Leftover Rotisserie Chicken Is The Secret To Simplified Flautas

Order flautas at your favorite Mexican restaurant or cook the frozen pre-made ones from the grocery store, but it's also rather easy to make them from scratch. To make homemade flautas an even easier meal to get on the table, use rotisserie chicken to fill the tortillas. There are countless ways to use leftover rotisserie chicken, and these flautas are an ideal technique because it promises tender shreds of chicken in each bite with far less effort than cooking raw poultry for the dish. 

Take a note from Tasting Table's crispy chicken flautas recipe developed by Cecilia Ryu, who says you can easily use rotisserie chicken to make the rendition of the Mexican dish. According to the recipe, you will need 3 cups of shredded chicken for 10 flautas so make sure there's enough of the bird left to make a fulfilling filling. That chicken will join the rest of the filling ingredients like green chilis, shredded cheese, cream cheese, corn, garlic, onion, spices, and a few other add-ins. The flautas with leftover rotisserie chicken not only add flavorful protein but also reduce your cooking time and prevent food waste.

Before you add leftover rotisserie chicken to flautas, remove the skin (if there's any left). The chicken skin is quite flavorful, but it will add a chewy and potentially slimy texture to the filling since we're working with leftover chicken. Don't toss it out, however, because there are many uses for leftover chicken skin like turning it into crispy cracklings. After the skin is removed, use your fingers (or a fork) to shred the meat apart. If you follow Ryu's guidance, the chicken will cook off for a couple of minutes with the other ingredients, so there's no need to heat it first. However, if you find the chicken to be dry, use a bit of stock or water to add moisture to the mixture.

If you buy a flavorful rotisserie chicken, like the one from Costco that's delicious thanks to salt, you don't need much extra seasoning because of the use of cayenne pepper and chili powder in the recipe. But if you want to use another recipe, or just want to step up the flavor, add sazón, adobo seasoning, chilis in adobo sauce or hot sauce for heat, taco seasoning, or cumin into the filling mixture.

Want to make the chicken flautas even simpler? Go for pre-made guacamole with our ranking of the best store-bought guacamole, use pre-shredded cheese instead of shredding it yourself, and serve it along effortless side dishes like canned beans.