A good burrito is roughly hot dog size. You shouldn’t need two hands to eat one, and you should be able to put the entire thing in your mouth.
Once the burrito starts getting much bigger than that, you get too much insides and not enough outsides. Imagine a club sandwich, except instead of three slices of toasted rye, there is three sheets of paper-thin phyllo dough. At that point it’s not even a sandwich any more.
I guess what I’m trying to say us that I want the tortilla to be a substantial part of the burrito, not just a holder for a mountain of ingredients.
Anyhoo, the Chipotle structural integrity issue seems to vary a lot by location. I went to one where I used to live twice and then gave up on it because it would fall apart mid-snack and I would be left with a mess*.
The place near me now though, seems to cram less stuff in it or just has staff that’s better at wrapping, as they now hold together well. I don’t even need to keep them wrapped in foil as I eat.
*(to be fair, this was within a few weeks of their opening, its possible it was just lack of a practice from the staff)
I tend to use copious amounts of cumin, cayenne, oregano and coriander. I might add a touch of soy sauce/aroma/msg, vinegar, or lime juice depending on the meat.
Personally, the ideas expressed here are worthwhile. The main take-away is to use lime zest instead of juice.
That said, I go simple: lime juice (or zest, after reading that tip), garlic, pepper, salt (or soy sauce.) Maybe a little cumin if I feel like it (although I don’t usually like cumin in my fajitas) and perhaps a little bit of Mexican (not the usual Greek/Mediterranean) oregano (they are two different plants and taste different.) But lime-garlic-salt/soy-pepper. That tastes perfect to me as is.
Also, most places I’m familiar with either use a different sauce or no sauce on burritos (sometimes melted cheese w/no sauce), and I think flour tortillas for burritos corn tortillas for enchilada. But in any event, outside of Toxic Bell, none of them are intended for eating with your hands. You want to eat with your hands, you order a taco.
Add some cocoa and a little bit of cinnamon. Not much, it needs to remain a background flavor, but the addition made a world of difference in my taco seasoning mix. I got the idea from the back of the packets in the supermarket.
I love Chipotle. I usually avoid the burrito since I think the bol is easier to eat, since I get it heaping. However, I sometimes I get a burrito on the go, and even those they’ll comment how difficult they are to wrap, but I have no problem eating it with just one hand and driving with the other. It can get a bit drippy, so I’ll usually unwrap the foil and put it around the bottom with a napkin over it to absorb any of the drippings, and I can do it with no mess, as long as I’m careful about how I take the bites. You can’t just eat it randomly or it will spill out. Honestly, it seems to me that eating a burrito with a knife and fork would be more difficult and, if you’re going to do that, you might as well just get the bol.
Not a huge fan of them, and I have little patience with messy/oversized food in general. (Occasional exceptions made for ribs and hot wings.) I’d much rather eat three smallish tacos on corn tortillas than dislocate my jaw trying to attack a Mission-style burrito, which invariably ends in a collapsing wad of wet foil and soggy tortilla flaps dripping juice down to my elbows.
And who wants to taste a bland tortilla instead of the contents?