Burrito
Ingredients 25 Steps 18
A burrito is a flour tortilla filled with some filling. Generally, the filling includes meat such as pork, beef, or chicken, but also often includes beans and/or rice. Vegetarian burritos are also common.
Ingredients
Base
- Large flour tortilla
- Beans (optional)
- Rice (optional)
Possible fillings
- Pork
- Ground or shredded beef
- Ground or shredded chicken
- Flaked fish
- Shrimp
- Chorizo
- Refried beans
- Seasoning (e.g. cumin, salt, oregano, black pepper, chilis, etc.)
- Picadillo
- Tomatoes
- Black olives
- Lettuce
- Cilantro
- Avocado
- Onion, raw or sautéed
- Garlic, raw or sautéed
- Mushrooms
- Chiles
- Shredded cheese
- Sour cream
- Salsa
- Guacamole
Steps
Beans
- If using dried beans, wash and check for rocks. Soak overnight in plenty of water. Discard soak water.
- Cook beans until soft. Stove-top: simmer in lots of water on very low heat, at least 3 hours, up to 6 or more. Salt, black pepper, onion halves or ham bone (remove at end) may be added. Change water from time to time. Pressure cooker: put beans and flavoring (typically salt) in enough water to cover fully. Bring to pressure. Hold 20 minutes. Turn off heat. Release pressure naturally (about 15 minutes).
- If desired, smash beans, e.g. with potato masher.
- Season with spices as desired.
Meat
- Use large wide pot or tall-sided frying pan.
- Add uncooked meats. Fry, stirring, until browned all over. Break up ground meat as it cooks. Drain excess grease.
- Add spices and other flavorings as needed.
Rice
- If using rice, rinse until water runs clear.
- Add 2 cups water per 1 cup rice. Bring to boil. Reduce to lowest heat. Simmer 15–20 minutes.
- Set aside with lid secured at least 5 minutes before use.
- Heat tortillas to soften. Use a small amount of oil if pan is not non-stick. In oven, cover with aluminium foil.
- Lay tortilla flat on counter top.
- Place fillings on tortilla in any order, leaving border of at least a couple inches all around.
- Fold bottom flap up. A small flap lets fillings escape.
- Bring side up and over filling. Tuck tortilla edge under filling.
- Make small diagonal fold with remaining side. This locks the bottom flap in place against filling weight.
- Bring remaining flap over filling.
- Eat. Fillings may be very hot.
Notes from the original
- 12-inch tortillas are suggested. If you can find bigger tortillas, use them!
- When using beans alone, you might want to add up to 20% home-rendered lard (lard substitutions are obvious, but will lack flavor).
- Common ingredients in Mexican burritos include fried pork (carnitas), marinated grilled steak (carne asada), marinated grilled chicken (pollo asado), stewed pork (al pastor), pork in green chile sauce (chile verde), fried fish, beef tongue (lengua), beef brains (cabeza), goat meat (birria), tripe (tripas), and chicharrones (fried pork rinds, stewed).
- The Mission burrito generally combines whole beans (sometimes refried beans), Mexican rice, traditional Mexican meats (sometimes ground beef), with optional grated cheese, sour cream, guacamole, sliced jalapenos, salsa fresca/salsa cruda, and sometimes shredded lettuce.
- A smothered ("wet") burrito is generally a Mission burrito with enchilada sauce, either "red" or "green", poured over it, with grated cheese topping it. it is meant to be eaten with a knife and fork, not held in the hand as other burritos can be.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Burrito” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2026-07-03, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Papa chevos burrito.jpg by Ernesto Andrade from San Francisco, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.