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Ground Beef Flautas

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5 from 20 reviews

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!

Ingredients

Units Scale

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

  1. 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.
  2. Add garlic and cook for another minute or so, stirring frequently.
  3. Add ground beef and brown, crumbling it with a spatula.
  4. Once beef is cooked through, add cumin, chiles in adobo, chili powder and a splash of water.
  5. Stir to combine and season to taste with salt and pepper. 
  6. Add cheese and stir to combine. 
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Roll the tortilla away from you and tightly around the filling. Repeat with remaining tortillas and filling.
  10. 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.
  11. For the sauce: combine all sauce ingredients in a food processor and process until it forms a smooth, creamy consistency.
  12. Serve flautas with creamy cilantro sauce, fresh cilantro and crumbled queso fresco. 

Equipment

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