Chicken, cheese, and all the flavor you need wrapped into a neat little pouch!
I have heard Mexican food gripes in my days but easily my most despised is something along the lines of “all Mexican food is just the same ingredients in a different order”. I’ve always felt sour when people generalized Mexican food into “tortillas, meat, and cheese stacked different ways”, though I was also raised in a more insensitive time in a generally uncultured town. Though this gross oversimplification is often made in jest, I simply can’t get over the audacity of the statement – as if other nationalities don’t utilize similar combinations of like ingredients?
Japanese food often combines rice and fish, whether it be in onigiri or sushi, and Italian foods combine pasta with tomatoes and cheese in a plethora of ways, yet they don’t see the same disrespect. Every culture has certain readily available staples of their cuisine that become essential to a majority of that culture’s dishes. Maybe it’s my problem and my problem alone, but I think we don’t give Mexican food the proper attention for its interesting and unique variety, and I’m tired of pretending it’s anything but simple.
Take the chimichanga, for instance, a deep-fried burrito invented (by accident!) as recently as the 1950s. It proves that Mexican cuisine’s flavor and textural diversity are still growing! Everything you love about a burrito, whether compactly wrapped or filled-to-bursting, lovingly kissed with oil and cooked until crisp instead of soft! Savor the delicious flavors of spiced chicken, gooey cheese, and sharp salsa in a crunchy tortilla. This baked recipe is far healthier than the original chimichanga (that’s right! No deep fryer or oil is needed for this one!) and still so scrumptious!
Tacos, Nachos, Burritos, Taquitos – More Than Just Tortillas, Meat and Cheese
Traditional Mexican food has been hastily Americanized and made palatable and understandable for the masses, meaning many people have lost track of the roots of their favorite Mexican dishes! You might have ordered chimichangas in the past, thinking them to be an authentic Mexican classic (and, being Tex-Mex, you’d be half right!), until that detail from earlier about them being supposedly made accidentally in an Arizona restaurant circa 1950. So, we’re going to take a look at some other Mexican food classics and understand what differentiates them most from the rest and why modern versions (or, at least, the ones you’re most familiar with) aren’t quite authentic.
Tacos – The origin of the word “taco” has been disputed throughout Mexico as it’s often used to mean everything from “wedge” to “short person.” But we’re going to focus on the Nahuatl word “tlahco,” meaning something like “in the middle.” This is fitting, as the fillings of a taco are always placed right in the middle of the tortilla (which is often laid flat rather than curved or wrapped around like other Mexican dishes).
Nachos – A more recent invention, nachos were created in a moment of urgent culinary need as Ignacio (“Nacho” for short) Anaya hastily combined freshly fried tortilla pieces with cheese and jalapeños. He served it to customers at a restaurant just across the border from Eagle Pass, Texas. This 1943 invention has since been modified many times, adding ground beef, sour cream, and green onions to make the nacho supreme we’re more generally aware of today.
Burritos – So named after another beast of burden, burritos have been stuffed to the brim for centuries! With a tortilla wrapped so tightly around overfilled ingredients, it only made sense to call them “burritos” (roughly “little donkeys”). Burritos, through time, have taken a variety of forms and fillings, from looking and serving more similarly to traditional tacos to our more modern interpretation of beef, cheese, and refried beans tightly wound into a brimming tortilla.
Taquitos – The taquitos you are probably most familiar with are, in actuality, a form of “flautas,” named after the same root word where we get “flute” from – which makes sense if you’ve ever seen the shape of the modern taquito! The soft tacos and rolled tacos you might get at your favorite Mexican restaurant are more closely related to genuine taquitos (and it makes sense, given that “taquito” is kind of like saying “little taco”!)
How to Make Ahead and Store?
Chimichangas are best when you eat them fresh out of the oven or fryer, so you need to bake or air fry your leftover chimichanga if you want the best results! Keep any uneaten chimichangas wrapped in foil to preserve their shape and fillings, and keep them in the fridge. When you’re ready to eat, pop your chimichanga into the oven and heat until thoroughly warm, or air fry your chimichanga until hot all the way through!
Serving Suggestions
Embrace the tastes of Mexico with some of chimichanga’s flavorful friends like sweet, creamy, and salty esquites (Mexican street corn) and a side of delicious queso! Try making your chimichangas with delicious pulled chicken and make chicken quesadillas, tacos, or enchiladas!
Chimichangas
Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked chicken chopped or shredded
- 1 cup salsa
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano crushed
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 2 green onions chopped
- 6 8-inch flour tortillas
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 400°F.
- In a bowl, combine the chicken, salsa, cumin, oregano, cheddar cheese, and green onions. Stir until the mixture is well blended.
- Lay out the flour tortillas and distribute the chicken mixture evenly among them, placing about 1/3 cup of the mixture onto the center of each tortilla.
- Fold the sides of each tortilla toward the center over the filling, then roll them up from the bottom to encase the filling completely. Place the chimichangas seam-side down on a baking sheet.
- Brush the tops of the chimichangas with melted butter, which will help them turn a beautiful golden color as they bake.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes, or until the chimichangas are golden brown and crispy on the outside.
- Serve the baked chimichangas hot, garnished with additional toppings such as diced tomato, sour cream, guacamole, extra salsa, and more shredded cheddar cheese if desired.
Leave a Comment