Last weekend we went to the Spanish Heritage Festival. It was a super fun atmosphere. There was great music and a lot of GREAT food. Of course we had to sample some of the food so we shared a plate of quesadillas and a plate of chicken flautas. I was so disappointed that I didn't have my camera with me because I would have loved to show you our food. It was pretty impressive for fair food. The flautas were the overwhelming favorite. I knew that I couldn't replicate exactly what we had at the festival that day but I wanted to try and come close to that plate of deliciousness.
I had no idea how hard it was going to be to make these little chicken flautas. I started with a batch of chicken that I grilled earlier in the week. I put it in the food processor to shred it quickly and into small chunks.
I filled my first tortilla with chicken, rolled it up and the entire thing fell apart.
I warmed the next tortilla in the microwave for 10 seconds, filled it with chicken, rolled it up and it also fell completely apart.
Then I tried brushing oil on the tortilla and rolling it up. Failure again.
I had almost given up when in a last ditch effort, I logged onto WillamsSonoma.com and read through some of their tortilla recipes. They suggested dipping each tortilla in hot oil to prevent breakage. Brilliant.
Then the tricky part, rolling this scalding hot tortilla into a nice tight flauta without burning my fingers. Not easy. It didn't take long for me to realize that this is a skill I was not going to master in one night. I did my best to roll these flautas but mine were not nearly as neat or tightly rolled as the ones we had at the fair.
Once they were all rolled, I took 4 at a time and put them back in my oil to cook. It worked best to put them in the pan seam side down so that they didn't unroll. Something else that I learned the hard way.
I laid the fried flautas in a 9x13 pan, covered them with foil and let them cool. Only because it wasn't time for dinner yet.
When it was time to eat, I put the dish of flautas in the oven to warm at 350.
I thinned my refried beans with chicken stock and heated them in a saucepan.
I also shredded some iceberg lettuce and crumbled some queso cheese.
Okay so my first attempt at flautas took me well over an hour but that's mostly because I had so much trouble rolling the tortillas. Once I figured that part out, the recipe went much quicker from there. They were worth the effort. We ate all but 2 of the flautas. Now that I've worked out the kinks, I think I will give this recipe another try.
Bon Appetit!
I had the same problem - but now put the tortillas in the microwave for about 30 seconds, 3 or 4 at a time and they don't crack or fall apart!
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