Thursday, February 18, 2010

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 .

      17 comments:

      Sushma Mallya said...

      That looks really good and a meal in itself...very nice recipe for home made burritos...

      Ushnish Ghosh said...

      Dear Spice
      Thats called a real treat..There is no immediate chance that I will be able to try it in real life,,let me eat virtually.
      Have a nice weekend

      FH said...

      Makes a great nutritious lunch, looks good.

      Vrinda said...

      New to me .recipe sounds excellent....

      Reshmi said...

      hey spice....its a new dish to me...looks rich...burritos name sounds intersting as well...

      Preety said...

      burrito looks perfect and nothing can beat the taste of homemade ones

      Ash said...

      Great treat & a sure filling..... I would love it anytime as I simply love chicken anytime.....

      Ash....
      (http://asha-oceanichope.blogspot.com/)

      Siddhi Shirsat said...

      wow spice this burittos r making me hungry right now...love thm wid chicken, yummm...perfect for dinner...nice pics

      Hayley said...

      Hey
      Burittos looks tasty and yum...our family faviourte...we make vege one..nice pics

      Spice said...

      Thanks everyone for stopping by and a nice weekend to all of you.....

      Cicily Antony said...

      Made from scratch...wow!!!looking yummy...

      Dori said...

      Great blog! I am with you on the packaged tortilla thing, I simply hate them and will make roti's whenever I need tortillas. This is a great recipe and sounds perfect :)

      Geetika said...

      nice :) You've been added to my reader :)

      Sook said...

      Chicken burritos sound so appetizing! Yum! Thanks for dropping by my blog. I love your blog, too! Nice. :)

      s said...

      thanks for the detailed recipe..a def must try...

      Malar Gandhi said...

      Dear spice,

      I was out of town, for few weeks, looks like I missed so much of ur recipes now:(

      Chicken burritto' looks too good, no questions asked...just will be content with this kind of dish:)

      tasteofbeirut said...

      One of these days I will make the flour tortillas from scratch~ probably after I leave Texas, they are just too available here, fresh too!
      Great recipe, thanks!