Easy Chicken Burritos

Chicken burritos are easy, flavorful all-in-one meals the whole family will love! Shredded Mexican chicken, corn, refried beans, and shredded cheese all wrapped up perfectly in a warm tortilla and served with a side of guacamole.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Chicken burritos are super easy to make, and there’s SO much flavor! You’ve got sweet, smoky tomatoes, aromatic taco seasoning, juicy chicken, buttery corn, and earthy refried beans, all in one tortilla.
• This recipe is a fantastic base to build off of. We’ve kept it very basic here, but you can absolutely add some of your favorite ingredients to create your perfect chicken burrito! Add a little brown rice, sour cream, lettuce, pico de gallo, queso, salsa, cilantro, avocado ranch dressing, cilantro lime dressing, or anything else you typically love on a burrito!
• While this recipe is written for 4 burritos, you can prep several and freeze them for later! Follow all the instructions below, then let your pan-fried burritos cool completely. Once they’re cool, wrap each burrito individually in foil, then place them in a sealable freezer bag or another freezer-safe airtight container. Either thaw the frozen burritos overnight first, or pop them straight in the oven from the freezer. If you thaw them, you’ll reheat them (in the foil) at 350°F for 15-20 minutes. If they’re frozen, you’ll need to reheat them (in the foil) at 350°F for 30-40 minutes.

Key Ingredients

Chicken – Obviously we’ll need chicken for our chicken burritos! This recipe is written using shredded chicken, but you can dice up your cooked chicken instead if you’d prefer it in chunks. You can also use precooked chicken (like a rotisserie chicken) to save a little time – just remove the skin and shred the meat off the bones!

Fire-Roasted Tomatoes – Fire-roasted tomatoes are SO good. They’re literally roasted over a fire before they’re canned, which gives them this incredible flavor depth (a little sweet, a little smoky) that regular tomatoes don’t have. No need to roast your own if you don’t want to, though. Fire-roasted tomatoes are available in the canned vegetables section of most grocery stores.

Refried Beans – Can you use regular beans in your chicken burrito? Sure! The consistency of the refried beans helps hold all the other ingredients together, though. You can use canned refried beans or make your own at home – either refried pinto beans or refried black beans will work!

Chef’s Tips

• Warming the tortillas makes them much easier to roll, so don’t skip this step! At the same time, don’t warm them too much. If you make them too soft, they can tear. If your paper towels aren’t damp enough, you could also end up with dried out, crispy tortillas.
• What’s the best way to roll a perfect chicken burrito? With the tortilla on a flat surface, fold the top edge of the tortilla – the edge furthest from you – down to meet the bottom edge – the edge closest to you. Press gently on the tortilla (mashing everything inside together a little) and then unfold it so it’s completely flat again. The filling should be mostly in the center and on the bottom half of the tortilla. Now, fold both sides of the tortilla in toward the center. It’s okay if the edges don’t completely cover the filling, but they should cover as much as possible. With the sides folded in, start at the bottom edge of the tortilla and slowly roll the tortilla up toward the top until tortilla is rolled completely into a burrito. You may have to tuck the sides in again a little as you go. It takes some practice, so don’t worry if it’s not perfect – it’ll still taste great! Note: if you use a lot of filling, your chicken burrito will be more difficult to roll.
• We’ve all had those burritos that seem to lose their shape completely after a couple of bites, right? The more tightly you roll your chicken burrito, the less likely it is to fall apart on you halfway through. Just be careful not to overdo it, because you don’t want to tear the tortilla.

More Mexican-Inspired Recipes You’ll Love

• Mexican Salad with Cilantro-Lime Dressing
• Mexican Tortilla Wrap Hack (TikTok Hack)
• Best Sheet Pan Fajitas with Steak (Low Carb, Whole30, Paleo)
• Shredded Chicken Tacos
• Healthy Chicken Tostada
• Freezer Breakfast Burritos

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Chicken Burritos

Prep:10 minutes minutes

Cook:20 minutes minutes

Total:30 minutes minutes

Chicken burritos are easy, flavorful all-in-one meals the whole family will love! Shredded Mexican chicken, corn, refried beans, and shredded cheese all wrapped up perfectly in a warm tortilla and served with a side of guacamole.

