Pan Fried Chicken Burrito

The burrito, Traditionally a Mexican dish it would normally contain a combination of meat and Refried beans, how ever i have decided that i would only take inspiration from the more traditional recipes and then make my own. Because of this my Recipes main ingredients are Pan fried chicken, White rice and Bell peppers. Here in England burritos aren't hugely common so this one will likely looking nothing like the burritos that you are used to across the pond! But it was none the less very tasty.

Very simple to make as its most complex part consist in the rolling, and even that isn't difficult. as well as being very simple this dish is very quick to make and incredibly portable making it idea for day trips or packed lunches.

Ingredients:

1 Onion, Finely Diced

6 cloves of garlic

2 Bell peppers

200g of Cooked Rice

100g Sweetcorn

2 Tsp Paprika

2 Tsp Cumin

2 tsp Coriander powder

2 Chicken Fillets

6 large flour tortillas

100g Cheddar cheese, Grated

2 Tbsp of Sour Cream per wrap Seasoning

Serves 6

First things first, have all of your vegetables chopped and ready to go. Its easiest to do this on a stable chopping board and with a sharp knife. You can make your chopping board more stable by putting a slightly wet tea towel under it. and you can keep your knife sharp with a Honing steel. If there is any demand for it i will show you how i keep my knives sharp.

Picture 1 Finely dice the Garlic to puree size pieces.

Picture 2. Dice the Onion up to a slightly larger size then the onions.

Picture 3. Slice up the red peppers. to long thin strips.

I like to saute my garlic and onions to soften the flavour slightly. i would recommend using a heavy frying pan to do this so that they don't burn when you turn the heat right up.

Picture 1. Using a heavy frying, turn the heat up to high and pour in some oil. Allow the oil to smoulder before you add in the garlic and onions.

Picture 2. Cook the onions on a high heat until they caramelize, ( caramelising by the way is when you cook something hot enough all of its sugars melt and it takes on this wonderful rich brown colour.

Once they have reached this stage you can take them off the heat and reserve them for later.

Using a new chopping board for the raw meat, Lightly dust all of the spices on top of the chicken breast i think you should about half a teaspoon for each side, generously season with salt and black pepper. Finally rub oil in the chicken.

Picture 1-3. dust all the sides of the chicken with Paprika, Cumin and Coriander powder. ( i have used Gram Marsala, this is a spice mix that contains mainly cumin so i thought i would work nicely as a substitute as i didn't have any cumin in the house when i cooked this.

Picture 4. Once the Chicken has been dusted try to rub the dry mix in to all the nocks and crannies to ensure that all of the surface of chicken is covered in it.

Picture 5. Drizzle in olive oil, this will help your rub the dry mix in to the chicken.

Picture 6. Once it is all rubbed in, leave for around 5 minutes to allow it to infuse slightly.

I have always like to cook my chicken fillets like they were a lovely piece of steak, if the steak was ruined at the last moment by cooking it so that its well done. This includes having the pan very hot to start with no oil. this is incidentally why we have put our oil on the chicken at the last stage. Additionally it means only turning the Chicken once. Its always easier to do this with a thermometer to ensure you don't give yourself or loved ones food poisoning. The time to turn the Chicken is when it has cooked above the halfway mark on the side of the chicken. The magic internal temperature that your chicken is cooked at is 75C or 167F.

Picture 1. Heat up a heavy bottomed pan without oil.

Picture 2. Cook one side at a time.

Picture 3. I have just turned the Chicken in this picture you can see clearly that the chicken has been cooked to about the middle on one side.

Picture 4. Because I am cooking this chicken like its a steak I allow it time to rest before cutting it. If i didnt leave it time to rest all of the lovely juices would of dripped out of it.

I have decided to leave my Burrito open on one side so that you can see what is inside of it better. but feel free to keep it more traditionally and closing both sides.

Picture 1. Laying a square of tinfoil larger then the tortilla wrap underneath, you can begin to assemble the burrito on top. I have started with the Chicken first.

Picture 2. Next i have added my caramelised Onions and garlic along with a small amount of the pre-cooked rice.

Picture 3. Now i have added the sliced peppers and some sweetcorn.

Picture 4. Then i have added the grated cheddar cheese with a couple teaspoons of sour cream.

Picture 5. Lastly i have sprinkled a little more paprika with some additional seasoning.

The wrapping process was very difficult to take photos of at the same time, so unfortunately i haven't been able to include it, however it is included in the video. So if your interested in how i wrapped them you can see find out.

I have left the top open of these burritos so you can see inside, because i thought the photos looked great already i have decided not to garnish them with anything. If i was to go back and garnish them i would of likely used some freshly chopped coriander, to give the dish some more variety of colour.

These can be stored for around 4 days in the fridge, i have no idea how they would turn out if you were to freeze them, but i see no reason why they would be unsafe. I like to warm my burritos up in the oven for around 20 minutes in a oven on a low temperature just enough so that the cheese will melt inside.

Thank you for reading , if you have any comments or queries please contact me and I will try to answer them as soon as possible.

The first burrito should always go to the helper.