baked chicken flautas

I suck at baking.  But I'm a great cook!  I made this recipe last night, after some inspiration from this one.  I've actually never tried this one, but thought it sounded delicious.  I didn't have all the ingredients, and I really like to put my own spin on things, so I cooked these last night and they were awesome!  Enjoy!

Baked Chicken Flautas

3 chicken breasts

1 small tub of light cream cheese

handful of cilantro

2 green onions

a few fresh jalapenos (from your own garden, perhaps!)

garlic powder

chili powder

cumin

sea salt

1 lime

corn tortillas

olive oil

Preheat oven to 350.

Cut up your 3 chicken breasts into chunks - about 4 pieces/breast.  Put them in a pot, add about 1/4 cup of water, put the lid on, and let them cook on medium heat.  They'll take about 20 minutes to cook all the way through, but they'll be nice and tender this way.

Meanwhile, chop your jalapenos.  I used 4 very small jalapenos from my father-in-law's garden and they were HOT.  So adjust as you wish.  Chop your fresh cilantro.  Chop your green onions.  (I actually use scissors and cut the green onion from the tip all the way down -- it's so easy!)

When your chicken is done, take it out of the bowl and pour off the extra water/juice.  Put about 2/3 of your tub of cream cheese into the hot pot, but turn the heat off.  Using two forks, shred your chicken.  Now toss the shredded chicken and all your chopped veggies into the pot, and turn the heat back on to low.  Add some lime.  I used just under a tablespoon, but I love lime.   Mix well.  Add your seasonings to taste -- I used about 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder.  No need for salt right now.  

Swat your husband's hand for trying to steal from your yummy chicken salad mixture.  He'll have to wait for the finished product. 

It should look a little something like this:

Can you believe I actually took the time to shoot a pic of my food?  Ha!  I am no photographer.  I cook better than I shoot.  So even though this picture isn't one for the high-gloss cover of REAL SIMPLE or something, cook these anyway.

Now, it's time to make your flautas.  Put about 4 tortillas in the microwave with a damp paper towel and heat for 25 seconds.  They should be steaming hot and really flexible.  You don't want them to crack as you roll these suckers up.  If they're a little soggy because you put the wet paper towel directly on top of them, that's okay too.  Sogginess will go away.

Put about 2 good forkfulls of chicken mixture into each tortilla.  I really stuffed mine full, because Adam likes things meaty.  Well, and I only had so many tortillas!  Repeat until all your chicken mixture is gone.  Or until you run out of tortillas.  I made 12 flautas.

Roll the tortilla as tight as you can and put it seam-side down onto a cookie sheet.  Recipes like this are the only reason I even own a cookie sheet.  Because I don't bake, remember?

When they're all settled on the cookie sheet in nice neat rows, brush the tops lightly with olive oil and sprinkle sea salt on the top.  (This part of the recipe I really did steal from here.  And it was such a great idea!  Actually, I've made several things from here, and their recipes always turn out great -- so you should stalk their blog.)

Bake for about 10 minutes.  Then turn the bake feature of your oven off and turn on the broil.  Broil on low for about 6-7 minutes, to brown the tops just slightly.  Now you're done!

I served these with black beans and a garden salad.  Delicious!