April 4, 2024
Introduction: In this article – to help celebrate National Burrito Day today – Gena Philibert-Ortega gives plenty of delicious recipes for you to try. Gena is a genealogist and author of the book “From the Family Kitchen.”
National Burrito Day is the first Thursday in April – which is today – and it’s a good excuse to enjoy the flour tortilla-wrapped dish for dinner tonight. If you haven’t had a burrito before, think of it as a Mexican sandwich but instead of bread it’s wrapped in a flour tortilla and the fillings can be pretty much anything. Burritos originate from Mexico. The name “burrito” means little donkey in Spanish.
What Is a Burrito?
Like I mentioned above, a burrito is a flour tortilla filled with savory ingredients such as meats, vegetables, beans, rice and cheese. It’s served hot and can include sauces inside or on top, such as guacamole, sour cream, pico de gallo, and red or green chile sauce. Topped with a red sauce it is referred to as “wet.” Fried burritos are called chimichangas. Burritos can feature only one ingredient, such as chile verde (pieces of pork simmered in a green sauce), or numerous ingredients such as “garbage” burritos that include a little bit of everything. Burritos can feature meat or be made for vegetarians or vegans.
Recipes for Burritos
The word “burrito” doesn’t make an appearance in English-language U.S. newspapers until about 1940. Surprisingly it’s often used on printed menus, as the name of Mexican restaurants, or frozen offerings at grocery stores – but not recipes until later.
In this 1968 Texas newspaper column, the author describes a burrito as a “Mexican sandwich” and provides a recipe for a beef filling: picadillo. (Picadillo is a filling that is made from ground beef and tomatoes or tomato sauce and can be used in burritos and tacos or served alone with rice). The recipe comes from a local Mexican restaurant and the article ends with a statement that you can also use beans and cheese for a burrito, or use the flour tortillas for a Mexican hot dog.
In my family, we gather all of the ingredients, cook the fillings, and then heat the tortillas over a stove burner to warm them up (or cook them if they haven’t already been cooked). Some people may choose to use the oven for their burritos, as this 1974 newspaper article does. Today, it’s commonplace to find fresh tortillas in the bread aisle of your local grocery store, but that wasn’t always the case. In the past they came frozen or even in cans.
Burritos are great for lunch or dinner – but they are also a breakfast food.
You could go through your local drive-thru that serves Mexican food for this breakfast treat, but you could also make it at home. Many breakfast foods (eggs, cheese, bacon, sausage, veggies, hash browns) can be used for a homemade breakfast burrito. This 2009 newspaper recipe calls for chorizo (a Mexican sausage), but you can substitute any meat you prefer (or leave the meat out altogether).
If you have the perfect burrito recipe and want to try your hand at deep drying it to transform it into a chimichanga, you could use this 1969 newspaper recipe submitted by a reader of the Riverside Daily Press. Any kind of burrito filling can be used; what makes it a chimichanga is the frying of the folded burrito. Once fried you can serve it with guacamole and/or sour cream.
If you’re looking for something to top your burrito, recipes for Chili Con Carne and Chipotle Sauce from Molina’s Cantina in Houston, Texas, might help. Also, note the recipe for Mexican Rice that would be a perfect filling.
Burritos Reconstructed
Over time foods tend to be adapted to various palettes and tastes. In the United States, flour tortillas are now also used for sandwich wraps and appetizers. This 2001 newspaper article explains how to wrap a sandwich and gives some recipes, including those for burritos (Sizzling Steak Fajitas) and sandwiches (Turkey Cashew Salad Wrap).
What’s for Dinner?
My family doesn’t need an excuse to have burritos for dinner. Whether we make them or buy them at a local restaurant, they are a frequent answer to “what’s for dinner?” With the help of historical newspapers, you can find recipe options that work for your family.
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Note on the header image: a burrito. Credit: samuelfernandezrivera; Wikimedia Commons.
