolls that disappeared quickly. My husband even took the leftovers (lucky there were any!) to work for lunch (a very rare thing). These will appear often at my table.
Natalie – I never get tired of reading comments (even the ones that tell me something tasted lousy!) so thanks for taking the time to leave one! I’m thrilled you loved these so much!
Made these last night!! Very tasty and healthy. Thanks!
Thanks, Ashley – glad you liked them!
this is one restaurant appetizer that i’m always tempted to get. if only they were baked! that dipping sauce is fierce–good work, mel. 🙂
Homemade egg rolls are a great alternative to the ones people normally get at Chinese food places. Baking and not frying them is much healthier. This is a great post.
These sound really good, I think my family will like these for sure…that dipping sauce will be great for so many things!
Kelly – I forgot one of the most important things I do for dinner. I make sure there is at least one food item on the table that the kids love and eat no problem. That way if there is a new food or a food that they don’t particularly care for, I know they’ll at least get something in their tummies. I also use it as a tactic, as in “If you eat a bite of your southwest egg roll, you can have a bite of your applesauce.” Even my 22-month old understands this one. I’ll show him a bite of applesauce (which he loves) and say, “eat a bite of this (like beans) first and then you can have the applesauce.” It works great for my kids – so just another tip to add.
I liked the side note to freeze the rest of the chipotle’s b/c I just put remains like that in the fridge until they’re too old to use…thanks for thinking ahead for people like me 🙂
I take a few weeks break from cooking and surfing my favorite food blogs and you’ve posted several yummy sounding recipes. This is going on the must make soon list.
Here is a question? How do you actually enforce the x-bite rule? We have a very picky two year old, and have been trying to enforce a one-bite rule – sometimes he will comply and other times he won’t. Or sometimes he will take a bite, but it is in his mouth for all of about 0.01 seconds – no chewing or moving around whatsoever, and then he just opens his mouth and lets it fall out (I think b/c actually spitting it out would make him taste it more lol). I try not to make too big of a deal out of it and just encourage him with positive reinforcement when he does try new things, but it gets soooo frustrating sometimes. And my husband is really not keen on part b of your rules, even though I try to enforce it as much as I can, so that can get a bit hard/frustrating as well. Any advice you – or anyone else – has would be much appreciated!
Kelly – I think you are on the right track with the positive reinforcement. We went through a phase where we literally forced our kids to take bites – meaning if they wouldn’t do it on their own, we’d hold their mouths open and make them eat it. I know that sounds awful and it was. It only lasted a few weeks before we realized it absolutely was not working. Everyone was in tears. Crying, gagging, and dinnertime was awful. So we threw that out the window and started doing what you said – being super ecstatic when they would take a bite and making a huge deal out of it. Because it was still important to me that the kids at least taste the food (not clear their plate, just simply TASTE it), I still set the expectation at dinnertime that they had to take their certain number of bites. To encourage them, I would practically stand on my head doing tricks to get them to take a bite. We’d play peek-a-boo, or I would hide my eyes and say “I bet you guys can’t eat a bite before I open my eyes!” and we’d make it into a big game. When it became fun, the kids were all over it. If they STILL absolutely refused – to the point that it wasn’t worth the battle – the result was that they didn’t get the after-dinner treat. After a few months of the intense crazy funness of dinner, we let down on the game-playing a bit because the kids were used to knowing they had to take their certain number of bites (that had always been the expectation) and that we would praise them up and down when they did. I’m happy to say that my older boys don’t even think about the “rule” anymore and are so good about trying new foods and starting to eat me out of house and home. Even my 3-year old is pretty good at it and will eat what is on his plate without too much complaining. I guess what I’m trying to say is that setting the expectation was important for me but it also revolved around positive reinforcement, with a small consequence of no treat/dessert if the expectation wasn’t met. I will say that the 2-year old phase is hard. I have a nearly 2-year old right now and honestly, I don’t know that we could force anything into his mouth. He is pretty independent and his cognitive reasoning hasn’t quite caught up to him realizing the expectation and consequence. So, we have upped the fun-eating-games at dinner to get him excited and if he still hasn’t eaten enough, I’ll sneak out a bowl of applesauce or yogurt for him to supplement dinner. My older boys know that he gets an “out” because he is younger. I’ll probably stop the extra option of applesauce or something when he’s about 2 1/2. Even though I understand why your husband isn’t keen on not giving them something else, I have learned over the years that kids really will eat when they are hungry and if they are eating well at breakfast and lunch, a small dinner won’t hurt them and will help them learn they can’t always have a second option. At a certain age (best determined by their parents) it can be helpful to let them know there isn’t a plan B if they don’t eat what mom or dad worked hard to make. However, I know not all parents work this way so understand it is my opinion only (I don’t want any hate mail about it!).
