Chicken Flautas with Salsa Verde
Flautas or Taquitos? I have been in countless situations when traveling away from New Mexico, where I have found “Taquitos” listed on a restaurant menu. As a native New Mexican, I pride myself on knowing this lands’ heritage and traditions. There have been times when a taquito has been described as being made with flour tortilla and vise-versa. So, I wanted to provide a traditional Flauta recipe with a little bit of clarification.
The name of these crispy rolled tacos (“Flautas”) was given to them because of their resemblance to a “flute”, and because you hold them with your fingers to eat them. In some parts of Mexico these tacos are made using thin long oval-shaped corn tortillas and deep fried in lard. Sounds DELICIOUS!
In New Mexico, and other areas of the U.S. , Flautas are sometimes made with flour tortillas. While Taquitos are made with corn tortillas, and are typically smaller.
Regardless of where you come from, we all just have to agree that they are deliciously mouth-watering!
Chicken Flautas
(gluten-free)
INGREDIENTS:
12 corn tortillas (the thinner the better)
2 cups of the filling of your choice, Beef, chicken or potato
12 toothpicks to hold the tortillas together
Vegetable oil to fry the flautas
toothpicks
optionsal: 1 cup of shredded cheese, your choice
1/2 cup crema (sour cream)
For the chicken filling:
2 large chicken breasts, bone in
1 garlic clove
2 slices of onion
salt to taste
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Place the Chicken, garlic, onion, salt and water in a pot and simmer covered for about 30 minutes, or until tender. Once cooled, shred chicken and set aside.
- Lightly warm the tortillas on a griddle or pan to make them more pliable. Place shredded meat close the edge of the tortilla to allow for tight rolling. Not too tight because filling will squeeze out.
- Secure the tortilla with a toothpick. Roll another tortilla with its filling and again hold the center with a toothpick. You can attach them in pairs
- While you are rolling the tacos, heat the oil in a frying pan on high heat.
- Deep fry the flautas in the already heated oil turning once until golden and crisp.
Optional toppings
Shredded lettuce or cabbage, tomato slices, chopped onion, avocado slices, and some people even add cilantro.
Salsa Verde
(gluten-free, vegan)
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 pounds tomatillos, husked and rinsed
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and quartered
- 4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
- 2-4 roasted hatch chiles, or one fresh jalapeño, stemmed
- ⅓ cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- Cotija cheese for garnish
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- grease a baking sheet and place the tomatillos, quartered onion and garlic cloves on the baking tray. If using a jalapeño, add it to the baking tray with the other vegetables.
- Roast the vegetables for 20 minutes flipping the vegetables at the 10 minute mark. The tomatillos should be lightly charred and the onion beginning to brown.
- Transfer the roasted vegetables and roasted Hatch chiles (or jalapeño) and any remaining juice on the baking sheet to a food processor or blender. Blend until almost smooth. Add the cilantro leaves and kosher salt and pulse a few more times until mixed.
tip: With only 5 main ingredients in this salsa, make sure your tomatillos are firm, but not hard. The papery husks should be easy to pull apart from the fruit, so if the husk is gluey and stuck to the tomatillo making it difficult to remove, take that as a not-so-fresh warning sign.