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4 burritos

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• ▢ water or chicken broth
• ▢ 2 tablespoons avocado oil divided
• ▢ ¼ cup green chiles
• ▢ ¾ cup fire-roasted tomatoes
• ▢ ¼ cup tomato sauce
• ▢ 2 tablespoons taco seasoning store-bought or make your own
• ▢ ½ cup corn
• ▢ ½ cup refried beans store-bought or make your own
• ▢ 4 flour tortillas 10-inch tortillas or larger
• ▢ 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese
• ▢ guacamole optional, for serving

Equipment

• Pot with lid
• Large bowl
• Two forks (or tools for preferred method of shredding chicken)
• Large skillet
• Microwave
• Large microwave-safe plate
• Paper towels

Instructions 

• Place chicken breasts in pot and add enough water (or chicken broth) to fully cover chicken breasts.
  
• Bring liquid to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is no longer pink, approximately 10 minutes.
  
• Transfer chicken to large bowl and shred using two forks (or preferred method, see Notes).
  
• In large skillet, heat one tablespoon avocado oil over medium-high heat. When oil is hot, add shredded chicken.
• Reduce heat to medium. Stir in green chiles, fire-roasted tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes.
  
• Reduce heat further to simmer. Stir in taco seasoning.
  
• Heat tortillas in microwave for approximately 15 seconds. See Notes for tips.
• Remove tortillas from microwave and lay out on flat surface. Layer each tortilla with refried beans, shredded chicken mixture, and shredded cheese. Tightly roll tortillas into burritos.
  
• Heat remaining avocado oil in large skillet. When hot, add rolled burritos seam-side down. Sear tortillas 2 to 3 minutes until golden brown, then flip and sear 2 to 3 minutes on other side.
  
• Serve immediately with a side of guacamole (optional).

Notes

• Refried Beans: Use black or pinto refried beans, whichever you prefer.
• Make it Gluten Free: Use gluten free tortillas and gluten free taco seasoning.
• Make it Low Carb: Use low carb flour tortillas.

 

Warming Tortillas

• Place tortilla on microwave safe plate. Cover entire tortilla with damp paper towel. If warming all 4 tortillas at once, stack all 4 tortillas on plate, alternating each tortilla with a damp paper towel. Be sure to cover top tortilla with a paper towel.
• Microwave on high for 15 seconds. Check tortillas – they should be warm and soft. Microwave an additional 15 seconds if needed. Note: if edges of tortilla feel dry or crisp, the paper towel either doesn’t cover the tortilla fully or it needs more moisture. 

 

Shredding Methods

• Hand Shredded: Using your hands/fingers, pull the chicken apart until completely shredded. Pieces can be as big or as small as you like.
• Two Forks: Use one fork to steady the chicken while shredding the chicken with another fork. Work in small, short strokes, moving forks away from each other.
• Hand Mixer: Break the chicken into manageable chunks and place them in a large bowl. Use the standard attachments on your mixer and set mixer to a medium speed. Mix until chicken is completely shredded.
• Stand Mixer: Use the standard paddle attachment and mix on medium-low speed until chicken chunks are completely shredded.
• Food Processor: Break up the cooked chicken breasts into chunks first, and work in multiple batches. Add chicken to food processor and use the plastic dough blade attachment to avoid your chicken turning to mush. Process for 30 seconds or until uniformly shredded. Repeat until all chicken is shredded.

 

Recipe yields 4 burritos. Nutritional values shown are general guidelines, and reflect information for one burrito using Mission Burrito Super Soft Flour Tortillas. Values shown do not include information for optional guacamole. Macros may vary slightly depending on specific types and brands of ingredients used.

Nutrition Information

Serving Size: 1burrito, Calories: 550kcal, Protein: 39g, Fat: 23g, Saturated Fat: 8g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 99mg, Sodium: 1366mg, Potassium: 536mg, Total Carbs: 47g, Fiber: 4g, Sugar: 6g, Net Carbs: 43g, Vitamin A: 673IU, Vitamin C: 6mg, Calcium: 347mg, Iron: 4mg

Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.

 

Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.

 

To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

© Author: Jasmine Comer