Ground Beef Flautas
You are just 30 minutes away from devouring these crispy flautas loaded with ground beef and ooey gooey melty cheese dipped in cool, creamy avocado cilantro sauce!
Everyone loves Taco Tuesday but what about Flauta Friday? Oh, that’s not a thing? Well it will be once you sink your teeth into these crispy, crunchy, rolled up flour tortillas! This quick and easy dinner is sure to bring your family to the table AND have them asking for seconds!
What is a Flauta?
A cousin to the ever popular taquito, the flauta is typically made with a large flour tortilla that’s rolled around a meat and cheese filling and fried until crispy. The taquito is typically made in the same way but with a smaller corn tortilla.
Instructions
These flautas are super simple to make!
Start by sauteing red onion and garlic. Then brown ground beef, crumbling it with a spoon. Add a few Mexican spices and melty Mexican cheese.
Spread half a cup of filling in a line down the middle of the BOTTOM HALF of the tortilla. Roll tortilla away from you and tightly around the filling.
Shallow fry flautas in batches of 2-3 depending on the size of your pan. A nice heavy pan like this enameled cast iron casserole pan works great for this recipe! I LOVE LOVE LOVE mine and use it ALL the time.
While the flautas are frying combine sauce ingredients in a food processor for the easiest, creamiest cilantro lime avocado sauce ever!
Drizzle flautas with sauce (or serve it on the side if you prefer) and feel free to load them up with queso fresco, diced red onion and fresh cilantro too!
Shallow Frying
Basically, you’re going to fry these flautas in a shallow amount of oil – meaning the oil will not fill the saute pan entirely. As opposed to deep frying where you’d use more oil and the food would be completely submerged.
Shallow frying in this case (and placing the flautas seam side down in the pan) helps them hold together and prevents them from unrolling. If you were to deep fry them in more oil, they would unroll quickly and the filling would spill out.
You’ll Love These
- They’re an easy alternative to tacos. Everyone loves taco night at our house, but honestly it gets a little boring after a while. I like to do flautas or tostadas every now and then to keep things interesting.
- They take 30 minutes to make. From start to finish, you’ll have dinner on the table in less than a half hour, which means these flautas are do-able on a busy weeknight.
- They’re simple enough that your kids can help! Obviously you’ll have to saute the meat and do the shallow frying, but the kids can help peel the onion and garlic, add the cheese and roll up the flautas. Getting them involved in the process of making dinner means they’re more likely to actually eat the dinner!
Tips
- Don’t overfill the flautas. 1/2 cup of filling is the sweet spot for stuffing the flour tortillas. Anything more and they won’t cook evenly in the shallow amount of oil.
- Don’t use too much oil. Be sure to fill your pan with about a 1/2 inch of oil. This will allow the flautas to rest gently on the bottom of the pan while they fry, ensuring that they won’t come unraveled. If you have too much oil in the pan it will bounce your flautas all around and the will unroll, spilling the filling into the oil.
- If you’re flautas are unraveling as soon as you put them in the hot oil to fry, you might have to may have too much oil in the pan. The flauta should rest on the bottom of the pan (seam side down) and the oil should come up about halfway on the flauta. You can also secure the flautas with toothpicks to ensure that they don’t unravel.
- Don’t skip the creamy avocado sauce. This sauce is too good to miss friends. And it’s SO easy. Just throw the sauce ingredients in a food processor and you’re done!
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Ground Beef Flautas
All your favorite Mexican flavors wrapped up and fried to a golden crisp, garnished with creamy, smooth cilantro avocado sauce. Simple ingredients, easy prep and a delicious meal are waiting for you in this recipe!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 flautas 1x
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Frying
- Cuisine: Mexican
Ingredients
Flautas:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 small red onion, diced
- 4–5 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons diced chiles in adobo
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- splash of water
- 7–8 oz. shredded chihuahua cheese (cheddar or mozzarella work too)
- 8 (8″ taco size) flour tortillas
- vegetable oil for frying
- Kosher salt
- fresh cracked pepper
Cilantro Avocado Sauce:
- 2 avocados, pitted and diced
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro leaves
- juice of 2–3 limes
- splash of water
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion along with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently for 3-4 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook for another minute or so, stirring frequently.
- Add ground beef and brown, crumbling it with a spatula.
- Once beef is cooked through, add cumin, chiles in adobo, chili powder and a splash of water.
