I was recently asked for my recipe for grilled stuffed burritos. If you’ve read our Recipe Disclaimer, then you know that I don’t really have recipes for my food, I tend to just collect techniques and flavor combinations that I like and apply them as the situation calls for, adjusting for available ingredients and my whims of the moment. So I’ll share with you my general “burrito principals” and do my best to convey something that’s repeatable.
Before we begin, please keep the following things in mind:
- I tend to cut as few corners as possible, which makes my food tend to NOT be a quick meal to prepare.
- I’m describing my personal style of burrito, and I don’t at all claim that these are authentic Mexican dishes, or that this is the only way burritos can be done.
- For each principal I’ll start with my best-case scenario and then describe some ideas for alternatives if you want to do something simpler.
Burrito Principal #1: Dry meat = Dry Burrito
In my view the meat is the flavor foundation of a good burrito. It’s the core in a literal sense as well because of the way I wrap them. This means that it HAS to be a meat with a LOT of flavor, and it needs to be juicy. Because of this, I never use ground beef in a burrito. If that’s my only option, I’d rather not have meat in it. Note that this doesn’t apply to tacos, that’s a different matter entirely. Grilled chicken works well, as does grilled steak, however I’ve lately fallen in love with pork shoulder. Here’s how I like to fix it:
Get a pork shoulder roast that is around 1 to 2 inches thick and large enough for however many burritos you want to make. Preferably one that has never been frozen. Defrost it if it’s frozen (hopefully it isn’t!), and then sear it in a pan. Remember that the searing step is NOT about “locking in juices” it’s about flavor. Color == flavor, so sear on HIGH heat with an oil with a high smoke point like canola or peanut, and don’t stop until there is nice caramel color on all sides. Get a stock pot and add half a gallon of chicken stock, and half a gallon of apple juice and bring to boil. Make sure to use good quality apple juice. Think locally grown stuff that is cloudy, not thin like water.
While the liquid heats you can go ahead and add the seasonings. Add a quarter of a cup of whole pepper corns (trust me on this one, believe it or not it does not make the meat spicy), 6 allspice berries, two or three bay leaves, a tablespoon of lime juice, a large quartered onion (don’t substitute powder), four whole peeled crushed garlic cloves (don’t substitute powder), a quarter cup of packed brown sugar, a tablespoon of honey, and if you like a kick then add a bit of cayenne or red pepper flake.
Once the liquid is at a rolling boil put the roast in the pot and let it cook until it’s falling apart. I honestly don’t know how long this takes, but I’d check it every half hour. When the connective tissue really gives up and it’s falling apart, take the roast out, let it rest for 15 minutes (vital step!), then get a couple of forks and pull off any excess fat and then shred it all up. Taste it at this point. The meat may need to be salted depending on what chicken stock you used. If it needs salt then just sprinkle some over the top of the shredded meat and stir it in.
Lastly, to prevent the shredded meat from drying out, strain the solids out of the liquid from the boil, put the shredded meat in a container, and pour a good amount of the liquid into the meat. Keep it warm somewhere until ready to assemble your burritos.
If you don’t want to boil the meat, you can use the same recipe and cook it in a crock pot instead. You can also substitute chicken or steak in the boil for the pork, but they don’t shred as well so you might want to thin slice instead. If you don’t want to go through all that complication you can use whatever you like but make sure your substitute has FLAVOR! For example, get some Mexican chorizo and fry it up. Full of flavor, and still fast and easy!
Burrito Principal #2: The beans need texture
Beans are not just filler! It’s common to just open a can of re-fried beans and slap some on your tortilla, but you’ll have none of that on a Big-O burrito. I like the insides of my burritos to be a series of contrasting textures, but not to the point of having something be complete mush. To achieve this I like to start from dried beans, either pinto or black.
How much you should use varies entirely on the amount of burritos you need to make, but I like to have extra if you’re going to do the work of making dried beans anyway. Soak your beans overnight, but not longer than 12 hours. Most people use water, but that’s a missed opportunity to infuse more flavor! I often use apple juice for the soak, but if the meat was prepared with apple juice then sometimes I’ll go for a contrast and use vegetable stock. The beans will roughly double in size, so make sure that there’s enough liquid in there to account for that. You want them to stay submerged.
When they’re good and soaked, boil them. Lots of people say that you need to replace the liquid after the soak to avoid gas from the beans. Personally, I don’t really believe that, but even if it’s true I don’t feel the loss of flavor from that is worth it, so I just boil it in the liquid from the soak. To the liquid along with the beans add a couple of bay leaves, a quartered large onion, some cumin, some paprika, some salt and some pepper. Optionally you can add a sprig of a fresh herb, I suggest either Tarragon or Rosemary. These will probably boil for a few hours, until they are soft enough to eat and easy to squish, but still firm enough to maintain their shape when stirred around.
