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Sonora's original chivichanga, the chimichanga before it crossed the border: thin sobaquera tortilla wrapped tight around chile-stained shredded beef, fried until the skin blisters, dressed at the table with cabbage, crema, and salsa de chiltepin.
This is a Sonoran dish. From the north, where the cattle ranches stretch from Hermosillo to the Arizona border, where wheat replaced corn centuries ago, and where the flour tortilla, not the corn one, is the daily bread. If you grew up thinking the chimichanga was invented in Tucson or Phoenix, the abuelas in Navojoa and Ciudad Obregon would like a word.
The chivichanga lives or dies by the tortilla. In Sonora they make tortillas de harina sobaqueras, paper-thin, almost translucent, stretched so wide a cook can drape them across her forearm (sobaco means armpit, and that is exactly how the size is measured). That tortilla is the architecture of the dish. A thick supermarket flour tortilla will give you something heavy and bready that is not a chivichanga. It is a sad burrito that you fried.
The filling is shredded beef stained dark red with chile colorado, the long, mild, sweet dried chile that defines so much of northern cooking, the same one that anchors carne con chile and machaca con huevo. Not chipotle. Not ancho. Chile colorado. Cada estado, su propia cocina. The beef cooks down until almost dry, because a wet filling steams the tortilla from the inside and the chivichanga splits open in the fat. La manteca es el sabor and the manteca is also the fryer. Asi se hace y punto.
In the rancho kitchens of Sonora, the dish is dressed simply: shredded cabbage, not lettuce, a stripe of crema, a crumble of queso menonita from the Mennonite communities of Cuauhtemoc, and a salsa made from chiltepin, the wild bird chile that grows in the hills around the state and that Sonorans defend like a family secret. No yellow cheese. No sour cream. No guacamole on top. That is the version that crossed the border and lost its name.
The chivichanga is a Sonoran creation rooted in the wheat-and-cattle economy that the Spanish established in northern New Spain in the 17th and 18th centuries, a region whose climate favored wheat over the corn that anchored cuisine farther south. Disputed origin stories place the dish in either the rancho kitchens of southern Sonora, where leftover machaca and chile colorado were rolled into a tortilla and fried for portability, or in Hermosillo cantinas of the early 20th century. The Anglicized spelling 'chimichanga' and its commercial fame trace to Tucson restaurants in the 1920s through 1950s, most famously El Charro Cafe, whose owner Monica Flin claimed to have dropped a burrito into hot fat by accident; the Sonoran version, called chivichanga or sometimes chivichangas, predates and outlasts that story.
Quantity
2 pounds
cut into 3-inch chunks
Quantity
1 medium
halved, plus 1/2 cup finely diced for the filling
Quantity
4
smashed, plus 2 cloves finely minced for the filling
Quantity
2
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1 tablespoon, plus more to taste
Quantity
4
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
2
stemmed and seeded
Quantity
2 medium
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
3 tablespoons, divided
Quantity
8
preferably tortillas de harina sobaqueras
Quantity
about 6 cups
Quantity
2 cups
Quantity
1 cup
Quantity
1 cup
crumbled
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| beef chuck roast or brisketcut into 3-inch chunks | 2 pounds |
| white onionhalved, plus 1/2 cup finely diced for the filling | 1 medium |
| garlic clovessmashed, plus 2 cloves finely minced for the filling | 4 |
| bay leaves | 2 |
| black peppercorns | 1 teaspoon |
| kosher salt | 1 tablespoon, plus more to taste |
| dried chile colorado (chile California or chile Anaheim seco)stemmed and seeded | 4 |
| dried chile guajillostemmed and seeded | 2 |
| Roma tomatoes | 2 medium |
| dried Mexican oregano (oregano sonorense if you can find it) | 1 teaspoon |
| ground cumin | 1/2 teaspoon |
| manteca de cerdo (pork lard) | 3 tablespoons, divided |
| large flour tortillas (10-inch sonorenses, very thin)preferably tortillas de harina sobaqueras | 8 |
| manteca de cerdo or neutral oil for deep-frying | about 6 cups |
| finely shredded green cabbage (optional) | 2 cups |
| crema mexicana (optional) | 1 cup |
| queso fresco or queso menonita (optional)crumbled | 1 cup |
| salsa de chiltepin or salsa de chile colorado (optional) | for serving |
| lime wedges (optional) | for serving |
| frijoles refritos with manteca (optional) | for serving |
Place the beef chunks in a heavy pot and cover with cold water by two inches. Add the halved onion, smashed garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, and salt. Bring to a gentle simmer over medium heat and skim the gray foam that rises in the first fifteen minutes. Lower the heat until you see lazy bubbles every few seconds. Cover partially and cook for two hours, until the beef shreds easily with a fork. Cold water start, low simmer. A rolling boil makes the meat tough and the broth cloudy.
