Chef Lupita
Burrito de Chilorio Sinaloense
Mocorito's pork chilorio, shredded and confited in lard with chile ancho and pasilla, rolled into a thin handmade flour tortilla. The burrito Sinaloa sends out into the world.
Culinary Explorer
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Burrito de Chicharrón Sonorense
Created by
Sonora's working morning burrito: chicharrón de cáscara stewed in chile colorado with diced potato, rolled tight in a paper-thin tortilla sobaquera and eaten standing up at the carreta.
Sandwiches & Wraps
Mexican
Quick Meal
Budget Friendly
Comfort Food
30 min
Active Time
1 hr 15 min cook•1 hr 45 min total
Yield6 burritos
This is a Sonoran burrito. Not a Mission burrito, not a Tex-Mex burrito, not a foil-wrapped two-pound monster from a chain. The burrito de chicharrón comes from Hermosillo, Caborca, and the cattle towns up and down the Sonoran Desert, where flour tortillas have been the daily bread for over a hundred years and where the morning meal is something you can hold in one hand on the way to work.
The chicharrón here is not the snack. You want chicharrón de cáscara, the heavy kind with the fat still attached and sometimes a thread of meat clinging to the skin. The carniceros in Sonora sell it cut to order. You stew it in chile colorado, the dried red chile that gives Sonoran cooking its color and its identity, until the skin softens and drinks the sauce. The diced potato is not filler. It stretches the dish, takes on the chile, and makes the burrito a meal instead of a snack. This is food built for ranch hands and field workers and women heading into a long shift, and you can taste the practicality in every bite.
The tortilla matters as much as the filling. The sobaquera is the queen of the Noroeste, stretched paper-thin across the cook's forearm (sobaco means armpit, the name is honest about the technique) until it is wide as a dinner plate and translucent enough to read through. A sobaquera around hot chicharrón en chile colorado is a Sonoran morning. A flour tortilla from a plastic bag around the same filling is a sad imitation. If you cannot find a real sobaquera, find the closest thing you can at a Mexican panadería. No me vengas con atajos. Cada estado, su propia cocina, and the Noroeste is a state of mind built on flour, lard, mesquite, and chile colorado.
The flour tortilla took root in Sonora and the broader Noroeste during the 18th and 19th centuries because the arid Sonoran Desert sustained wheat far better than corn, a colonial agricultural shift that made the region the only part of Mexico where flour, not corn, became the daily tortilla. The tortilla sobaquera, stretched by hand to plate size or larger, is a Sonoran specialty whose name derives from the cook's practice of supporting the dough across the forearm during stretching. The chivichanga (later chimichanga) was being deep-fried in Sonoran kitchens long before Tucson restaurants in the 1950s claimed credit for its invention; the burrito de chicharrón, simpler and unfried, belongs to the same Noroeste tradition of flour tortilla cooking that the U.S. Southwest absorbed and renamed.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
chicharrón de cáscara (pork rind with thin fat attached)
Quantity
8 ounces
broken into 2-inch pieces
dried chile colorado (chile California or Anaheim seco)
Quantity
6
stemmed and seeded
dried chile guajillo
Quantity
2
stemmed and seeded
garlic cloves
Quantity
3
peeled
white onion (for the chile colorado)
Quantity
1/2 medium
white onion (for the stew)
Quantity
1/4 medium
finely diced
dried Mexican oregano (oregano sonorense if available)
Quantity
1 teaspoon
ground cumin
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
bay leaves
Quantity
2
manteca de cerdo (pork lard)
Quantity
2 tablespoons
russet or white potatoes
Quantity
2 medium
peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
Roma tomatoes
Quantity
2
charred on a comal and roughly chopped
kosher salt
Quantity
1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste
water or unsalted pork broth
Quantity
2 cups
tortillas de harina sobaqueras (12 to 14 inches across)
Quantity
6
warmed on a comal
salsa de chiltepín (optional)
Quantity
for serving
pickled jalapeños en escabeche (optional)
Quantity
for serving
lime wedges (optional)
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| chicharrón de cáscara (pork rind with thin fat attached)broken into 2-inch pieces | 8 ounces |
| dried chile colorado (chile California or Anaheim seco)stemmed and seeded | 6 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 2 |
| garlic clovespeeled | 3 |
| white onion (for the chile colorado) | 1/2 medium |
| white onion (for the stew)finely diced | 1/4 medium |
| dried Mexican oregano (oregano sonorense if available) | 1 teaspoon |
| ground cumin | 1/2 teaspoon |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 2 tablespoons |
| russet or white potatoespeeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice | 2 medium |
| Roma tomatoescharred on a comal and roughly chopped | 2 |
| kosher salt | 1 1/2 teaspoons, plus more to taste |
| water or unsalted pork broth | 2 cups |
| tortillas de harina sobaqueras (12 to 14 inches across)warmed on a comal | 6 |
| salsa de chiltepín (optional) | for serving |
| pickled jalapeños en escabeche (optional) | for serving |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
Equipment Needed
- •Heavy 4-quart pot or clay cazuela
- •Cast iron comal or heavy skillet for toasting chiles and warming tortillas
- •High-powered blender
- •Fine-mesh strainer
- •Clean cotton servilleta or kitchen cloth for stacking tortillas
Instructions
- 1
Find the right chicharrón
This burrito does not work with the airy chicharrón you snap and eat by the bag. You want chicharrón de cáscara, the heavier kind with a band of fat and sometimes a thread of meat still attached to the skin. In Sonora they call it chicharrón con carne or chicharrón grueso. Ask the carnicero. If what you have is too dry, the stew will be tough. If it has fat, the stew will be silky.