- Stir to combine and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Add cheese and stir to combine.
- While your filling is cooking, heat a large pot over medium heat with about 1/2 an inch vegetable oil in it. You will know the oil is ready when you sprinkle a drop of water into the oil and it sizzles.
- Assemble your flautas by spreading 1/2 a cup of the meat mixture in a line down the middle of the BOTTOM HALF of each tortilla.
- Roll the tortilla away from you and tightly around the filling. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.
- Fry flautas in batches of 2-3 depending on how wide your pot is. Fry them on each side for 1-2 minutes or until the outside is dark golden brown and crispy. If your flautas are cooking too quickly, turn the heat down a bit.
- For the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients in a food processor and process until it forms a smooth, creamy consistency.
- Serve flautas with creamy cilantro sauce, fresh cilantro and crumbled queso fresco.
Notes
Don’t overfill the flautas. 1/2 cup of filling is the sweet spot for stuffing the flour tortillas. Anything more and they won’t cook evenly in the shallow amount of oil.
Don’t use too much oil. Be sure to fill your pan with about a 1/2 inch of oil. This will allow the flautas to rest gently on the bottom of the pan while they fry, ensuring that they won’t come unraveled. If you have too much oil in the pan it will bounce your flautas all around and the will unroll, spilling the filling into the oil.
If you’re flautas are unraveling as soon as you put them in the hot oil to fry, you might have to may have too much oil in the pan. The flauta should rest on the bottom of the pan (seam side down) and the oil should come up about halfway on the flauta. You can also secure the flautas with toothpicks to ensure that they don’t unravel.
Don’t skip the creamy avocado sauce. This sauce is too good to miss guys. And it’s SO easy. Just throw the sauce ingredients in a food processor and you’re done!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 flauta + 1/8 of cilantro sauce
- Calories: 429
- Sugar: 4 g
- Sodium: 705 mg
- Fat: 24.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 35.1 g
- Fiber: 3.7 g
- Protein: 18.9 g
- Cholesterol: 53.5 mg
This recipe was originally published in July of 2018. It was updated in April of 2019 to include process shots and tips for making the best flautas every single time!
Just the other day I had ground beef to use up and I was bored with doing tacos AGAIN, and didn’t know what to make. This absolutely solves it…what a great idea! I am absolutely going to make these soon
I’ve been in the same boat so many times!! These flautas are a great alternative to traditional tacos!
We love Mexican but never tried flautas, coriander and avocado sauce makes these flautas extra delicious. Nice informative post.
Thank you Jagruti!! I hope you enjoy these if you try them!!
Crunchy, fried appetizers are my weakness! Really excited to make these flautas next time we host a dinner party!
Your dinner guests will love them!!
I totally love the idea of flauta Friday! I think I’ll be instituting that at my house! 😉 That gives me so many good ideas, too … maybe … salsa Saturday? Hmmm … In any case — these look delicious and I’d be happy to dig into them any day of the week!
Yum! Salsa Saturday should totally be a thing!!
I normally order flautas when we dine out, but I’ve never made them at home. These look delicious, and I would definitely add that cilantro avocado sauce to everything!
I am the opposite! I’ve never ordered flautas at a restaurant but I’ll have to try them next time we’re out!
Oh yes! Flauta Friday needs to be a thing! I’m from Mexico and your recipe is spot on! So delicious!
Best. Review. Ever!!
The avocado sauce looks divine. What a great meal!
Thanks Kallee!!
These are so GOOD! I wish it was frowned up to only drink beer and eat flautas/tacos 😉
Me too!
Since we really like taquitos I’m sure we’d love flautas! They look so good and crispy. We are Tex-Mex lovers and anything with those flavors are sure winners in our book. Can’t wait to try them out.
Whoa, these look seriously delicious. And I like that they are shallow fried rather than deep fried, that seems like way less hassle and mess!
These look fantastic! So crispy and delicious. Thanks for your tips for making them.
Thanks Anne!
I have never tried flautas. We are Mexican food lovers in our house. I think we need to add these into the rotation. I know my family would enjoy this fun dish.
This is such a fun Mexican dish – your family will love it!
I might have to use that in an upcoming blog post! 😉
A quick and easy weeknight meal the whole family will love!
These look incredible and so crispy, love the idea, thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much! They are one of my favorites 🙂