Heat the meat. Warm the birria meat briefly in a small skillet, until the juices have mostly evaporated and the meat is heated through.

Fill the tortillas. Place a small amount of the birria meat in the center of each flour tortilla and spread down the middle. Use about 2-3 tablespoons of meat, according to your preferences and the size of your tortillas. Top with a sprinkle of cheese, about 2 tablespoons, according to your preferences. Don’t add so much filling that you can’t roll the tortillas up. 

Shape the flautas. Roll up each tortilla, folding over each side so that the filling is in the center. Set aside, seam side down.

Coat with a touch of oil. Spray each filled tortilla with olive oil (I use a Misto), or use your fingers to rub a small amount of oil on the outsides of each rolled tortilla.

Cook. Heat about 1 tbs olive oil in a large, clean pan over medium high heat. Add the filled tortillas to the heated pan seam side down. There should only be one layer of filled tortillas in the pan at a time so you may need to cook these in batches depending on the size of your pan. Cook the flautas 1-2 minutes per side, turning with a spatula when each side is golden brown and crispy. Don’t leave these unattended because they cook quickly! Add additional oil if needed between batches.

Keep the flautas warm. If you are cooking in batches, you can keep flautas warm in an oven preheated to 150F until all the flautas are done cooking.

Dig in. Serve with pico de gallo salsa, guacamole, pickled red onions and lime wedges.