Taquitos

Rolled tight and held shut with a cocktail stick until the hot fat has set the seam.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, chicken.

Ingredients

• 16 corn tortillas, as on their own page
• 500 g chicken, poached and finely shredded
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• oil, for frying, about 2 cm depth
• cocktail sticks
• shredded lettuce
• 150 g crumbly white cheese
• soured cream, to drizzle
• salsa verde, as on its own page, to serve

Method

1. THEY ARE ROLLED TIGHT AND HELD SHUT WITH A COCKTAIL STICK UNTIL THE HOT FAT HAS SET THE SEAM. Without the stick a taquito unrolls in the pan within about five seconds -- the tortilla relaxes as it heats and the roll springs open, and what comes out is a flat tortilla with its filling in the oil. A stick pushed straight through the overlap holds it for the forty seconds the fat needs to crisp the seam shut, and then it can be pulled out and the taquito stays rolled by itself. One stick per taquito, pushed through at right angles to the roll, and pulled out with tongs about halfway through the fry.
2. THE TORTILLAS ARE WARMED FIRST OR THEY CRACK. Twenty seconds a side on a dry griddle immediately before rolling. A cold tortilla rolled tight splits along the outside of the curve and the filling comes out of the split in the oil.
3. THE FILLING IS SHREDDED FINE AND DRY. Finely pulled chicken, barely moistened. Any sauce in the filling turns to steam inside a sealed tube, and the steam forces the seam open from the inside -- which is the fault a cocktail stick cannot fix. A wet filling belongs in an enchilada.
4. THEY ARE SHORT AND ROLLED ACROSS THE TORTILLA, which is what makes them taquitos rather than flautas. A small corn tortilla rolled from one edge gives a tube about ten centimetres long and as thick as a thumb -- a couple of bites. The flauta on the next page is rolled the other way entirely.
5. THEY FRY SEAM DOWN AND ARE NOT CROWDED. Laid into the fat with the overlap underneath, so the seam is against the hottest surface and sets first. Six at a time at most in a domestic pan -- more drops the temperature and they soak fat instead of crisping.
6. The chicken poached, shredded FINELY, and mixed with the onion and oregano. It must be DRY -- no sauce.
7. A griddle heated dry and the tortillas warmed 20 SECONDS a side, kept in a cloth. Worked with while WARM.
8. One tortilla laid flat, a line of filling along one edge, and ROLLED TIGHT from that edge into a short tube.
9. A COCKTAIL STICK pushed straight through the overlap at right angles to hold the seam.
10. All sixteen rolled and sticked before any are fried.
11. The oil heated to 2 cm in a wide pan over a medium-high heat, until a scrap of tortilla bubbles at once.
12. SIX at a time lowered in SEAM SIDE DOWN.
13. Fried 40 SECONDS, then turned, the sticks PULLED OUT with tongs.
14. Fried a further 1 to 2 MINUTES, turned once or twice, until golden and crisp all over.
15. Drained on a rack -- not paper, which steams the undersides.
16. Piled on lettuce, with cheese, cream and salsa verde over them, and eaten at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes