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.
Mexican Beef Crispy Taquitos (Flautas)
Beef Taquitos
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.
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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
Very flavorful recipe, Mely! I made mine with chicken, then topped with lettuce, tomato & crema. I also added a strip of roasted green chile to each taquito. WOW! TFS!
Hello Esther,
Your chicken flautas sound delicious!
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
Mely! Please tell us about the special frying pan used in this recipe. Thanks for all the good things.
Hello John, This is a similar FRYING PAN to the one in the picture. The one you see in the picture is also from México, but the ones in AMAZON are a little heavier.