Taquitos o Flautas de Pollo (Chicken Taquitos or Flautas)
Ingredients
- Vegetable oil for frying
- 2 cups cooked chicken shredded
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- ½ cup grated onion
- ½ cup tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon chili powder
- ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- Salt and pepper
- 12 soft corn tortillas
- ⅓ cup cream cheese
- 1 avocado pitted and sliced (tossed with lime juice and salt)
- 1 cup queso fresco crumbled
- Salsa to serve
Instructions
- Heat the butter in a saucepan add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, garlic powder, cumin, chili powder, tomato paste, cilantro and oregano. Stir and cook for two minutes more.
- Add the shredded chicken. Season with salt and pepper, cook for about 3 to 5 minutes.
- Heat the tortillas on a nonstick skillet or oven, then wrap them in aluminum foil to keep them warm.
- To assemble: spread one tortilla with cream cheese, then top with about 2 tablespoons of the chicken mixture, roll and secure with a toothpick. Process with the remaining tortillas.
- Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet and when oil is hot, place about three to four flautas into the oil, and cook for about 1 minute on each side.
- Drain the flautas on paper towels. Remove the toothpicks and serve warm with avocado slices, queso fresco and salsa.
Mexican Flautas or Taquitos, what's the difference? The basic idea is the same, they're tacos filled with various ingredients of your choice, rolled like a cigar and then fried. The difference seems to be in name only, from what I can tell. It would appear that Taquitos is the name used is the United States whereas Flautas is what they are called in Colombia and Mexico, to say the least. If you have more information pertaining to the origin of Taquitos, please leave us a comment!
These Flautas de Pollo are crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside. I love making and eating them, and kids love them too!
Buen provecho!
Belinda @zomppa
I love these - looks like the perfect textures and flavors..."cigars" I would gladly take!
Amber @ The Cook's Sister
Yum! Reading about these chicken taquitos is making me hungry! Love the combination of flavours!
Juliana
Erica, I like the cream cheese in this flautas...great textures of crispy and creamy.
Thanks for this tasty recipe and have a great week 🙂
Kim
Sometimes I notice that a flauta is kinda of small and thin and a taquito is bigger and thicker? Wonder if the size is the difference? Either way I love eating them! Looks delicious.
Claudia
Oh how this warms me - pure comfort, beautifully spiced and you don't have to be a kid to love them!
Reeni
I was going to say the same thing as Kim - I noticed flautas are a lot skinnier in my favorite Mexican restaurant. These look incredibly good - love your filling!
Barbara
Erica, I made some mini flautas last year and we loved them. Ate them for game day snacks. I like your filling a lot more than mine. Fun to have cream cheese in them.
grace
yum! the crumbled cheese is the perfect final touch!
Stephanie
To add even more confusion, my family thinks of taquitos as being a small tacos made from soft corn tortillas with a filling of carne asada or barbacoa topped with pico de gallo/cabbage/crema. Essentially a street taco.
Chris
Call them whatever you like, just give me some! They look delicious, Erica. Pinned it.
Nancy
We made this recipe for dinner yesterday and my kids loved the filling. Very good. thanks
Erica
Thank you everyone for all your comments and feedback!
kaitlyn
The flauta is made with a corn tortilla and a taquitos are made with flour tortillas. Thats why flautas are smaller than taquitos. (Flautas are crispier and more delicious!) Thank you for this recipe! I lost mine and yours is very similar!! (:
Lisa
Wonderful! My kids loved them and so did the hubby! Spices were perfect not overly assertive, right on par!
jasmine
hey! do you have in information & where it originates from & etcc. doing a project on them, thanks!
carmen
Im from Mexico and taquitos don't exist there lol only FLAUTAS!!! if you do order a taquito/s it will be confused for tacos sooo yeah ... basically taquitos are americanized flautas and are made with any ingredient that you can think of... real flautas are only made with corn tortillas with beef,chicken,potatoes or beans and that's it! no such thing as flour flauta .... oh and the thickness of the tortilla has nothing to do with if it's a flauta or taquito ... some tortillas are for frying (the yellow thin ones) but all in all there tortillas ...
Yolanda
Has anyone else had an issue with trying to print out recipes? Each time I print out a recipe it prints out 8 pages worth of random codes and letters and then the recipe is at the end. I tried copying just the recipe part into word and it doesn't let you do that. I also tried highlighting just the recipe and printing selected and it still prints out 8 pages for each recipe :/
MissusH
Flautas are made with wheat flour tortillas. Taquitos are a rolled up version of tacos dorados (my absolute favorite taco) which are made with corn tortillas. Flautas also are frequently made with burrito-sized tortillas so they tend to be bigger than the taco dorados/taquitos.
I'm going to try this recipe for dinner tomorrow. I have most of a left over deli chicken in my fridge and I'm wanting something crispy and delicious.
Anonymous
Ummmmmm........ in the first direction, you mistakenly said "eat" instead of heat. I think you guys should fix that.
Alexandra Rosas
Just made these for my 2nd grade classroom while we're studying Colombia this week. They LOVED them! Calling them Golden Cigars made them laugh. It was a great time.