Description
Make crispy Chicken Flautas filled with shredded chicken, cheese, salsa. Quick, delicious, party‑friendly flautas you’ll love.
Ingredients
Scale
For the Flautas:
- Vegetable or canola oil, for frying
- 3 cups shredded cooked chicken (or shredded beef)
- 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese
- ½ cup salsa (store-bought or homemade)
- 1 (4-ounce) can diced chiles
- Garlic salt with parsley flakes, to taste
- Pepper, to taste
- 12 (6-inch) flour tortillas (or corn tortillas)
- Salt, to taste
Toppings (optional but recommended):
- Shredded lettuce
- Chopped tomatoes
- Green salsa
- Guacamole
- Cilantro Ranch dressing
Instructions
- Prep the filling
- In a bowl, combine the shredded chicken (or beef), shredded Mexican blend cheese, salsa, and diced chiles (with their liquid).
- Season with garlic salt (with parsley) and pepper, adjusting to your taste. Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are evenly distributed.
- Warm the tortillas
- Warm each tortilla briefly (10–15 seconds per side) in a hot, dry skillet or microwave (with a damp paper towel on top) to make them pliable. This reduces cracking when rolling.
- Assemble the flautas
- Place about 2 to 3 tablespoons of the filling near one edge of each tortilla, leaving margins on the sides.
- Roll the tortilla tightly around the filling, tucking in the edges as you go so it forms a snug cylinder (like a flute). Place seam-side down on a plate. Repeat for all tortillas.
- Heat the oil for frying
- In a deep skillet or frying pan (or a Dutch oven), pour oil to a depth of about ¼ to ½ inch (enough to partially submerge the flautas).
- Heat the oil over medium-high heat until shimmering and around 350 °F (175 °C). You can test by dropping a small piece of tortilla — it should sizzle gently and rise.
- Fry the flautas
- Carefully place flautas seam-side down in the hot oil in batches (don’t overcrowd).
- Fry until golden and crisp on one side (2–3 minutes), then turn and fry the other side until uniformly golden (another 2–3 minutes).
- Use tongs to turn gently and avoid puncturing the tortillas.
- Drain & salt
- When they’re crisped all around, remove flautas from oil and place them on a plate lined with paper towels or a wire rack to drain excess oil.
- While still warm, sprinkle a little salt lightly over them if needed.
- Serve with toppings
- Serve the flautas hot, with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, green salsa, guacamole, and/or Cilantro Ranch dressing on the side. Enjoy while crisp!
Notes
Don’t overfill: Too much filling makes them hard to roll tightly and more likely to burst while frying.
Warm tortillas: Cold, stiff tortillas crack when rolled — warming them makes them pliable.
Oil temperature matters: If too hot, the tortilla burns before filling heats; if too cool, they absorb too much oil and become greasy.
Space the flautas: When frying, give each enough space to crisp properly.
Keep cooked ones warm: Place cooked flautas on a baking sheet in a low oven (about 200°F / 95°C) while you finish frying the rest to serve them all crisp and hot.