Southwest Chicken and Black Bean Taquitos – the revenge of the Taquito craze…

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baked, black beans, cheese, chicken, cumin, flauta, leftover chicken, shredded, southwest, taquito

I was pretty happy with all those taquitos I made this winter, I thought they were great.  Now I know they could be even better…

  

My moment of clarity came last week at work when we found ourselves with several pounds of leftover chicken salad from a banquet.  In stepped super-hero, Sous-Chef Ceasar (he’s a man of many titles) who said ‘lets make flautas.’  He added some of his special brand of love to that chicken salad (meaning beans, cheese and spices, get your mind out of the gutter), rolled it up into corn tortillas and took it for a dip in the deep fryer.  It was topped with some guacamole and cotija cheese and thus a beautiful appetizer special was born.  It sold like hot cakes all weekend.  

Now these little suckers were what flauta/taquito dreams were made of.  Perfectly crispy yet creamy, a veritable flavor explosion.  I think that the secret was that mayonnaise in the original chicken salad.  I decided in that moment when the first fauta, fresh out of the deep fryer, hit my lips that I needed to try to make these little suckers at home.

So creamy…

But before we get down and dirty, a little linguistic digression.  Latley, I’ve been working on improving my Spanish by asking my Latino co-workers clarification on words I wasn’t sure on and adding a few new bits of vocabulary here and there.  (Yesterday I learned that ‘chichis’ are nipples where as ‘tetas’ are boobies but ‘pechugas’ are what chickens have…)  So, I asked one of my coleagues what the differerence between taquitos and flautas was.  He said “Flautas come out of a deep fryer and taquitos come out of a microwave.”  Interesting.  Seeing as what I make at home are no where near authentic Mexican food, and I’m not busting out my deep fryer today, I’m going to keep on calling them taquitos.  

Southwest Chicken and Black Bean Taquitos – served with Spanish rice, slaw, lime sour cream and avocado sauce

Serves 5 – 6 – cost approx $1.26 per serving, including sides and sauces

Makes approx 40 taquitos – Batch costs $4.45 or $.11 per taquito

Ingredients

• 2 cups cooked black beans – from 1 cup dry beans ($.40)
• 2 cups shredded cooked chicken – a great use for leftovers ($.43 I got a whole chicken for $.60/lb because it was the sell by date, if you can be flexible in your menu planning or have room in the freezer you can take advantage of those killer deals!)
• 1 jalapeno, small dice ($.25)
• 1/2 red bell pepper, small dice ($.25)
• 1/2 onion, small dice ($.06)
• 2 cups/ 8oz shredded mild white cheese – jack, mozzarella, or white cheddar would be good ($1.20)
• 1-2 Tbs ground cumin, to taste
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise ($.50)

• 40 corn tortillas ($1.11)

Just mix up all the ingredients in the first set to make the filling.  

 

What happy colors! Maybe I’ll add some corn next time…

 

Follow the procedure outlined in my first taquito post (https://fullbellyfullwallet.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/pulled-pork-taquitos-im-falling-fast/) to roll up the little suckers.  From this point you can either freeze them for later use or bake them right away.  When you want to eat, cook at 400F for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  Serve with any sauces that you like and dig in!  These would be a great appetizer or could be a full meal when paired with some rice and veggies.

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Black Bean and Sweet Potato Taquitos – Vegetarian Fun-Land!

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baked, black bean, black beans, cream cheese, cumin, flauta, sweet potato, sweet potatoes, taquito, vegetarian

I was going to say that I’m a master of turning healthy ingredients into things that are bad for you, (which I am) but when I thought about it I realized that my baked taquito craze isn’t all that unhealthy.  So, go buck-wild!  Destroy a tray of these little suckers without the guilt associated with plowing through a tray full of fried goodies.

Now that holiday entertaining season is upon us, these are a great make ahead appetizer.  Plus, these little buggers are vegetarian too!  At larger gatherings and when I’m planning out any sort of a party menu I always try to make at least half of the appetizers vegetarian-friendly.  I made a big ol’ batch of these last night and popped some in the freezer.  Stay tuned to see how they thaw/bake.  But, I can attest that cooked ones keep well in the fridge for a day or so and reheat well in the oven.

To be le’honest, I saw the idea for black bean and sweet potato taquitos on pinterest but I developed this recipe entirely by my onesies.

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Taquitos – served with cilantro lime rice, sour cream and salsa

Makes 40 – cost approx $.12 each including fixin’s

Serves 6 as entree – cost approx $1.03 per serving including fixin’s and rice

Ingredients

• 1 lb sweet potatoes, 3 medium, peeled and small dice – ($.83)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp chili powder
• 2-3 cups cooked black beans – from 1 cup/8oz dry beans, you could use canned too ($.50)
• 8 oz cream cheese ($.24)
• 1 jalapeno, minced – optional ($.25)
• 1/2 cup or 4 oz shredded jack cheese ($.50)
• salt, to taste

• 40 corn tortillas ($1.11)
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil or bacon grease, divided use

• 1 cup sour cream – for dipping! ($.50)
• 1/2 cup salsa – also for dipping ($.50)

Start off by cooking the black beans if you’re starting from dry beans.  If you’ve got a busy day, a crock pot on low for 4-8 hours is a great way to get your beans cooked while you’re out and about.

Next up, cook those sweet potatoes.  Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Toss the diced sweet potatoes with some salt, a few tbs of vegetable oil and the cumin and chili powder.  Bake on a cookie sheet for 15-20 minutes.

To assemble the filling, mix up the roasted sweet potatoes, cooked and drained black beans, cream cheese, jalapeno, shredded cheese and some salt.

Now that the filling is all made up, it’s time to assemble.  (I’m holding my imaginary mijolner in an “Avengers Assemble!” sort of a moment here, but I digress…)  Preheat the oven to 400 F.  Keep a pan with a few tablespoons of vegetable oil or bacon grease over medium-low heat and prepare a little assembly station.   I go into more depth on my assembly set-up in my first taquito post if you want to read about it in a little more detail.  ( https://fullbellyfullwallet.wordpress.com/2014/10/30/pulled-pork-taquitos-im-falling-fast/ )

Go ahead with the system of briefly microwaving a few tortillas at a time, dipping one in the pan of warm grease and rolling it up with a few tablespoons of filling.  Set each taquito on a baking sheet.  If we’re being completely honest here, I used the same tray I baked the sweet potatoes on.  Why make more dishes to wash?  Bake for 20 minutes at 400 F or until golden and crisp.

They’re so cute!