These oven baked flautas are filled with a zesty refried bean and cheese filling! Similar to taquitos, they can be made with either flour or corn tortillas.
Are you a fan of taquitos? Here’s a homemade baked flautas recipe that’s an easy spin on that tasty Mexican rolled tortilla treat! This version is not so much authentic as an easy way for a tasty snack. The filling is vegetarian, a mix of refried beans, cheese, salsa, and spices. It makes for a snack that’s seriously tasty (and kids love them). They’re also great for parties. Serve with your favorite salsa, guacamole, or sour cream for dipping. Ready to get cooking?
Taquitos vs. flautas: what’s the difference?
Taquitos and flautas are so similar that the words are often used interchangeably. In fact, they’re the same entry on Wikipedia. (How’s that for official?) There’s no official definition, but here are the main differences:
- Taquitos are often made with corn tortillas, and may be smaller than flautas
- Flautas are usually larger than taquitos: they can be made with either flour or corn tortillas, but flour is common
This baked flautas recipe: a healthy spin!
Traditionally taquitos and flautas are deep fried until crispy. Often they’re filled with meat like chicken or carnitas. This recipe is for baked flautas, so instead of frying they’re baked in a hot oven until crispy. Because we often make vegetarian recipes, we went with a vegetarian filling of refried beans and a little cheese. Green onions, salsa, and chili powder bring big flavor and make a seriously satisfying interior.
Main takeaway: If you’re looking for authentic Mexican flautas or taquitos, search the web for another recipe! But if you’re looking for an easy and healthy version, you’ve come to the right place.
Use either corn or flour tortillas
The accepted definition is that baked taquitos would be smaller with corn tortillas and baked flautas would use flour tortillas. But really, anything goes! You can call them anything you want, and use either type of tortilla depending on your taste and diet preferences. Use corn tortillas to make them gluten free.
In terms of size: we used 6-inch tortillas for the baked flautas in the photo. If you can find smaller tortillas, you could use them to make taquitos: just make sure to not overfill them. Because…keep reading.
Filling spills out when baking, so use parchment!
The main thing to note on this baked flautas recipe is that some filling will spill out when baking. And this is perfectly ok! Because the filling is gooey refried beans, it tends to run out when baking. (Of course deep frying the flautas would keep it inside…so if you’re into deep frying be our guest!) Don’t worry: there will be plenty of filling left inside the flautas so they still have great flavor.
Because some of the filling spills out, it’s important to use parchment paper on your baking sheet for this recipe. It makes cleanup a breeze! If you don’t have parchment paper, you could also line the baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Serving baked flautas!
Everyone loves baked flautas! Seriously. Our 2 year old son adores them. What’s better than dipping rolled tortillas? They’re perfect as a gameday snack (like for football) or the perfect party appetizer. At Mexican restaurants, they’re also served as a main dish. Here are a few different ways you can serve them:
- With guacamole! Try our Simple Guacamole for a tasty dip.
- With spicy sour cream! Or regular sour cream, of course. But try stirring in a few shakes of hot sauce (our favorite is Cholula).
- With salsa! Use your favorite high-quality store-bought version, or Roasted Tomato Salsa or Salsa Verde.
- As a main dish! Serve them restaurant style: place 4 to 5 on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce, with dipping sauces on the side.
Can you freeze flautas?
You can! You can make these flautas in advance and freeze them for later. This is especially great for kids’ dinners! Cool the flautas to room temperature, then freeze them in a sealed container. To reheat, bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until warmed through.
This baked flautas (or taquitos!) recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten free (with corn tortillas).
Print
Easy Baked Flautas (Taquitos!)
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 14 flautas 1x
Description
These oven baked flautas are filled with a zesty refried bean and cheese filling! Similar to taquitos, they can be made with either flour or corn tortillas.
Ingredients
- 2 green onions
- 1 ½ cups refried beans, Homemade Refried Beans or vegetarian canned refried beans
- ¼ cup salsa, plus more to serve
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ¾ cup shredded cheddar or Mexican blend cheese
- 14 6-inch flour or corn tortillas*
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, for brushing
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt, for sprinkling
- For dipping: easy guacamole, salsa, or sour cream (or spicy sour cream mixed with hot sauce)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (necessary for cleanup!).
