How to Make Mexican Beef Crispy Taquitos (Flautas)
The name of these crispy rolled tacos (“Flautas”) is given to them because of their resemblance of 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. The best flautas I have ever had are from Toluca, while I was living there back in the late ‘80s.
Those flautas were long, thick and cooked in a mix of vegetable oil and lard topped with a spicy jalapeno sauce. If you live close to some areas of Chicago, Texas, and California you can buy these tortillas at the Tortilla Factories. But we are using regular corn tortillas as many people in Mexico do for this recipe. Flautas are very popular among the children and are really easy and affordable to make. My mother still makes them with a potato filling like back then when she had 8 children to feed. But this time she cooks for her grandchildren that come to Grandma’s house every day for lunch after school.
How to Make Mexican Beef Crispy Taquitos
- Cook the meat in a small pot with the onion, garlic, bay leave, salt, and water. Simmer covered for about 40-45 minutes or until tender, cool and shred the meat. (Please check the ingredients list below)
- Place the Chicken, garlic, onion, salt, and water in a pot and simmer covered for about 30 minutes.or until tender. Let it cool and shred.
- Peel and cut the potatoes in large cubes, cook in salted water until tender, do not over cook. Drain and mash. Taste in case it needs more salt.
- Heat the tortillas on a griddle to make them more pliable and easy to roll. Put some shreds of the meat close to the edge of the tortilla.
- Roll tightly but not to much to avoid squeezing the filling out of the tortilla.
- 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 as shown in the picture.
- 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.
- Remove and drain the excess oil on paper towels, as shown in the picture at the top.
It’s also a good idea to let them cool a little since the filling will be very hot.
Serve on a plate and top with the salsa of your choice, Mexican cream, and cheese. My son likes them with cream and cheese (and ketchup) only. I prefer to eat them with lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese and salsa.
HOW TO MAKE MEXICAN BEEF CRISPY TAQUITOS
Ingredients
- 12 corn tortillas the thinner the better
- 2 cups of the filling of your choice Beef, chicken or potato (see instructions bellow)
- 12 to othpicks to hold the tortillas together
- Vegetable oil to fry the flautas
- 1 cup of “Cotija” Cheese shredded or fresh Mexican Cheese Crumbled
- 1/2 cup Mexican cream or creme fraiche
For the beef filling
- 1 Pound of Flank steak or skirt cut in cubes
- 1/4 of an onion
- 2 garlic cloves peeled
- 1 bay leave
- Enough water to cover the meat.
- Salt to taste
For the chicken filling:
- 1 large chicken breast bone in
- 1 garlic clove
- 2 slices of onion
- Enough water to cover the chicken
- salt to taste
For the potato filling:
- 2 Large potatoes
- salt to taste and enough water to cover the potatoes.
Instructions
For the beef filling
- Cook the meat in a small pot with the onion, garlic, bay leave, salt, and water. Simmer covered for about 40-45 minutes or until tender, cool and shred the meat.
For the chicken filling:
- Place the Chicken, garlic, onion, salt, and water in a pot and simmer covered for about 30 minutes.or until tender. Let it cool and shred.
For the potato filling:
- Peel and cut the potatoes in large cubes, cook in salted water until tender, do not over cook. Drain and mash. Taste in case it needs more salt.
- Heat the tortillas on a griddle to make them more pliable and easy to roll. Put some shreds of the meat close to the edge of the tortilla.
- Roll tightly but not to much to avoid squeezing the filling out of the tortilla.
- 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 as shown in the picture.
- 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.
- Remove and drain the excess oil on paper towels, as shown in the picture at the top.
- It’s also a good idea to let them cool a little since the filling will be very hot.
- Serve on a plate and top with the salsa of your choice, Mexican cream, and cheese. My son likes them with cream and cheese (and ketchup) only. I prefer to eat them with lettuce, onion, tomato, cheese and salsa.
Notes
Nutrition
Enjoy! And remember you do not need your silverware to eat this dish.
Provecho!
Mely Martínez,
Leave a comment and share your experience with the recipe.
If you are on Pinterest, check our boards with hundreds of delicious ideas I’m pinning for you! Or if you are on Instagram, check out the meals pictures or stories ideas.
More recipes:
Tacos de Suadero
Turkey Crispy Tacos with Mole Sauce
If you like our recipes follow us on Instagram @mexicoinmykitchen
Que ricos!
Y, sobre todo, que bueno que volviste a escribir.
Ciao!
Tlaz
Mely, me da gusto que vuelvas a escribir tus ricas recetas. A esta hora quiero (son las 6 de la tarde) mis flautas con harta crema y queso =D
Un abrazo
cool pan you are frying in – can you tell me more about it? like what kind of pan is it?
Glad to see you posting again … flautas are one of my faves — love em just as a snack
¡Yum! Gracias por las fotos tan detalladas. Espero preparar estas flautas muy pronto.
Hola Nora,
Hola Tlaz,
Gracias por su visita. a quien no le gustan las flautas verdad?
Con crema y queso por supuesto.
Hi Doggybloggy,
So nice to see you come by and visit.
The frying pan is typically found at Fonda style restaurants in Mexico. It is used for frying empanadas, enchiladas, tostadas and the like.
You can get a better look of it in this recipe for empanadas:
https://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/2009/02/empanadas-with-corn-dough.html
The metal is very thin, it is made of Galvanized steel and it looks like an upside down hat (sombrero) . It is very useful for this type of cooking since it keeps the splatter from the stove and you can drain and keep warm the food you are cooking at the same time.
