Quick Chicken Flautas

If you've been reading this blog, you'll see I have a ton of recipes using Costco's rotisserie chicken.  No need to convince you I'm a fan.  Clearly I am.  You know I read an article that said that Costco sells their chicken at a loss.  But since the average person goes in there and walks out with a ton of stuff, it's seen as a marketing tool.  I believe it.  Many a times have I walked into Costco for ONE item and walked out with a club sized 800 pack of taquitos, a mountain of toilet paper and 5 gallons of shampoo.

But seriously, where else can you get a hormone free, free-range rotisserie chicken for like 4 dollars?

Here's another very quick and easy way to use Costco chicken to make flautas.  What are flautas you ask?????  If you're asking that, then I'm sorry-we can't be friends.  Just kidding.  We can!  Because here's a quick run down on how to make them at home!  Do it...tonight! They are really easy to make.  In fact, I was just sitting on the couch watching television and I got a mad craving for these so I made them.

Grab:

3 cups cooked and shredded chicken

half medium onion-diced

1 cup of any kind of salsa that you like

1 4oz. canned green chile (optional, but delish so get some if you can)

1 cup shredded cheese (any kind will do)

flour tortillas (soft taco sized)

(and because I'm me, but optional for you) chili sauce for heat

salt

pepper

cumin

paprika

vegetable oil for frying and toothpicks

If you don't have rotisserie chicken to shred and use, you can boil some chicken breasts or thighs.  Simply use two forks to shred the boiled chicken.  But the whole point of using rotisserie chicken is to get done quickly, but the choice is yours.  Both ways are delicious!

In a large frying pan, sauté your diced onions with a little bit of olive oil.  Add salt, pepper, paprika and cumin (I used about a teaspoon of each). Sauté over medium heat until translucent.  

To my pan, I add a 4 ounce can of diced green chile.  You don't have to, but they add a lot of flavor.  The beauty of making flautas, is that you can add anything you want to your chicken filling!  You can make it super cheesy or spicy or even tex mex it up and add grilled corn!  It's all about you! 

(Yes, I add the liquid too.  It's not a lot.  Just dump it in there.)

Mmmmmm.  Green chile.

If you have the time to make a good salsa, then feel free to do so add into the pan (There's no messing this up).   But I had Pace Picante and I used that.  I actually like Pace because it's very chunky and the medium level flavor has a pretty good kick to it.  I used about a cup and brought it all to a simmer.

Simmer.  Simmer.

I like things spicy so I also added about a tablespoon of chili sauce. Whabam!

Mmmm.  I wish you could smell this.

Remember our chicken?  It's time to add to our simmering sauce.

oh. yeah.

Whoop.  There it is.

Boom chika bow bow.

Add your cheese now.  The best cheese is probably cotija cheese, but I didn't have any so I used Monterey Jack.  I thiiiiiiiink I used about a cup (more).  But feel free to make this as cheesy or not cheesy as you'd like it to be.

You want your chicken mixture to be moist, but not overly soupy or you'll be sad when you go to fry and it blows up on you.  Just kidding.  No actual explosions, but lots of spattering and your flautas might not be crunchy (which is kinda the whole point).

Now it's time to grab your soft taco sized tortillas and a toothpick.

Scoop about 2 to 3 tablespoons of your chicken mixture onto your tortilla.

I like to add it to the edge in an even (ish) line. 

Start to roll your tortilla up.  Try to keep even pressure so all the filling stays in and doesn't squeeze out the sides, but taking care to make it a fairly tight roll.  We don't want them to come unrolled while frying.  Oh no, no.

Roll, roll, roll your flauta...Sorry.  I'm a dork.

It should like like this.  Tight but not ripping or tearing or squeezing out the ends.

Secure with a toothpick! Viola! I like to just stab it right through the center.  I've tried weaving it into the flap of the tortilla, but that makes it hard to pull the toothpick out after it's been fried.  And frankly, if I can't see it, I'll forget to pull it out and kill myself or whomever I'm feeding so straight through the middle (and in plain sight) works for me.

Here they are all ready for their oil bath.  

I just use plain vegetable oil.  Nice and light.

I use just enough to cover the bottom of the flying pan.  If you want to use a dutch oven and really deep fry them, feel free.  That's just way too much oil for me to clean up later (or be tempted to fry everything in my fridge in) so I just use a frying pan. 

Some people are fancy and have a thermometer to tell them how hot the oil is.  I just heat it on medium-high.  I stick a wooden chopstick in straight down into the oil, touching the bottom of the pan, and if I start seeing bubbles, it's fry time!

I carefully add 4 at a time into the hot oil.  Be careful.  There's nothing more painful then a big fat oil blister burn.  

Here's a little video action....

After about a minute, using tongs or chopsticks to turn them so they can brown on all sides.

It doesn't take long.  Remember, everything is cooked.  You're just frying to crisp up the tortilla.

Golden.  Crispy.  Doesn't get any better.

Put on paper towels to drain any excess oil.

Fry up all your flautas in batches of 4 (or how ever many you can fit it your pan without over crowding).  Over crowding drops the temperature of your oil really quickly so try not to do that.

Did I say it doesn't get any better?  Actually it does.  I also whipped up a little sour cream and chili sauce to make a spicy sour cream topping for my flautas.

Spicy and chill. 

Here's one of our flautas cut in half for your viewing pleasure.

Then topped with spicy sour cream.

Also great with sliced avocado or guacamole or my Hulk Sauce (for recipe click here.) I happened to have some casamiento (Salvadorean beans and rice, click here for recipe.) and it was divine.  

My work here is done.  

This recipe will make 8-12 flautas depending on how much filling you use per flauta.  

DON'T FORGET TO PULL OUT THE TOOTHPICKS BEFORE EATING.  

I'm not yelling.  I promise.  I just don't want you to go through the unpleasantness of having a toothpick stab your gum or the roof of your mouth.  Trust me, I've done it and it kind of ruins the party.  :)