Tex-Mex Flautas with Cheese

History & Origin

Flautas have existed in Mexican cookery since the 19th century, originating in the Bajio and central Mexico as an ingenious way to use up leftover chicken or beef rolled in corn tortillas and fried. The Tex-Mex version of flautas represents a substantial evolution that reflects the culinary philosophy of the border: if something is good, more cheese and more condiments make it better. In Texas, flautas differ from the Mexican version mainly through the use of spices like compound chilli powder, abundant cumin and garlic powder to season the chicken, and especially the melted cheddar cheese topping that crowns the already-fried flautas. This technique of melting cheese over flautas is completely foreign to Mexican tradition but absolutely characteristic of Tex-Mex restaurants in Texas, where melted cheese is the unifying element of almost every dish. Restaurants in San Antonio and Austin that popularised Tex-Mex flautas in the 1970s and 1980s began serving them in portions of three or four with Americanised accompaniments like soured cream, guacamole and pico de gallo.