California Burritos

Tonight we give you one of my favorites…California Burritos.

This is not a normal burrito, it’s more of a wrap, but I do toast the tortilla a bit. This is not required.

The origin of this dinner is an outdoor restauant/tiki hut in Satellite Beach, Florida called Da Kin Diego’s Insane Burritos. These fresh beach wraps brought me a lot of joy, but they tended to lean heavy on the rice and beans. The saving grace was the sauces.

So in honor of that memory, here is the Colonial Beach version of a California Burrito. I loved making these and would come up with enough adaptions that it never became boring.

I have some smoked chicken from our last big smoke-fest, so that is the foundation. Normally I would just grill some chicken. But I’ve done this with steak, pork and fish…and even mushrooms to substitute for meat.

Two sauces are needed. The ‘glue’ is a mix of yogurt, hot sauce, onion powder and garlic powder. Do this in advance so it melds.

The other sauce you want to keep around like you may have ketchup or mustard. This is my Chipolte Sauce. Half yogurt, a can of chipolte with it’s adobo, lime juice and cilantro. This is blended, I use my magic bullet. I use yogurt in the two sauces, but mayo is the standard. This you squeeze on as you eat.

Toast your tortilla in a pan (we used Sun Dried Tortilla Wraps).

Spoon down the ‘glue’. Put down some saffron rice. https://goodpointofview.com/2013/03/20/saffron-rice/ Then some seasoned black beans. I cook these down with garlic, onion, black pepper and heat them through.

Put your chicken on top. Then some pico de giao. Guac would be good too, but we forgot it. A little salsa Verde and some shredded cheese. A delightful addition we did was some pickled red onions.

Fold the sides, bring up the bottom and tuck into the top. Serve with your favorite sauce. In this case we had the Chipolte sauce noted above.

Cut in half and serve. This is a fun, delightful meal, bursting with flavor.