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A burrito is a popular Mexican and Mexican-American dish that consists of a large flour tortilla wrapped around a variety of fillings, forming a plump, handheld meal. The word “burrito” translates literally to “little donkey” in Spanish, a whimsical name whose exact origin is debated. Some suggest it might refer to the way burritos can carry a load of different ingredients much like a pack mule.
A typical burrito found in places like the United States is often hefty: picture a warm, soft tortilla enveloping savory ingredients such as seasoned meat, beans, rice, cheese, and salsa, all rolled into a tight cylindrical package. Burritos are beloved for their convenience as it’s an all-in-one meal you can eat on the go, their heartiness, and the way they combine flavors and textures: the chew of the tortilla, the spiced richness of the filling, the creaminess of melted cheese or guacamole, the kick of hot sauce or pico de gallo.
From humble street food origins, burritos have become a menu staple in many parts of the world, especially in the U.S., where they’ve been adapted and enlarged in various regional styles.
Tracing burrito’s roots
The burrito’s exact historical path is a bit fuzzy, but its concept is rooted in Mexican cuisine’s long tradition of wrapping food in tortillas. For centuries, people in Mesoamerica have been eating tacos, which can simply be smaller corn tortillas folded around fillings. The burrito as we know it – using a wheat flour tortilla and rolled closed – likely developed in the northern part of Mexico, particularly the state of Chihuahua or surrounding regions, in the early 20th century.
One popular story speaks of a man named Juan Méndez from Ciudad Juárez who sold food during the Mexican Revolution in the 1910s and kept it warm by wrapping it in large flour tortillas, using a donkey (burro) as transport. People began to ask for the “food of the burrito (little donkey),” and the name stuck. Whether or not this tale is apocryphal, it ties the burrito to the U.S.-Mexico border area.
We do know that in the 19th century, northern Mexicans had a dish of rolled wheat tortillas with beans or meat, and by the 1930s “burritos” were being referenced in U.S. publications. Early burritos were much simpler than the stuffed giants we see today – often just one or two ingredients, like beans and maybe meat.
In much of Mexico outside the north, a burrito isn’t a common everyday food; when found, it might be called taco de harina (flour tortilla taco) and be relatively small, often just with one filling like mashed beans or scrambled eggs. The massive multi-ingredient burrito is more of a Mexican-American innovation.
In California, especially San Francisco’s Mission District, the “Mission-style” burrito was born in the 1960s. It is characterized by an oversized tortilla jam-packed with not just meat and beans, but rice, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and so on, often wrapped in foil. This style propelled burritos into a new league of popularity.
Mission burritos became the blueprint for chains like Chipotle in the 1990s and 2000s that spread the gospel of big burritos across the country. Meanwhile, other regional burrito styles emerged: San Diego has its burrito filled with french fries (the California burrito), New Mexico smothers burritos in red or green chili sauce (eaten with a fork and knife), and Texas has breakfast burritos stuffed with eggs and bacon (sometimes called breakfast tacos).
So, the burrito has evolved and expanded, quite literally, from its modest origins. Yet, in places like Northern Mexico, you can still find the more traditional, smaller burritos being sold by vendors, often with guisados (stews) like chile colorado or mole as the filling – a delicious reminder that a burrito doesn’t have to be as big as a newborn to be authentic.
What makes up a burrito?
A burrito’s essential component is the flour tortilla. Typically, it’s a large, soft tortilla made from wheat flour, lard or oil, water, and salt. It needs to be pliable enough to wrap without tearing, yet sturdy enough to hold fillings. These tortillas are usually lightly warmed or steamed to make them flexible for wrapping.
Fillings can truly run the gamut. Common core fillings include:
- Beans – often refried pinto beans or whole black beans.
- Meat – such as shredded beef barbacoa, grilled chicken, carnitas pork, ground beef seasoned for a burrito, or steak asada.
- Cheese – like a mild cheddar or Monterey Jack in U.S. burritos, or a fresh cheese in Mexico.
To these basics, one might add Mexican rice cooked with tomato and spices, lettuce, salsa (many types from pico de gallo to spicy chile de arbol), guacamole or slices of avocado, sour cream or Mexican crema, jalapeño or pickled chilies, and more.
The assembly is typically: lay the tortilla flat, spread each filling in a vertical stripe or small pile, then fold in the sides and roll up from one end to encase everything. The goal is a tight wrap so nothing falls out. Many burrito shops take pride in a rolling technique that produces a well-structured burrito that doesn’t leak or burst until you bite into it greedily.
Sometimes burritos are lightly grilled after assembly (called a “grilled burrito” or “panini-pressed burrito”), adding a nice crunch to the exterior. A variant known as the “wet burrito” or “smothered burrito” is popular in some areas – here, the burrito is covered in a red or green enchilada sauce and melted cheese, turning it into a knife-and-fork dish.
As for the name’s origin, it is Spanish for “little donkey.” One theory relates to carrying capacity; another suggests that the rolled pack looked like a bedroll or pack that donkeys carried. In any case, it’s a cute name that stuck.
Burritos differ from some other similar foods. For instance, a taco is usually a smaller, open tortilla with fewer fillings; an enchilada uses corn tortillas and is baked with sauce; a wrap (in non-Mexican contexts) might use various flatbreads and international flavors. The burrito’s identity lies in that soft flour tortilla and its rolled, closed-ended form.
