Taquitos

For this I used some of my frozen deer meat but feel free to use this method for any type of meat. If the meat is already cooked, skip the first step. You can prepare the meat a day or 2 in advance. You can also roll the taquitos ahead of time and keep them in the fridge but the longer they sit the more mushy they will become.

When rolling tortillas around meat they need to be really hot! you have to act quickly or tortillas will crack while trying to roll them. I started by heating 2 tortillas at a time and rolling them quickly. The faster you get with the technique, you can heat up more tortillas at a time.

Ingredients:
Deer Meat ( 1 pound meat makes about 15-20 taquitos)
2-3 tomatoes chopped or 14 oz can diced tomatoes
1/2 onion sliced
chicken or beef stock (to cover beef)
corn tortillas
toothpicks
vegetable or canola oil
things for sides like avocado, chips etc

Directions:
1. to prepare meat: cut into small chunks and season with a pinch each of salt, pepper, oregano, and red pepper flakes. (if you have these spices already, s and p only is fine)
-Put a few teaspoons of olive oil in a pan and brown meat over medium heat. Once all sides of meat have a nice brown, caramelized color, add 1/2 onion thinly sliced. Cook for about 5 more minutes or until onions are soft and slightly translucent.
-Add 2 chopped tomatoes and enough stock to cover meat. Simmer over low heat for about 2 hours or until really tender. You may need to add more liquid to the meat during cooking so it stays covered.
-Allow meat to cool in sauce. Remove meat from pan and shred with a fork. Add a little of the cooking liquid to keep meat moist.

2. Heat 2 tortillas in a clean dish towel in the microwave for 30 seconds. Doing this as quickly as possible fill middle of tortilla with a cigar shaped amount of chicken. (it takes about 1-2 tablespoons of the meat) Once taquito is rolled seal using toothpicks. Try to get it across the open fold so the taquito won't unroll while frying.

3. Heat up either a large pot of oil to totally submerge the taquitos or a saucepan with about 1/4 inch of oil if your going to turn and fry. I used the turning method because it uses less oil!
-If cooking submerged heat oil to 350 and cook until taquitos are golden brown about 3 minutes. Remove toothpicks after cooking.
-If turning and frying cook each side of taquito for about 1 minute. After frying 2 sides take out toothpicks and make sure to brown all around taquito.

4. Serve with guacamole, beans, cheese, chips, anything that sounds good honestly. For a fun party snack do this same method but cut the taquitos in half or thirds for bite size pieces.