Karla Zazueta’s turkey & potato taquitos

My mum made this recipe every time we had leftover chicken or turkey at home. It’s become one of my family’s favourite dishes – they love the taste of fried corn tortillas, and it’s such a great way to use up leftovers, especially because the recipe is so easy to make. The fried taquitos always make me think about Mexico.

MAKES 8 PREP 20 mins COOK 10 mins EASY

500g leftover roast potatoes,

roughly crushed with a fork 200-300g leftover roast turkey

or chicken, shredded

8 corn tortillas

350ml vegetable oil

For the pickled onions

1 small red onion, halved and

thinly sliced

1 lime, juiced

¼ tsp dried oregano

To serve

150g iceberg lettuce, chopped 100g soured cream

50g wensleydale, grated

or crumbled hot salsa (optional)

First, make the pickled onions. Tip the onions into a non-metallic bowl, sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt and set aside for 5 mins. Rinse off the excess salt, drain and return to the bowl along with the lime juice and oregano. Set aside to pickle until needed. Will keep chilled for a week.

Mix the crushed potatoes with the leftover turkey. If needed, roughly chop the mixture – it should be fine enough to hold itself together, but still retain some texture. Spoon some of the mixture over half of each tortilla, then fold to enclose the filling and press firmly.

When all the tortillas have been filled, heat the oil to 180C in a deep-sided frying pan, or until a cube of bread dropped in browns within 20 seconds. Put two taquitos in the pan at a time, and fry for about 1 min on each side. When ready, they will be golden and crunchy. Put the fried taquitos on a tray lined with kitchen paper.

Arrange the taquitos on a plate and serve with the lettuce, soured cream, cheese, pickled onions and salsa, if you like.

PER SERVING 389 kcals • fat 19g • saturates 3g • carbs 37g • sugars 2g • fibre 3g • protein 17g • salt 0.9g

Karla Zazueta teaches Mexican cookery classes in north London and runs the food blog mexicanfoodmemories.co.uk.

@mexicanfoodmemories