Home Kitchen Cheesy Chicken Cilantro Pesto Flautas

These Cheesy Chicken Cilantro Pesto Flautas are SO darn straightforward and savory. These baked flautas reheat nicely making them great to reheat the next day.

This time of year is my regular. On my days off from work you’ll most likely find me/us grilling, sippin’ on lime beers and more times than not the music is on and so are the flip flops. And if we aren’t grilling… we’re having Mexican.

TRUTH: I always have cilantro, limes and pepper jack cheese in the house only in case I’m jones-ing for a little Mexican grub. I’m not ashamed to tell you that I’m a little addicted to these flautas and that I may have put down 3 or 6 of these in ONE sitting. I only love Mexican food and I never know when to stop. I’m sure it’s because Mexican food is usually so simple, fresh and uh-duh deeelicious… yup, I’m positive that’s why.

After making a batch of cilantro pesto, the wheels where turning on what I should actually do with it. One Friday went out to our regular Mexican restaurant and my eyes spied flautas on the menu. Even though I never stray from the fish tacos, I knew exactly what I was going to make. Flautas. Traditionally flautas are fried (which I’m pretty sure why they are so incredibly satisfying) but I have this deep rooted fear of deep frying and thought I would play it safe and bake them. You know, to make them healthy. Never mind the copious amounts of cheese… that’s only for calcium right?

So here is yet another Mexican inspired recipe… I hope you don’t mind because obviously we’re still celebrating Cinco de Mayo in our house.

What Worth keeping about these baked flautas is that they double as an straightforward dinner or can be whipped up in a pinch for an app at any shin-dig. There are many different options for filling these flautas; beef, Monterey Jack cheese… or make them vegetarian by stuffing them with black bean and corn salsa or keep it simple and only load them with a collaboration of different cheeses.

Feel free to prepare the chicken however you like. But a little olive oil, cumin and your regular all purpose seasoning is pretty much all you need.

Toss them around until coated and they’re good to go.

Here’s where you could grill them… or do a speedy sear and then pop them in a preheated oven for 12-15 minutes.

Once cooked, let the chicken cool before chopping them up into small chunks.

Remember this cilantro pesto… yeah the one I promised you I could eat it plain with a spoon. It’s so unbelievably tasty.

Shred up some cheese; Monterey Jack, pepper jack, Colby jack… whatever you have.

Spoon a little of the pesto into the center of a small 8 inch flour tortilla and spread it out. Sprinkle it with some of the chicken, top with a little (or a lot… let’s be real) and roll into a cigar like shape.

Place the pre-flautas, seam-side down on a rimmed sheet pan and bake for 10-12 minutes until crispy and golden brown.

Truly it’s only that straightforward. The flour tortilla gets extremely crunch while the cheese melts all over the chicken and then the pesto brightens it all up and adds a ton of flavor and of course there’s the cheese. They are still crispy and savory the next day making the reliable leftovers for lunch boxes.

Make sure you get an array of goodies to dip these in {I only had guac} and start shoveling.

Enjoy! And if you give this Chicken Cilantro Pesto Flautas recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!