Dinner in 30: Chicken Flautas

From start to finish, chicken flautas is one of the easiest, and tastiest meals you can make. All you need is some boneless, skinless chicken, flour tortillas, oil, and your condiments! Of course, you may want a side or two: I like to make a quick version of Spanish Rice to go with these cylinders from heaven. First, the rice: All you need is some chicken stock (I used Trader Joe's for both the flautas and the rice), some tomato bouillion, dried minced onion, ancho chili powder, and the rice. Toast the rice quickly in a little butter, then add the bouillion, onion, chili powder and broth or stock. For 2 cups of rice, I use 2 cubes of bouillion, 2 tbsp onion, and 2 tsp of chili powder to 4 cups of broth. Bring it to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer, and cover tightly. Cook for 18 min, then remove from heat, still covered, until ready to serve.

For the Flautas:

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 1-2 tbsp Better than Bouillion, chicken flavor
• 1 yellow onion, quartered
• enough chicken broth to cover the breasts in the pan
• flour tortillas
• condiments: guacamole, sour cream, salsa, hot sauce as desired
• Optional: lettuce (shredded) and cheese (shredded)

Place the chicken breasts in a large skillet or fried chicken pan. Add the onion and the broth to cover, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to keep it at a simmer. Cover and let cook 8-10 min, until chicken is cooked through. Remove chicken from pan to a cutting board.
In the pan, add the Better than Bouillion, and let the stock reduce. Remove onions and discard. Keep stock until ready to use.
Shred the chicken using two forks. Return to pan with stock and simmer until chicken absorbs liquid, about 1-2 min. Meanwhile, warm flour tortillas to prevent tearing while rolling and heat about 1 inch of oil in a large frying pan. Roll about 3 tbsp of chicken mixture in each tortilla.

Fry each flauta about 1 min on each side, until deep golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve hot with sour cream and any other condiments you desire.

Enjoy!

Su Casa es Mi Casa

Last night, my husband's brother brought his kids over, and we all went to Casa Adams for a late dinner. If you haven't been, Casa Adams is on Adams avenue, just west of the 805 and right down the street from the Antique Row Cafe. This was our second visit, and I have to say, I really enjoy this little place! The service has been quite good each time, going so far as to adjust the air conditioning to make us more comfortable.

Casa Adams has a large menu, as is typical of many Mexican restaurants here in San Diego. What's nice about it is there isn't much on there that's over $9.00, which makes eating there a lot easier in these trying times.

Ok, from the top, you'll see the interior as seen from the door, chicken flautas, garlic shrimp, the steak ranchero plate, the shrimp and avocado salad, and the carne asada burrito. Me, I had the flautas. You can order them as they are on the menu, or you can request them to be all white meat, which is what I did. They were filled with succulent little cubes of chicken breast, seasoned and exhibiting some tasty citrus notes, and as you can see, topped with guacamole and sour cream. Fresh and hot and delicious! They were definitely worthy of being posted here!

The garlic shrimp actually came with the steak you see in the photo below the flautas. Swimming in a buttery, garlicky, yummy sauce, they were cooked perfectly...not a hint of rubbery-ness! The steak was cooked perfectly as well, medium rare as asked for. It wasn't strongly seasoned, but with the garlicky shrimp, that was a good thing.

My daughter ordered her stand-by, a carne asada burrito. Filled with tender, flavorful chunks of meat, surrounded by guacamole (she always refuses the pico de gallo), it was all wrapped up in a hot, grande!, tortilla and served with rice and beans. She thought it a good version, and she would know.

The dish that got the most oooohhs and aaaahhhs? Without a doubt, the shrimp and avocado salad! It was a site to behold, and the picture doesn't really do it justice. It was big and bold and generous, for sure. It came with an avocado cilantro dressing on the side, which my brother in law seemed to take great pleasure in dipping his shrimp in! With all this good food and good service, it turned out to be a very nice family meal indeed.