I hope that helps a little. Honestly, I’m far from the expert on getting kids to eat but I try really hard at it and believe that constant exposure to new/same foods and positive reinforcement are really important. Oh, and one final note, I’ve noticed as my kids have gotten older and can help more in the kitchen that they are far more excited to eat the food if they have helped prepare it. I know that doesn’t help with your 2-year old, but it’s just a thought. Ok. Now I’m really done.
Feel free to chime in anyone else if you have tips on helping kids eat/raising non-picky eaters!
Mel- These look amazing!! Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe 🙂 I am such a huge mexican food person and this recipe has definitely given me some ideas to do at dinner time (in our gluten free home).
I adore your blog btw- you are such a great blogger! <3
Oh,yeah baked chicken with lemon butter sauce is sooooo goooooood!
I love your blog! We love your classic waffle recipe,buttermilk banana bread and the wheat bread so I think I put on 3lbs at least according to my bathroom scale which I think it is a lie!:) I would love for you to make cannolis one day!
Thank you for this recipe. We love these at the restaurant, but are always wracked with guilt bc, well, it’s a restaurant & they fry! I think Katie is onto something with the avocado ranch dipping sauce…anyone have a recipe for that? One teenee beenee suggestion re freezing leftover chipotles…drop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet, then freeze, then pop those flavorful li’l morsels into the ziplocs. LOVE your site, Melanie!!!
Still an avid reader even though I don’t comment much;). Made these today for lunch. They were awesome! Thanks Melanie. Now I’m off to bake up a batch of your fav sugar cookies.
Thanks, Ashlie! Glad you liked them….hope you love the sugar cookies, too.
Melanie,
I am glad you said your kids choke down dinner because I had pictured your kids always eating up everything you make. My favorite is when kids tell you they hate something they loved the last time they ate it. Then eat it and wonders of wonders it still tastes good. My husband loves these at a local restaurant. I am excited to try them! We bake our chimichungas too. I have found sometimes spraying them with some PAM helps them crisp up a little more but yours look crisp as they are.
These are also really good avocodo rance dipping sauce!
Mel… Do your kids eat these??? If so… What is your magic spell????
Amy – yes, my kids ate these and actually really liked them (which is different than them gagging dinner down which happens more often than not). I don’t have a magic spell, unless it is called mean-mommy-requires-at-least-five-bites-of-dinner. My kids have learned that a) they have to try the food on their plates, even if it is only the number of bites that they are old (i.e. 3 bites for my 3-year old), b) they don’t get something else to eat if they don’t like dinner and c) the foods they are scared to taste are always yummier than they think. My kids don’t love beans (although they didn’t mind them in this recipe) and potatoes, so I’m always working on making foods with those ingredients so they are constantly exposed to them. I wish I had the secret to getting kids to eat!
Please, please read my post at the bottom about how to get kids to eat without any fussing at all – except for MORE of what you want them to eat! It worked with my three and all their kids, too! I just wish I knew what to do with a 55 year old daughter-in-law who refuses to eat anything green. ANYTHING. Gah.
Yummy! Thank you, these look wonderful! And baked even better!
This is a great idea! The thing I love about tortillas is that you can stick anything inside them and have a feast.
Fantastic!!!! I’ve been looking for some new vegetarian dinner recipes, so I’m going to give this one a try w/o the chicken. It sounds so delicious!
Ooo, I’m excited for this one!
These look good! I am going to try making these soon. I plan meals during the week, but kind of get lazy on the weekends and we end up eating out. I think these would be great to make ahead and freeze for times when I don’t feel like cooking. 🙂
I cannot wait to make these!!! i’m obsessed with southwest egg rolls and they look like something my boyfriend would love… who last night begged for the baked chicken with lemon butter sauce you posted a month or so ago… its his favorite meal…
Those sound wonderful…..and the chipotle dip.. .yea, I could definitely go for some of that!
These look wonderful. I do love new southwest style recipes. 😉
These look absolutely delicious!
These look incredible, Melanie! Your chipotle dipping sauce sounds so good! 🙂 I made something very similiar for my Mexican theme party in September. I make mine with giant tortillas, and don’t tuck the ends under. I brushed them with a little oil (or you could use cooking spray) before baking them to crisp them up on the outside. After I bake them, I slice each roll in six pieces. Also, these freeze really well. I made them several weeks before the party and baked them frozen…they were amazing! Thanks for reminding me how good these flavors are…I am going to try your recipe! 🙂
Question for you- do you use table salt or kosher salt in your recipes?
Hi Kim – excellent tips on the tortilla egg roll variation. I love the freezing option! As for salt, I mostly use table salt but use kosher/coarse salt now and again, although I always specify in my recipe if it is kosher salt. If it just says “salt” it means regular ol’ table salt.
I’ve never made any kind of egg rolls, and these look so good. I really like the dipping sauce too!