Sunny Anderson’s Shortcut Chicken Flautas With Avocado Cream

Food Network personality Sunny Anderson’s Mexican-themed recipe of chicken flautas is a gorgeously perfect dish for summertime entertaining.

And with a couple of store-bought shortcuts, it’s a cinch to make.

Anderson’s Mexican dish doesn’t need any fancy ingredients

The co-host of The Kitchen’s flautas call for butter, diced red onion, diced jalapeno, minced fresh garlic, ground cumin, cayenne pepper, chopped cilantro leaves, shredded cheddar/Monterey Jack blend, the juice of one lime, flour tortillas, and shredded iceberg lettuce for serving.

Her quick timesavers for home cooks on this dish include a “finely shredded” rotisserie chicken and jarred salsa.

As for the dish’s luscious avocado cream, you’ll need “very ripe” avocado flesh, sour cream, lime juice, and salt.

Get the complete recipe, video, and reviews on Food Network’s site.

The chef’s meal comes together quickly and easily

Anderson starts in the Food Network video, above, for this recipe, by sauteeing the onions and jalapenos, stirring in the cayenne pepper and cumin. “I love the way the cumin just blooms in this,” she says.

She grates a clove of garlic directly into the pan and then stirs in the salsa: “Buy it at the store or if you got it left over, pour it right in.”

Next, Anderson adds in the shredded rotisserie chicken, encouraging those home cooks who haven’t yet taken advantage of the storebought ingredient, “You’ve got to give the rotisserie chicken a go, it is a great buy. Because usually, it costs just about the same to buy it raw, so you might as well buy it and take out one of the cooking processes when you’re doing your dinner.”

The cheese blend and lime juice are stirred in with the warming chicken and vegetable mixture and this filling is ready to become flautas.

While “a couple of inches” of vegetable oil heats up in a large frying pan, the Cooking for Real host starts assembling the flautas, spooning a tablespoon or two of filling into six-inch tortillas.

“What you want to do is just roll everything up and secure it with a toothpick,” the chef explains. The rolled-up bundles are lowered into the frying oil: “Everything is cooked so all we’re really going for is that golden, crunchy, brown color for your flour tortilla.”

She starts on the verdant sauce (“it’s kind of like guacamole without all the work”), mixing together the creamy ingredients in a bowl and serving it up with the crunchy flautas.

Reviewers gobbled up Anderson’s irresistible Chicken Flautas and couldn’t get enough of its silky sauce

Confirming how simple and quick Sunny Anderson’s recipe is, reviewers on Food Network’s site added that it’s also absolutely delicious, especially the accompanying sauce.

“The avocado cream is to die for; I make it sometimes and just eat it with tortilla chips. Using the rotisserie chicken is such a great shortcut. They make great leftovers too. Give these a try, you won’t be sorry!,” one home cook said.

Another person added, “I decided to prepare these for a Mexican food dinner party after seeing how easy they seemed. They were as easy as Sunny made them look. …The avocado sour cream dip was very tasty and a great compliment [sic] to the flautas. …”

Lastly, a reviewer wrote, “Thanks Sunny for a wonderful and easy recipe. It was full of flavor and the avocado cream was a nice finish to the dish! Will be making this one again….”