I realize that “some cumin” isn’t exactly a unit of measurement, but the quantity will vary depending on how many beans you’re making. I trust your judgment 
Once the beans are cooked, remove the bay leaves and the herb stem, dig out any remaining large onion chunks and either discard them or cut them up so they will mix in. The beans can be used just like this, or if you want to get a more re-fried-like experience, then mash up a portion of them with a bit of milk, and mix the remaining solid ones into it.
If you don’t want to work from dry beans and you absolutely MUST use beans from a can, I suggest using cans of whole beans and following my advice from above to mash a portion of them with some milk and mix the rest into it, then adding similar spices as I mentioned above.
Burrito Principal #3: Rice needs flavor
Tragically, rice is often the most neglected portion of Mexican dishes when Americans try to cook them. All too often it’s either just plain white rice with very little flavor, or it’s so-called “Spanish Rice” which basically means filled with tomato sauce. Rice is a basic and simple grain, and I like to keep it that way, but it’s a great system for flavor delivery if you don’t miss the opportunity.
I prefer Jasmine rice. Cook it to package directions, but instead of water use chicken stock and a tablespoon of butter. After it’s cooked and fluffed with a fork, add some fresh chopped cilantro, and drizzle in some lime juice, then mix it up thoroughly but without turning it into paste. Done.
Burrito Principal #4: Assembly Required
At this point, with the addition of some shredded cheese, we have our insides ready to go so it’s time to assemble and fry! Yes, that’s right, I didn’t say anything about salsa or sour cream. Don’t worry, that comes later.
Before we start, I want to mention that the cheese is another great way to add flavor. A bag of shredded mozzarella will work fine, but if you’re feeling saucy, you can add a lot to the dish by finding some smoked mozzarella, or one of the various Mexican cheeses instead.
Now, please buy large burrito sized tortillas, it will make your life much easier. We are going to grill these on high heat and if your tortilla is too small the juices will leak out more and likely burn before the burrito is finished cooking. Preheat them just enough to loosen them up so they are easy to bend. You can just put each in a hot pan for a few seconds, or put the whole bunch, wrapped in foil, in a 200F oven for a few minutes. Remember not to actually cook them. That will harden them which will make it impossible to roll.
By far, the most common mistake when rolling a burrito is putting all the innards directly into the middle of the tortilla. You’ll find it very hard to get a good seal that way. As shown in the illustration below, put them off-center toward you. Next you fold the sides in along the dotted lines, then roll starting from the bottom up. If the edges start to flay outward as you roll, just tuck them in under the girth of the roll. If you are not getting a good closed burrito then you probably put too much filling in.
For assembly, lay out the tortilla then cover most of it with the shredded cheese. The cheese will end up filling all the cracks with goopy goodness so don’t be stingy. Next, sprinkle around some fresh chopped cilantro and drizzle some lime juice, then put down the rice, then the beans, then the meat. Add extra meat juice if it looks too dry, but don’t sog the tortilla.
Pretty much any hot pan will work for grilling burritos except Teflon (Teflon and high-heat don’t mix well, Google it) but I greatly prefer cast iron for this particular job, as the heat dispersion is a great asset when trying to get the right crispy texture. I use two cast iron skillets, one larger than the other, something like a 15″ and a 12″. Lightly oil the larger one with peanut or canola, and lightly oil the BOTTOM of the smaller one then crank up the heat on both of them.
Put your newly assembled burrito in the large pan with the seam down, then place the smaller pan on top of it. This will grill it from both sides at once. The smaller pan will always be less hot that the one on the bottom, so after a bit flip the burrito. How long this takes will depend on how hot the pans are, but shouldn’t take more than a minute or two on each side. You want to take it off when the top and bottom are a nice golden brown color.
If you don’t have cast iron to do this with, then any non-Teflon pan will work, just be careful not to burn it, and you’ll need to do a lot more flipping since you’ll be cooking only one side at a time.
Burrito Principal #5: Don’t fear the toppings
At this point you may be wondering where the salsa and sour cream are. My burrito philosophy is that you don’t want anything inside a grilled burrito that you don’t want cooked. Makes sense, right? Sour cream in particular loses it’s texture completely when heated, and it doesn’t do good things for most salsa either. Besides, if you keep them cold then the temperature provides a nice contrast to the hot burrito. Plate the burrito, cover with fresh salsa, dollop on some sour cream, and sprinkle on some fresh cilantro, and drizzle with lime juice. Yum.
After you have some fun with this kind of burrito, try making grilled fajitas, or a breakfast burrito with steak egg and potato, or even grilled enchiladas. The sky’s the limit!