Baked Chimichangas
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The Chimichanga is a fried burito which originated in Northern Mexico. Loaded with great fillings, cheese, and served with sour cream and salsa, it is usually served pan, or deep fried.
At the urban cooking guide, we enjoy healthy recipes, and have experimented to make an oven baked version, which crisps up, and tastes like the fried version, without the excess oil and fat used in the deep frying process.
Today, the urban cooking guide presents: Vegetarian Baked Chimichangas! A wonderful treat that is sure to please your taste buds without leaving the guilt of being deep fried! For you meat lovers, we have also included a method to add chicken, beef, or pork, the more traditional ingredients.
Yields: 6 Chimichangas
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cups of cooked rice (about 3/4 cups uncooked)
- 1 medium onion
- 1 large red, yellow or green pepper
- 1 large tomato
- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1 can (6 oz) sliced black olives
- 1 small can of jalapeno peppers
- chili powder
- tabasco or hot sauce
- salt
- pepper
- italian seasoning (basil, oregano, marjoram, and sage)
- grated cheddar or mozzarella cheese (half a medium sized block ~ 150 grams)
- 6 flour tortillas (12 inch)
- canola oil
Adding Meat:
You may modify the Ingredients to replace 1/2 a cup of cooked rice with 1/2 a cup of lean ground beef, pork, or chicken. You could even increase the substitution amount to your preference.
Instructions:
1) Cook your rice- either in a rice cooker or on the stove.
2) While the rice cooks, chop up your veggies. Feel free to omit veggies you don't like or add more of the ones you do like!
3) When the rice is done, you're ready to begin!
4) On medium high heat, put about 1-2 tablespoons of oil into your pan (make sure it's large). Add garlic and onions.
5) Put in the diced pepper, and let fry for about 3 minutes.
6) Add the cooked rice into your pan, and mix. Be sure that you separate clumps of rice with your spatula.
7) Throw in your chopped tomatoes, jalapenos, and olives.
8) Add salt, pepper, tabasco, and italian seasoning to your preference.
9) When your chimichanga mixture tastes just about right, turn off the element.
10) Stir in the chopped cilantro.
11) Take out your flour tortillas and divide the rice mixture up for each tortilla.
12) Sprinkle desired amount of cheese over the rice mixture.
13) Roll tortillas, making sure that the sides are tucked in tightly so the filling stays inside.
14) With the flap side down, place your chimichanga onto a baking sheet. Wrap the rest in saran wrap and freeze them for quick future meals!
15) Bake your chimichanga at 350 degrees fahrenheit for approximately 5 minutes or until it is golden brown. You can brush on a small amount of canola oil over the chimichanga to simulate the frying process.
16) With a spatula, flip the chimichanga over and cook the other side for 5 minutes or so until golden brown.
17) Take it out of the oven and serve with salsa and sour cream.
18) Enjoy!
Adding Meat:
To add meat to this recipe, you should fry the beef, pork, or chicken, with some salt, chili powder, and tabasco. I tend to add a small bit of water to the mixture. After the meat is almost cooked, you can drain the water and fat that results from the cooking of the meat. Fry the meat until fully cooked and re-spice. You can then mix it into your rice mixture in step 6!
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