Antojitos
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Spicy, cheesy and creamy, wrapped in a baked tortilla make these Antojitos the ultimate appetizer! They are loaded with cheese, bell peppers, and jalapeños and ready in 30 minutes! Don’t let the jalapeños scare you away! – with the combination of gooey cheeses I promise you’re going to become a number 1 fan!
Antojitos – Mexican Street Food
This recipe is very much fashioned after the restaurant version and it is one of my favorite appetizers! In Canada, we find these little babies at a restaurant called Montana’s, and they’ve been a staple on the menu for years. If you’ve never had antojitos, I promise you’re in for a real cheesy and spicy treat!
What The Heck Is An Antojito?
I give you Mexican street food! Antojitos are prepared by street vendors and typically found at small traditional markets – the name translates to “little cravings”. And well, I don’t know about you guys, but my craving for these things is typically not by any means “little”! They are not usually prepared as a meal, but more of an appetizer – however, if you’re anything like me and you order more than one serving, they do perfectly well as a meal!
Start by getting your oven heated up to 350℉. While it’s warming up, grab a baking sheet and line it with parchment paper. Next, take a medium bowl and combine the room-temperature cream cheese with the breadcrumbs and hot sauce. You’ll want to mix these together until the cream cheese is nice and soft. Then, add in the chopped red and green bell peppers and jalapeño. Stir everything together until the peppers are evenly distributed throughout the cream cheese mixture.
Once your filling is ready, it’s time to spread it over the tortillas. Lay out your tortillas and divide the cream cheese mixture among them. Spread it out evenly, leaving a little border around the edges to prevent spillage. After that, sprinkle the cheddar cheese on top of the cream cheese layer on each tortilla. Now for the fun part: rolling up your tortillas. Do this tightly to ensure they hold together well. Once they’re all rolled up, use a sharp knife to cut them into 1-inch slices.
Place the slices cut-side up on your prepared baking sheet. They should be spaced out a bit so they don’t stick together while baking. Slide them into the oven and bake for 10 minutes. After that, switch to the broiler for an additional 3 minutes to get that wonderfully golden and crispy top.
Once they’re done, take them out of the oven and let them cool for a minute or two. Serve them with a side of salsa or sour cream for dipping.
What Other Spice Elements Can I Use In Antojitos
You don’t have to stop at hot sauce and jalepenos, nor do you even need to use them if you have your own ideas! Some different ideas for spicy and more mild flavors might be:
- Habanero peppers
- Jalapeño jack cheese
- Serrano peppers
- Paprika
- Piri piri
- Cayenne peppers or cayenne powder
- Chili peppers or chili powder
- Poblano peppers
- Chipotle
Expert Tips
- Don’t stress about breadcrumbs, if you can’t find them or don’t want them that’s totally okay. We are using them in order to bind together the cheesy filling and keep it firm while warm. Without it, your filling will be a bit more loose but it won’t affect the finished taste at all!
- Make sure to chop your vegetables into fairly small pieces. This way the tortillas can be rolled tightly and evenly.
- If you’re looking at the cheddar cheese amount and thinking it’s not enough, trust me it is. Using too much cheddar cheese is going to create way too much grease – so keep it to a minimum!
Make Ahead
Yes – you can make antojitos ahead of time! After they are rolled and before you bake, wrap them well with plastic wrap and refrigerate up to 24 hours. You can also freeze pre-made antojitos up to 2 months by double wrapping with plastic wrap. When you’re ready to eat just thaw them at room temperature or in the fridge overnight before baking.
Looking For More Tasty Appetizers? More Recipes Here
- Bacon Wrapped Chicken Bites
- Avocado Mozzarella Puffs
- Pepperoni Pizza Stuffed Mushrooms
- Cranberry Meatballs
- Blue Cheese and Steak Crostini
- Cheesy Cauliflower Tots
- Garlic Butter Shrimp
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Antojitos
Video
Ingredients
- 8 ounce cream cheese (at room temperature)
- ¼ cup breadcrumbs
- ¼ cup hot sauce
- ½ red bell pepper (chopped)
- ½ green bell pepper (chopped)
- 1 jalapeno pepper (chopped)
- 3 large tortillas (I used ancient grain whole wheat tortillas)
- 1 cup cheddar cheese (shredded)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350℉. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl add cream cheese, bread crumbs and hot sauce. Mix with a fork until cream cheese has softened. Add the peppers and mix them in well with the cream cheese.