- Thinly slice the green onions.
- If you’re using canned refried beans, take a taste and determine whether they’re well seasoned. If not, add a few pinches of kosher salt and cumin. If you’re using our Homemade Refried Beans, they’ll be perfectly seasoned and you can skip this step.
- In a large bowl, mix together the green onion, refried beans, salsa, chili powder, and shredded cheese.
- Optional step: If you’re using 100% corn tortillas, you may want to pan fry each one in a skillet with a drizzle of olive oil (or without in a dry pan) to prevent cracking and help them be easier to work with. Every tortilla brand is different, so if your tortillas seem brittle it’s helpful to heat them before rolling. You can do this with corn tortillas too!
- Lay a tortilla on a work surface. Spoon about 2 tablespoons of the bean mixture in a dollop onto the bottom half of the tortilla. Be careful not to use too much! Tightly roll the tortilla from the bottom (the filling will spread out and hold the tortilla together). Place the flauta seam-side down on the baking sheet. Repeat for the remaining tortillas.
- When the flautas are assembled, brush the tops with oil and sprinkle them with a bit of salt. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until crisp and browned. Some of the beans will come out the ends of the rolls, which is expected (enough filling will remain to perfectly flavor them!). Serve with salsa, guacamole, or sour cream. Freezing instructions: Cool the flautas to room temperature, then freeze in a sealed container. To reheat, bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until warmed through.
Notes
*Homemade refried beans have the best flavor! You can also try our Refried Black Beans. Canned is a great shortcut: see if you can find vegetarian refried beans that are already seasoned.
- Category: Snack
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Mexican
Keywords: Baked Flautas, Baked Taquitos
Related recipes:
If you like these flautas and taquitos, here are a few more easy Mexican style recipes you might enjoy:
- Mexican Pinwheels These colorful pinwheels are easy to make and feature Mexican style flavors: black beans, peppers, cumin and chili powder.
- Epic 5 Minute Tacos Can dinner really be made in 5 minutes? These tacos are seriously tasty.
- Mexican Sweet Potatoes This tasty dinner recipe features baked sweet potatoes, black bean salsa, and tangy cilantro sauce.
This sounds so good! How do you keep the corn tortillas from cracking either when rolling or baking?
Great question! Our brand did not crack, but we suggest to fry corn tortillas in a little olive oil first to soften it and make it easier to work with. We had a reader do this and it worked great! We’ll add this to the recipe too. Great question!
These are INCREDIBLE. Made them tonight for dinner using the homemade refried bean and roasted sheet pan vegetables recipes. Do yourself a favor and make it all! Seriously so good & flavorful.
Yay! Glad you loved them :)
My kids hate beans, how much ground beef would you recommend still the 1 1/2 cups?
Hi! The refried beans hold the flautas together, so they can’t be omitted in this version. You could add in 1/2 cup of ground beef for flavor if you wanted.
Thank you!
This was a GREAT recipe, and very easy. Left a tray of them out to cool for later freezing but my son and I gobbled them all up! Making a second batch today. :)
they were AMAZING!! and so easy to make. my family loved them. defiantly would make it again!;)
Thank you. My kids like them plain. I made the filling with chicken thighs and followed the rest of your instructions. I put them in the chopper with grilled onions and garlic. Kids never knew that was in there:). I love the refried bean idea. I will try that next time. I ran out of corn tortillas😄 Thank you again!
You’re welcome :)
Flour tortillas ? o.k. decided to try all kinds of way you suggested. Used corn/ flour kind that did not crack, with refried beans/plain, tried brown/ black beans refried, or plain out of can well rinsed. tried with beef/shredded chicken/lightly seasoned potato.+small amount of Mex. Chorizo, used my own homemade 1 cup salsa roja and 1 cup salsa verde. Did love your version of homemade beans. Added more cumin. WHAT A BIG HIT THESE TACOS/FLAUTAS, yeah I made all the different types to see which ones were a hit, THEY ALL WERE, now these are what is requested I bring, seems like a lot of work, but not really. It helped that they were all baked. thanks so much for sharing.
★★★★★