If your chicharrón is very salty, give it a quick rinse under warm water and pat dry before breaking it into pieces. Otherwise the finished stew will be over-seasoned. - 2
Toast the chiles colorado
Heat a dry comal over medium. Open the chile colorado and chile guajillo flat, and toast them about 20 seconds per side. They should turn fragrant and pliable, never blacken. The chile colorado is the soul of Sonoran cooking. Toasted right, the kitchen smells sweet and faintly smoky, like the carnicería at six in the morning. Burned chile turns the whole stew bitter and there is no fixing it later.
- 3
Soak and blend
Drop the toasted chiles into a bowl and cover with hot tap water. Hot water, not boiling. Let them soften for 15 minutes. Char the tomatoes on the same comal until the skins blister and blacken in patches. Drain the chiles and put them in the blender with the charred tomatoes, the garlic, the half white onion, the oregano, the cumin, and one cup of fresh water. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the solids. You want a clean, deep red puree, the color of a Sonoran sunset over the Sierra Madre.
- 4
Fry the chile colorado
Melt the manteca in a heavy 4-quart pot or cazuela over medium heat. Add the diced onion and cook for two minutes until it softens. Pour in the strained chile puree. It will sputter. Cook for five to seven minutes, stirring constantly, until the puree darkens and the lard starts to bead at the edges. La manteca es el sabor. This is the step that turns chile water into chile colorado. Skip it and the stew tastes raw.
- 5
Add chicharrón and potato
Stir the chicharrón pieces and the diced potato into the chile colorado. Add the bay leaves, the salt, and two cups of water or pork broth. Bring to a low simmer. Cover partially and cook 35 to 45 minutes, stirring now and then so the potato does not stick. The chicharrón will drink the chile and turn from rigid skin into something tender, almost gelatinous at the edges. The potato will absorb the red and finish almost the color of brick. Taste for salt at the end, not the beginning. The chicharrón gives off salt as it softens.
If the stew looks dry before the potato is cooked through, add a splash of hot water. If it looks soupy at the end, raise the heat for a few minutes to tighten it. The finished consistency should hold its shape on a spoon, not run. - 6
Warm the tortillas sobaqueras
The flour tortilla is a Noroeste birthright, not a Tex-Mex shortcut, and the sobaquera is its highest expression. Heat a comal over medium-high. Lay one tortilla on the comal for about 15 seconds per side, just until it relaxes and a few brown freckles appear. Do not let it crisp. A sobaquera that crisps will crack when you roll it. Stack them as you go inside a clean cotton cloth or servilleta to keep them soft and pliable.
If you cannot find sobaqueras (made by hand and stretched across the forearm, where the name comes from), use the largest fresh flour tortillas you can find from a Mexican panadería. The supermarket flour tortilla in a plastic bag will tear. It is not the same product. - 7
Roll the burrito
Lay one warm sobaquera flat. Spoon about 2/3 cup of the chicharrón en chile colorado in a line just below the center, leaving two inches clear on each side. Fold the bottom edge up over the filling, fold the two sides in, then roll away from you tight. The Sonoran burrito is slim, long, and disciplined, not the football you find north of the border. No rice. No cheese inside. No lettuce. The chicharrón en chile colorado is the whole show.
- 8
Serve at the carreta
Wrap each burrito in a square of butcher paper or foil so the bottom does not turn soft. Set out salsa de chiltepín, pickled jalapeños en escabeche, and lime wedges on the table. Eat them standing up, the way the men in Hermosillo eat them at six in the morning before the heat sets in. Asi se hace y punto.
Chef Tips
- •The chicharrón is the recipe. The dry, hollow chicharrón you find in plastic bags at the supermarket will not soften correctly and will leave you with chewy chips floating in chile sauce. Find a Mexican carnicería and ask for chicharrón de cáscara or chicharrón con carne. If they look at you blankly, find another carnicería.
- •The chile is called chile colorado in Sonora. North of the border you may see the same chile sold as chile California, chile Anaheim seco, or chile New Mexico. They are close cousins. Avoid chile pasilla or chile ancho here, both will throw the flavor toward central Mexico and away from the Noroeste.
- •Sonorans drink Tecate or coffee with this burrito at breakfast, not horchata or agua de jamaica. If you want the full carreta experience, serve it with strong black coffee and a small bottle of salsa de chiltepín on the side. Saber cocinar es saber vivir.
Advance Preparation
- •The chicharrón en chile colorado can be made one full day ahead and refrigerated. The flavor deepens overnight and the chile rounds out. Reheat gently with a splash of water before rolling.
- •The chile colorado base (toasted, soaked, blended, and fried) keeps refrigerated for up to four days and freezes for up to three months. Make a double batch and you have the foundation for enchiladas, eggs, and the next pot of chicharrón.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 280g)
Calories
675 calories
Total Fat
32 g
Saturated Fat
10 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
20 g
Cholesterol
40 mg
Sodium
1780 mg
Total Carbohydrates
76 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
2 g
Protein
23 g
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