Home made Chicken Burrito

 

This is one of the very easy recipe yet tasty & loved by everyone in our house. It's totally homemade as we don't like the taste of packed tortillas available at grocery stores, but one can surely use ready made tortillas for this as per their taste & convenience. Also I'm not using any packet seasoning for it  but instead making use of spices I already have in my kitchen and in fact those spices are also the base of Mexican cooking, and I guess that's another reason why we love Mexican food.....it's not only hot but also flavorful. Here goes the recipe :

What U need :

    For Filling :

• around 1 cup of thinly sliced boneless chicken
• 1 Tblsp. garlic sliced/chopped 
• 1/2 cup sliced onion
• 1/2 cup sliced red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced green bell pepper
• salt ar per taste
• 1&1/2 tsp. black pepper
• red chilli pepper as per taste
• 2-3 hot green chillies(optional)
• 1 tsp. papprika
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 2 tsp. cumin(jeera) powder( I use little extra as we love it's flavor)
• little oil

    For Tortillas : 

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour(I used maida)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour(I use atta)
• 1/4 cup semolina(suji)
• salt as per taste
• 1 Tblsp. of cooking oil/clarified butter(ghee)
• enough water to knead the dough

    For Burritos:

• salad of your choice like shredded carrots, lettuce, diced onions,tomatoes, celery
• sour cream or thick plain yogurt
• hot sauce

What to do :

    Step 1 : Making the dough : Mix everything except water in a big wide bowl. Slowly add little water at a time & knead it to soft dough. Cover & let it rest at the room temperature & prepare the filling in the mean time.

    Step 2 : Cooking the filling : 

1. In a bowl toss chicken strips with little oil(1 tsp. ) 1/2 tsp. of each salt & black pepper.
2. Heat little oil in a heavy bottom pan. Cook chicken in it.(see NOTES)
3. Once the chicken is done take it out & in the same pan add another spoon or so of oil & add garlic.
4. After few seconds add onions, green bell pepper & red bell pepper. Saute them for couple of minutes. Do not overcook them.
5. Add all spices & green chillies if using also add cooked chicken to it & mix everything. If it looks too dry add little water or chicken stock. Cover & let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Turn the gas off.

    Step 3 : Cooking Tortillas

1. Take a little dough & roll it into your hand & make a smooth ball of it.
2. Using rolling pin roll it into around 10" disc.
3. Cook it on both sides on a hot griddle. For detail procedure you can check this post about making Indian flat bread called roti, as the procedure is very much same.
4. Repeat for rest of the dough.

    Step 4 : Getting Burritos ready

1. Lay one cooked tortilla on plate. Spread around 2 Tblsp. of filling in the center. Top it with salad of your choice.
2. Spread some sour cream or thick plain yogurt. 
3. Finally some hot sauce.
4. Now roll it : pull up and tuck the bottom, wrap the right side in and then the left, tightly. Click here for detail step by step pictures on how to roll a burrito.

    Step 5 :Enjoy your burritos while they are still warm.
Notes :

1. Add chicken to the pan in a single layer. Once the chicken touch the surface of the pan DO NOT TOUCH IT for couple of minutes or so. Stay there, watch it & you'll know when to turn it. Because once the bottom side is cooked, it'll turn to little brown(no more pink) and when you try to turn it, it won't stick to the pan means it's ready to be turned. If it sticks then wait. Why am I emphasizing on this so much because for long time I myself was not sure that this will work I always feared that chicken gonna stick to the pan so I always used my non stick pan for this purpose but then again we are not big fan of non-stick pots & pans here. So then I decided to use my cast iron pan for this purpose as it's quite heavy & since that time non-stick pan is in my kitchen but we don't use it anymore.
2. Make sure filling is not watery otherwise end result will be soggy.
3. Don't fill it too much, or it will be little too difficult to roll.
4. Paprika, oregano & cumin are the  main flavors of this dish, do not compromise on those.

Variations : 

1. There is no fixed way to fill your burrito, go as per your taste. I haven't used any red beans which are commonly used but instead I had some boiled chickpeas in the fridge so I added those to the filling too.
2. Mushrooms are good substitute for chicken to make it vegetarian.
3. Rice can also be added while filling the burritos .