- Spread the cream cheese mixture over each tortilla, ⅓ of the mixture for each tortilla, and sprinkle ⅓ of the cheddar cheese on each tortilla. Roll up the tortillas and cut them into 1 inch slices.
- Place the slices on the baking sheet.
- Bake at 350℉ for 10 minutes, then for another 3 minutes under the broiler.
- Serve with salsa or sour cream.
Notes
- I used whole wheat tortillas for this recipe. You can use any type of tortilla you prefer.
- I used Frank’s Red Hot Sauce for this recipe. You can use any type of hot sauce you prefer, or eliminate it entirely if you don’t like spice. Feel free to add extra hot sauce if you like.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Oh, my gosh. These look delicious!.
I worked at Montana’s for 10 years. First, we used cornmeal as the binder, not breadcrumbs. The second point is that they were brushed with garlic butter before going into the oven. Lastly it was Melinda’s hot sauce and pickled jalapeños in the recipe, not fresh.
This is just my version of it, obviously I wouldn’t know their exact recipe, but thank you for the tips.
First, Jo doesn’t work at Montana’s, it’s her recipe and she’s not going to copy Montana’s.
Second, see first comment.
Jo, I can’t wait to make these!!!! YUM!!!
Hope you like them!
I made these for my book club meeting a year ago and now it is requested every time we have a pot luck! Delicious!
That’s wonderful to hear they’ve become a book club favorite! It’s always a joy when your dish becomes a potluck staple.
These look yummy and make me miss cheddar cheese (which I have not really seen since living in Mexico). In case anyone ends up here searching ¨antojitos¨like I did and is confused by the recipe, it should be noted that antojitos is a word used to describe many kids of street foods, and I have not seen anything like this in Mexico. Typical antojitos are tacos, gorditas, chalupas, quesadillas, sopes, huaraches, elotes, esquites, etc. But I´m sure these are delicious too.
Do not cut your antojitos all the way though before baking. Score them diagonally 4 or 5 times and cut the afterwards. Also, put a dollop of pesto on top of the sour cream.
Fabulous appetizer! My son works at Montana’s and told me that they brush them with garlic butter and only score them prior to baking. Either way, delicious!
Made this today. Soooo good. I will definitely make it again.
Can’t wait to make these. I have tried making up my own but these seems way more elaborate then what I came up with. Husband is so excited!!!
Super good!!! This was a great addition to my tomato soup. I used spinach wraps, Siracha and chipotle sauce blend to cut the heat for my kiddos. They loved them, including my husband. Clearly I need to double the batch as they were squabbling over who had more.
One important part of this is to actually bake it without cutting it first. Then when it’s done baking you cut it quickly and confidently.
The cheese doesnt harden that way and is more of the melted gooey texture from the original.
And as stated from another commenter, Melinda’s, parsley and sour cream.
Great tips! Thanks!
Made this tonight! Absolutely delicious. The only thing different I did was that I added some chicken. My husband LOVED it. This will be a go to dish for me to serve as an app. Can’t praise it enough! Mmmmm! Thank you!
Just curious…writing on the tables…cute…but when the diners leave are their “tablecloths” removed? It would seem more fun to let the comments stay to entertain the next set of diners. What do you think? We used to stash notes in high school in class desks that we sat in, not knowing who would sit in them next…way fun! and totally anonymous.
Never thought about it, but you’re right that would be cool. I do love writing on the tables, fun for adults not only kids!
I need these in my life!! I have never heard of such a thing but these need to get in my belly.
These look so good. I’m in El Paso, TX and I’ve never seen these. They will be a great hit as an appetizer! I’m keeping them a secret until I serve them. One question? Are those flour tortillas? That’s what it looks like, but the recipe didn’t say.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda
Yeah, they’re called ancient grain tortillas, but yeah whole wheat tortillas.
Jo! These look crazy awesome. Right up our alley, actually. Looking forward to trying these. Nice!
Thanks Mike, I figured you’d like them! 🙂