Simple Flautas
Feb 24, 2025
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I really like shredded beef flautas, and I used to be able to get them locally. Things change, however, and the regional chain restaurant I used to frequent closed: apparently along with all of the chain's other stores in the state. In my own defense, I found a need to make them myself. At least a close approximation.
I was first introduced to the flautas at a Tex-Mex fast-food restaurant located in a strip mall in a nearby town. Flautas are like taquitos, except larger, and made with a flour tortilla instead of corn.They were served along with some queso dip, guacamole, and sour cream, as well as a bit of finely-chopped garden salad.
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The Seasoning Mix...
Central to the Tex-Mex cooking to which I have been exposed, is that mixture of herbs and spices commonly known as "Taco Seasoning". For simplicity's sake I usually use the store-brand, pre-packaged taco seasoning mix available at our nearby German-owned, low-cost, chain grocery. Sometimes, though, I don't happen to have any on hand; and, of course some folks just have to mix things up for themselves. In either case the following mix should do nicely.
Suggested Equipment:
- Bowl, about 2 - 4 cups
- Dinner fork, large, or wire whisk (if you want to feel "professional").
- Seal-able container to hold the mix.
Ingredients:
- Optional, and to taste. The stated amounts will result in a fairly mild mix.
| Item | | Amount |
|---|
| Chili powder |
|
1 |
Tbs |
| Onion |
Fine ground, dry powder |
1 |
tsp |
| Garlic |
Fine ground, dry powder |
1 |
tsp |
| Paprika |
Ground, dry powder |
1 |
tsp |
| Cumin |
Dry, ground |
½ |
tsp |
| Salt |
Common |
½ |
tsp |
| Cilantro1 |
Dry, crushed leaves |
½ |
tsp |
| Black pepper1 |
Dry, ground |
¼ |
tsp |
| Oregano1 |
Dry ground |
¼ |
tsp |
| Red pepper1 |
Dry flakes |
⅛ |
tsp |
| Cayenne1 |
Dry, ground |
⅛ |
tsp |
Directions:
Add all spices to the mixing bowl, and stir with a wire whisk or large fork until thoroughly mixed. Store in the sealed container.
Makes enough to treat 1 lb of meat
The Flautas...
There are a plethora of recipes available on the internet for flautas, most of which probably never saw the inside of a commercial kitchen. Tex-Mex cooking, after all, isn't that complex. This recipe, while very simple, is probably closer to what you would get if you ordered it in that strip-mall restaurant.
Suggested Equipment:
- Slow cooker, 1½ -2 qt
- Cutting board, non-porous, about 10"×12"
- Fry pan, 10"
- Baking sheet, about 10"×12" (optional)
- Toothpicks, wood, about 12 each
- Common kitchen tools and measures
Ingredients:
- For this application, the leaner the better. I like to use something like top round beef steak, pork loin, or well-trimmed butt, or boneless, skinless chicken breast.
- I mostly use the Casa Mamita® brand. If I have to make my own, I mix spices using the recipe above.
- If prepared broth isn't available, one bouillon cube of appropriate type, in one cup of hot water will suffice.
| Item | | Amount |
|---|
| Meat |
Lean1, beef, pork or chicken |
1 |
lb |
| Taco seasoning |
Commercial2 or home-mixed |
about 2 |
Tbs |
| Broth3 |
Beef, pork, or chicken, as appropriate |
1 |
cup |
| Vinegar |
Red or white wine, as appropriate, or cider |
½ |
cup |
| Cooking oil |
Your favorite high smoke-point oil |
½ |
cup |
| Tortillas |
Flour, 10" diameter |
6 |
ea |
| Cheese |
Chedder-jack or Mexican style, shredded |
2 |
cup |
Directions:
Add 2 Tbs cooking oil to the fry pan, and place on medium heat. When the oil reaches about 375℉, sear the meat on all sides. Sear only, do not cook!
Discard the fry oil and de-glaze the fry pan, adding the vinegar to the hot pan and scraping the pan bottom with a spatula. Continue heating until the volume of vinegar is reduced by half.
Add the seared meat to the slow cooker, cutting the meat as needed to fit compactly in bottom of the cooker.
Add the seasoning mix to the broth, and stir thoroughly.
Add the broth-spice mixture and the reduced vinegar, to the cooker. This should provide enough liquid to (mostly) cover the meat.
Turn on the slow cooker to the "High" setting. When the liquid begins to simmer, turn the cooker down to "Low", and continue cooking for 2 - 3 hours (or all night, if you want) until the meat is tender. This low-temperature, long-cooking style is called braising.
When the meat is tender, remove it from the braising liquid and use a pair of large dinner forks to pull it apart, separating the meat fibers. This produces the type of shredded meat used in much Tex-Mex cooking.
Mix about ¼ cup of the cooking liquid back into the shredded meat; then divide the meat into 6 approximately equal portions. Each portion will likely weigh somewhat less than 2 oz. You can discard the remaining cooking liquid at this point, or save it for whatever purpose you may deem appropriate.
In order to make the tortillas more pliable and less prone to breakage while you assemble the flautas, you should warm them with moist heat before use, if you can.
Position a tortilla on the cutting board so that it is flat and fully supported.
Add one portion of the shredded meat to the tortilla, and spread it out along a line, about 2" from the edge of the tortilla.
Spread ⅓ cup of the shredded cheese on top of, or alongside the meat.
Beginning at the edge of the tortilla nearest the line of meat, fold the tortilla over the meat and cheese, then using your fingers to hold the meat-cheese filling in place, begin rolling the assembly toward the opposite edge.
After about 1 complete roll, fold the sides of the tortilla over toward the middle, pinching the bottoms of the folds as if you were rolling a burrito. Continue rolling and pinching until the tortilla is fully wrapped and closed. Use wooden toothpicks to hold the flauta closed. Remove the flauta to a safe holding area.
Repeat steps 10 -14 until you run out of filling portions.
If you intend to bake the flautas, skip to step 18. To finish in the fry pan, add the remaining oil to the pan and heat to 375℉.
Place 2 or 3 flautas into the hot oil very carefully, to avoid splashing or otherwise burning oneself. Cook until you achieve your favorite amount of browning, turning the flautas frequently to avoid burning them. When done, remove the cooked flautas to a safe holding area to cool and drain. Repeat until you have cooked all of the flautas. At that point you are done.
The following instructions are for finishing the flautas in the oven: Pre-heat the oven to 450℉. Place all of the flautas into a baking dish suitable for your oven, and brush the tops with cooking oil. Turn the flautas over, and again brush with oil. Put the flautas into the pre-heated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until you have achieved the desired amount of browning. Remove the pan from the oven and allow to cool.
In either case the final cooking step is for color, texture, and taste of the tortilla wrapping. Everything else is cooked before assembly.
Serve with any or all of the following: queso dip, guacamole, garden salad, sour cream. Beer makes a good accompaniment.
This recipe produces up to 6 substantial servings.
Things like this go much more smoothly in a restaurant specializing in this type of cooking, where ingredients for many servings of many different dishes are prepared well in advance; and the final preparation consists only of assembling the end product from said ingredients. The process is much more labor-intensive in the home kitchen, preparing only one dish. It's worth it, though.
Meat, Beef, Chicken, Ethnic, Tex-Mex