The ultra-crispy baked chicken flautas have fewer calories AND are easier to make than traditional versions. This recipe is a crowd favorite and has been pinned over a million times!
You guys, these baked taquitos are so good. SO. GOOD.
They’re really well seasoned (not spicy at all, but definitely not bland either). And baking them at a high temperature leaves them nice and crispy without any greasiness.
I even managed to sneak some vegetables into them.
You should make them ASAP.
I was worried that the flautas wouldn’t be filling enough on their own, so I served them with some refried beans. They ended up not really needing the beans, but it was a nice touch to round out the meal.
Taquitos? Flautas? What are these things called?
Taquitos and Flautas are deep fried tortillas wrapped around savory fillings.
Traditionally, taquitos are made with corn tortillas, while flautas are made with flour tortillas.
Since I used flour tortillas in this recipes, these are technically baked chicken flautas. However, the two works are often used interchangably and most people simply refer to both versions as taquitos.
Whatever you call them, they’re delicious!
The secrets to making healthier taquitos
I use a few tricks to keeping these delicious flautas on the lighter side.
- Bake instead of fry. Baking these taquitos uses less oil than frying, cutting both calories and fat. You can be them in a regular oven, like I did when I started making them, or in an air fryer.
- Cut the tortillas in half. Cutting the tortillas in half before you roll the filling up helps cut way back on calories and carbs! You’ll never miss that other half. Be sure to watch the video to see my rolling technique.
- Poach the chicken. You can make these flautas with chicken breasts or thighs. Whichever you use, poaching them will keep them extra juicy, for that perfect soft and creamy flauta filling.
What to serve with chicken flautas:
I love serving these chicken taquitos with Mexican rice or refried beans. They’re also great served on the side of a steamy bowl of tortilla soup.
More baked taquito ideas:
If you love baked taquitos, be sure to also try my:
- Baked Chicken and Hummus Flautas
- Baked Buffalo Chicken Taquitos
- Baked Vegetable Taquitos
- Baked Breakfast Taquitos
You’ll also love my collection of healthy Mexican food recipes.
Baked Chicken and Spinach Flautas
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless skinless Chicken Thighs (about 4)
- 16 ounces Beer or chicken broth
- 2 cups Water
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon Garlic Powder
- 1 teaspoon ground Cumin
- 1 teaspoon Chili Powder
- 1 Jalapeno Pepper minced
- 3 cups Baby Spinach chopped
- 5 burrito-size Flour Tortillas 9 inches
- 6 ounces Quesadilla cheese or other soft cheese like Monterey jack shredded
- 1 teaspoon Olive Oil or cooking spray
- Salsa for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450ºF.
- Put the chicken thighs in a deep sided saute pan and cover with the beer and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the chicken from the liquid and shred it. Mix together the chicken and seasonings.
- Pour out all but 1/4 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the jalapeno and spinach and cook over low heat until for 2-3 minutes, or until the spinach is wilted.
- Cut the tortillas in half. Spoon 1/10th of the chicken (about 1 tablespoon) along the long edge of a tortilla. Repeat with the spinach and cheese. Roll the tortilla up, starting with the straight edge. Place seam-side down on an oiled baking sheet. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
- Brush the flautas with olive oil or spray with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn them over and bake for until 10 minutes, or until crispy. Serve with salsa.
These look AMAZING!!!
My boyfriend isn’t much a spinach guy, but I am going to try these and see what he thinks. I love the spices that are added. I am hoping he will put down the hot sauce for once. It drives crazy lol. They look like they have lots of flavour. I love that recipes like this are so easy to add to or take away something!
Does this recipe yield about 18, like the post your read?
Sorry, I just installed a new program to format my recipes nicely and I lost the serving size somewhere! This recipe makes 10.
Not a problem! Thank you for replying 🙂
I am trying this tonight. I found this link through pinterest and also found another one pretty much verbatim on rvgourmet. Sad she copied yours at all, especially without as much as a link. Sorry so many downers on here. Thanks for the recipe.
They were delicious. My 3 year old boys loved it too. I will be making this again soon!
My daughter doesn’t care for spinach so left it out. She then added cilantro. Sooo good. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
If I have frozen spinach will it work in place of fresh or will it just be soggy and nasty? What do you think?
I haven’t tried them with frozen spinach, but I think it would be fine as long as you thaw it and swqueeze as much of the water from it as you can before putting it in the filling.
These look delicious – I am always looking for healthier Mexican recipes. Thanks for sharing!!
My family loved these! It’s hard to find something we all like. Thank you! Can I freeze these?
These freeze wonderfully. I have some in my freezer at this moment.
A note on the temperature.. I almost burned these at 450 degrees, I would say to try 350 and up the temp if they don’t cook in the ten minuted.
They look mighty tasty. Some pretty legalistic, rigid and rude comments here. I’d find somewhere else to share my recipes. First and last trip to this site, but thanks for the recipe. Definitely will be trying it. Oh – and lighten up people. It’ll lower your blood pressure more than the fight over whether you should use grape seed or olive oil or whether the feta will ruin your body.
As the author or this blog, it makes me kind of upset that you won’t visit again just because of things that commenters have said. I leave everything up because I don’t believe in censorship and its an interesting conversation, but I don’t think I’ve personally said anything that would offend anyone and I hope that the recipes I share make people want to come back for more.
I’m also confused about your comment about finding a different place to share your recipes. All of the ones posted here are mine; there’s no option for readers to post their own?
I made them and everyone loved them. I felt they were super easy to make. I will make them again
these were okay. certainly not worth the hour to make them, though…save your time. make an entree’ salad instead.