Baked Chicken & Spinach Flautas

As seen on So Tasty So Yummy

I've only had flautas once before I made this recipe, while at a local Mexican restaurant. They weren't bad, but they were fried and greasy. So when I saw these pop up in my Google Reader, I was more than happy to give flautas a second try.

And I'm very happy I did. These were very easy to make. They have a nice spice to them without being overbearingly hot. Please do yourself a favor, though, and remember to either use gloves when preparing the jalapeno or wash your hands very thoroughly afterwards... and don't touch your eyes. Trust me, you'll thank me for reminding you of this! (And in my defense, I did wash my hands several times!)

These flautas were delicious and wonderfully crispy without being fried. I actually made the filling the night before and assembled and baked them the next day. With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, these would be a perfect dinner to celebrate with.

They actually reminded me of another favorite recipe of mine: Baked Southwest Rollups. The dipping sauce with the rollups recipe would also go well with these flautas.

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 bottle (12 ounces) beer
2 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 Jalapeno pepper, minced
2 cups baby spinach, chopped
12 flour tortillas (8 inch)
6 ounces shredded Colby jack cheese
cooking spray

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a large saucepan, combine the beer, water, salt, garlic powder, cumin, chili powder and half of the jalapeno. Add the chicken to the pan and bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove the chicken and shred.

Reserve ¼ cup of the cooking liquid in the pan and pour out the rest. Add the rest of the jalapeno and the spinach; cook over low heat for a few minutes, until the spinach is wilted.

Place a heaping tablespoon of the chicken mixture near the edge of the tortilla. Add a spoonful of spinach and cheese over top of the chicken. Roll the tortilla up tightly. Place seam-side down on a greased cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas. Spray the flautas with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes. Flip them over and bake an additional 3-5 minutes more until the tortillas are golden brown. Serve with sour cream, guacamole and salsa. 

Yields: 12 flautas

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