While the beef simmers, heat a dry comal or heavy skillet over medium. Toast the chile colorado and chile guajillo separately, about 20 to 30 seconds per side. The skin will puff and turn fragrant, never blacken. The kitchen will smell like the dried chile stalls in the Mercado Hidalgo in Hermosillo. That smell is the oils releasing. Burned chile is bitter chile.
Place the toasted chiles in a heatproof bowl with the Roma tomatoes and cover with hot tap water, not boiling. Let them soften for 20 minutes. Drain, reserving 1/2 cup of the soaking liquid. Transfer the chiles, tomatoes, the 2 minced garlic cloves, oregano, and cumin to a blender with the reserved soaking liquid. Blend until completely smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve, pressing on the solids to extract the puree. Discard the skins.
When the beef is tender, lift it out of the broth and let it cool just enough to handle. Reserve one cup of the cooking broth. Shred the meat with two forks into thin strands. This is the texture you want. Chunks of beef will tear the tortilla when you roll it.
In a wide skillet, melt 2 tablespoons of the lard over medium heat. Add the diced white onion and cook until translucent, about five minutes. Pour in the strained chile puree. It will sputter. Cook for five to seven minutes, stirring constantly, until the puree darkens and the fat starts to separate. La manteca es el sabor. Add the shredded beef and 1/2 cup of the reserved cooking broth. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often, until almost all the liquid has cooked off and the meat is glossy and stained dark red. Taste for salt. The filling should be assertive and almost dry. A wet filling will steam the tortilla from the inside and ruin the crisp.
Heat a dry comal over medium-low. Warm each flour tortilla for about 10 seconds per side until it is pliable but not toasted. Stack them in a clean kitchen towel as you go. The tortilla sonorense is paper-thin and dries out fast. Cold or stiff tortillas crack when you roll them and the filling leaks out in the fryer.
Lay one warm tortilla flat. Spoon about 1/2 cup of the cooled filling in a horizontal log across the lower third, leaving two inches of bare tortilla on each side. Fold the bottom edge up and over the filling, tuck it tight, fold both sides in over the ends, and roll the whole thing up firmly into a tight cylinder. Place seam-side down. Repeat with the remaining tortillas. The roll has to be tight and the seam has to be on the bottom. Loose chivichangas open in the fryer and you lose everything.
Pour the lard or oil into a heavy deep skillet or Dutch oven to a depth of two inches. Heat over medium-high until it reaches 360F. If you do not have a thermometer, drop a small piece of tortilla in: it should bubble vigorously and turn gold in about 30 seconds. Cooler oil makes a greasy chivichanga. Hotter oil burns the outside before the inside heats through.
Lower two chivichangas into the hot fat seam-side down. The seam seals shut in the first 30 seconds and the roll holds together. Fry for two minutes, then turn with tongs and fry the other side for another two minutes. The tortilla should blister, turn deep gold, and crackle when tapped with the tongs. Do not crowd the pan or the temperature drops and the tortilla soaks up fat instead of crisping.
Lift the chivichangas out with tongs and let them drain on a wire rack set over a sheet pan, never on paper towels. Paper towels trap steam and soften the bottom. Repeat with the remaining chivichangas. Serve immediately, topped with shredded cabbage, a generous drizzle of crema, crumbled queso, and the salsa of your choice. Lime wedges on the side. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
1 serving (about 240g)
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