Mexican Food Chronicles - Tasty and Crispy Taquitos

 

Taquitos or ‘small taco’ are a popular Mexican snack and appetizer. They are made from small rolled-up corn tortillas filled with meat, cheese, or beans or some combination. The filled tortilla is then crisp-fried or deep-fried to cook. While many regard the taquito as a Mexican dish, it is believed to have been invented in the United States.

The modern definition of a taquito as a rolled-tortilla dish was given in 1929 as a youth book of stories; taquito was noted as a popular offering for railroad station vendors. Two Southern California restaurants are both commonly cited for their roles in developing the taquito. A restaurant called Cielito Lindo located on Los Angeles’ famous Olvera Street also credits Aurora Guerrero, it’s founder, with the taquito recipe. The daughter of Cielito Lindo’s founder, used a taquito recipe in opening a chain of restaurants in the Los Angeles area. Other restaurants in the region began selling similar dishes and it quickly expanded throughout the region. Another restaurant in San Diego, El Indio Mexican Restaurant, sold taquitos during World War II, when workers at the Consolidated Aircraft Company asked tortilla factory owner Ralph Pesqueria, Sr., for a portable lunch item. He claimed credit for the word "taquito" for the dish. These portable taquitos were some of the first Mexican Food items developed as a frozen food. 

Now there might not be a wrong way to make a taquito, but there’s a few general rules most taquitos follow. Some people use the name taquitos and flautas interchangeably, but traditionally taquitos are made of corn tortillas while flautas are made of flour tortillas. Flautas are usually long and thin, like their namesake, using a very big burrito-sized tortilla. Whereas a taquito, most often consisting of a small rolled-up tortilla. As they’ve become a popular frozen food in the United States, the government regulations state that taquitos must contain at least 15% meat. Beef, Chicken, or Pork are the most common meat ingredients and many also will have a combination of cheese or beans as well.

At Mazatlan Mexican Restaurant here in Everett, WA our menu features Chicken Taquitos, which are crisp flour tortillas filled with our fresh tasty chicken. Garnished with tomatoes, onions, sour cream, parmesan cheese, sauce and guacamole. If you have been paying attention you’ll notice that we’ve opted to use flour over corn tortillas. We offer corn tortillas elsewhere on our menu, and typically give the option of either flour or corn, we find most of our customers prefer flour and we choose to make ours this way!