I got it in a Mexican store some years ago in Georgia. I paid around 15 dollars for it.
Have a great day!
Hi Drick!
Flautas as a snack sound good, also cut in half and served as appetizer.
I am so glad to see you!
First of all welcome back! I am a BIG fan of all your posts, I have tried several of your recipes. Now I have a new one to try. Can you New Years resoluton be to post daily?? hee hee I admire you for home schooling your child, I have 2 teenagers 13 and 15 I really think we would kill eachother as Im not too patient. Thanks for another DEEEElicious recipe 😀
Hola Memoria,
Me gustaron los "Mozarella sticks", son unas de las botanas favoritas de mi hijo.
Saludos!
Hi Figtree,
Thanks for the welcome back.
I know what you mean about the kids. Mine is about to be 15 this summer. I know exactly what you mean about not been too patient. 🙂 We are en the same boat here.
Hola Mely, ante todo gracias por tu visita y decirte que soy una aprendiz de cocinera que nunca hizo queso fresco, no conozco el cuajo del queso, pero me parece que no es lo mismo pues lo que aquí añadimos a este tipo de tartas es "preparado para cuajada", vamos como el del flan, que lo añades a la leche y ya está, los ingredientes del preparado son los siguientes: "almidón de maíz,azúcar, leche concentrada y estabilizantes". Después de ver tus postres observo que añades preparado de gelatina, no sé si valdría, el fin es que cuaje, espero que te sirva de ayuda, a ver si me puedo informar de los ingredientes del cuajo de queso ¡Quizás hasta me anime a hacerlo! Suelo hacer una tarta de piña con nata a la que le añado la gelatina y queda muy buena. ¡Vaya rollo te acabo de soltar!
Con tu permiso te quedas entre mis compañeros de fogones, aunque ya había venido antes, hoy estoy pasando un rato super-delicioso en tu cocina.
Biquiños y hasta la vuelta.
Welcome back!
Se ve delicioso, voy a probar a hacerlas bien pronto.
I love flautas. Thanks for the recipe and post concerning them. Have a great weekend.
Looks wonderful. I'm craving these now at 11:30pm!
Mely!!! que bueno tenerte de nuevo, y felicidades por tu aniversario! Madre mia, como he babeado al ver tu entrada, super grafica y maravillosamente explicada, a ver si se entera el resto del mundo de la exquisitez de la gastronomia mexicana! te felicito, besitos
I know all too well the aspirations to post more often than time allows! I hope your husband is OK now. These flautas bring me straight back to Mexico where I used to eat them with the Mexican cream just like you pictured. Fond memories. Thanks for the wonderful recipe; nice to see you back!
I love flautas they are a family fav around here, great pics!!
sweetlife
your photos are amazing, my mouth is watering!!! se me hace agua la boca!!! thanks for all the recepies..
Hello Angela,
It is so great to hear from you. My husband is doing fine now. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Bonnie & Dora…
Hope to see you back soon.
That just looks so delicious. My ex boyfriend use to love marrow stuffed mini flautas. Have you ever heard of them.
Mely these look like great snacks! And I love the presentation with toothpicks. The last picture is so tempting with cream and cheese topping.
Hola Mely, encantada de conocerte y conocer tu blog.
las flautas están para devorarlas, con esas fotos tan apetitosas dan ganas de salir corriendo a hacer una falutita. En casa los ''fans'' de las flautas son mis niños, a ellos les gusta de pollo.
Te mando un abrazo
Gaby
I enjoy your blog and love when you post vegetarian options! Yay potatoes!
hello here! i jus started to find out about ur blog an wow im really loving it! cant wait to see what else u come up with!
xoxo leslie
Hi, I just found your blog a couple weeks ago and I love it. I live in San Diego and really, really love Mexican food. We get really good Mexican food here, as you can imagine. Anyway, I have a question: What is the difference between Flautas and Taquitos? What you made looks like we have always called Taquitos.
Thanks so much for all your great recipes.
Christine
Hello Christine,
Actually a flauta in central Mexico is a long oval corn tortilla. You can see a picture in the recipe about how to make corn tortillas, to get and idea. The name taquitos Is used diferent in every region of Mexico, sometimes it just refers to small tacos. But for other regions is a taco that is fried like the ones in this post.
So it all depends of what part of the country you are from. I can say it is a flauta and someone else will call it a taquito. Funny, right.?
Thanks for stopping by, it is always nice to reads your comments.
Happy cooking,
Mely
Gracias senorita
Hola Gracias por la receta, tengo una pregunta, si los quiero hacer con anticipación para una fiesta, como se recalientan sin que se hagan muy duros?
Hola Sonia,
Las pones en el horno previamente recalentado a 300 grados F, cuidando a que solo se calienten y esten doraditas.
Saludos!
Mely
Thanks for sharing this recipe, and I'm so glad I found your site. I am very curious about what kind of dish/pot you are frying the taquitos in? Will you please give me the name and description? Thanks so much.
Hello,
This is called "concaved comal", you fry your food in the center and the edges are to rest the food after frying. There, the food will drain any excess fat and keep warm, until you finish cooking.
Regards,
Thank you so much!
Hola,
Esta comida era muy sabrosa. Mi familia y yo nos gustó mucho esta comida.
-Stephanie T