How burritos evolved globally
While burritos are undeniably a product of Mexican and Mexican-American culinary ingenuity, they’ve been embraced far beyond. In the United States, they are as ubiquitous as pizza or burgers in many cities. Fast-casual chains offering custom burritos like Chipotle, Qdoba, and Moe’s have made it easy for people to consider a burrito a go-to lunch option.
In places like the UK and Australia, burrito shops have popped up, catering to the appetite for global street foods. There, you might see fusion twists such as an Indian-inspired burrito with curry, or a breakfast burrito with local preferences.
Speaking of breakfast, the breakfast burrito deserves mention. Likely originating in the Southwestern U.S. (New Mexico or Texas), this variant swaps out the lunch/dinner fillings for morning fare – typically scrambled eggs, potatoes or hash browns, maybe bacon or sausage, plus cheese and salsa. It’s a hearty way to start the day and has spread across the U.S. (even McDonald’s has a form of it on their menu).
Another interesting adaptation is the “sushi burrito,” which popped up in the 2010s in urban food scenes. It is basically an oversized sushi roll not cut into pieces, eaten like a burrito – a fun East-meets-West hybrid playing on the burrito’s shape.
In some cases, the concept of a burrito has been so stretched that it includes things like the “burrito bowl” – all the burrito fillings in a bowl without the tortilla, for the carb-conscious or gluten-free crowd. There’s even a burrito blanket you can buy – a novelty blanket that looks like a giant tortilla so you can wrap yourself up like a burrito at home!
This goes to show the cultural penetration of the burrito: it’s not just food, it’s in memes, merchandise, and slang. For example, people joke about “freezing my burrito off,” or call an infant wrapped in a swaddle a “baby burrito.”
Despite these light-hearted extensions, the burrito remains deeply satisfying at a basic level. It’s comfort food for many Mexican-Americans, a taste of home or childhood. For others, it’s a filling meal that can be relatively cheap. Internationally, it represents a piece of Mexican cuisine’s adaptability.
Interestingly, in Mexico, burritos are mostly found in the north or in tourist areas. Central and southern Mexican cuisine has its own plethora of wrapped foods like tacos and tamales, but burritos aren’t traditional there. One might say the burrito really hit its stride as a culinary icon once it crossed into the United States, where it grew in size and popularity.
This cross-border evolution is very much in line with many foods that become global: taking an essence of a dish and amplifying or altering it to new contexts. At its best, a burrito is a harmonious package – each bite containing a little of everything, a mosaic of flavors that just works.
Easy Burrito Recipes
The Easiest Burrito Recipe
Summary: A simple, freezer-friendly burrito filled with seasoned ground beef, rice, corn, and cheese. Ideal for busy nights or meal prepping. View Recipe
Breakfast Burritos
Summary: Fuel your day with tasty breakfast burritos filled with creamy scrambled eggs, crispy hash browns, and zesty salsa! View Recipe
Easy Beef Burritos
Summary: Ground beef seasoned with taco spices, combined with rice, black beans, and cheese, all wrapped in a warm tortilla. View Recipe
Smothered Beef Burritos
Summary: Beef burritos topped with a rich enchilada sauce and melted cheese, baked to perfection for a comforting meal. View Recipe
Avocado Chicken Burritos
Summary: Grilled chicken, creamy avocado, rice, and cheese come together in this fresh and satisfying burrito. View Recipe
Fun things to know about burritos
Burritos have had their share of fun records and anecdotes. In 2010, a restaurant in Mountain View, California, created what was then the world’s largest burrito, weighing over 4,456 pounds and using a single tortilla the size of a boxing ring! In 2019, a new record was set in Mexico for a burrito over 2 kilometers long. Clearly, the burrito inspires some supersized efforts.
On a smaller scale, the “mini-burrito” (or burrrtio as some cutely call it) trend has seen appetizers or cocktail party snacks in burrito form. Another quirky note: in the early era of spaceflight, astronaut and later congressman John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich on board Gemini 3 in 1965, which was a bit of a scandal because of crumbs. In response, NASA developed space-friendly foods, and tortillas turned out to be perfect as they don’t crumb like bread.
So astronauts today often use tortillas to make “space burritos” with peanut butter or other fillings. Thus, the burrito in concept at least has gone to space.
Linguistically, burrito has entered other languages as a loanword. For example, in Japanese, you might see “ブリトー” (buritō) on a menu. The name’s charming literal meaning has lent itself to pet names and business names. There’s a chain called “Burrito Boyz” and one cheekily named “Illegal Pete’s” referencing the “smuggling” of a burrito (no actual illegality involved, just edgy branding).
Also worth noting is that not all burritos are monstrous. If you visit a traditional eatery in, say, Ciudad Juárez or El Paso, you might get a modest burrito that’s more like a slightly plump taco, and that’s equally authentic.
Finally, burritos sometimes get conflated with other wraps: for instance, the Tex-Mex “chimichanga” is essentially a burrito that’s been deep-fried, resulting in a crispy exterior. According to legend, the name chimichanga came from a cook biting her tongue on a curse word when she accidentally dropped a burrito in the fryer, uttering “chimichanga!” True or not, it’s another fun part of the burrito’s extended family.
In summary, the burrito’s journey from a regional Mexican meal to a global phenomenon highlights how a simple concept—delicious stuff rolled in a flatbread—can be endlessly adapted, yet still deliver that primal satisfaction of a good, hearty bite.