Copycat chipotle
My favourite food experience when we were in New York this past July was having lunch at Chipotle. It's a way different experience from the typical Mexican food you get in South Africa - fresh and packed with flavour, so I just had to try and make it once we got home.
A lot of inspiration for this recipe came from here and here - but adjusted for the ingredients that I can easily find in South Africa and a little bit for our tastes.
This recipe is to create a Chipotle chicken bowl, but you can easily do a burrito just by adding a store-bought wrap, or a taco, or whatever. My kids tried it as burrito once and liked it but not enough to make me buy wraps every time, so bowls it is.
The basic idea is that you layer the following in a bowl:
Coriander and lime basmati rice
Black beans
Stir-fried veggies (Chipotle calls them fajitas)
Meat (Chipotle has a LOT of options - chicken, beef, pork, chorizo, tofu etc but we generally do chicken or pork)
Salsa
Cheese
Sour cream
Guacamole
Lettuce (Chipotle does a beautiful mixed lettuce, apparently baby kale, baby spinach and romaine; I usually just do mixed baby lettuce leaves)
In this picture, I also added a bit of corn salsa - just a mixture of barely cooked frozen corn with some red onion, roasted poblano pepper, jalapeno, coriander and lime/lemon juice, from this recipe.
I'll do the short version of each of these recipes below, and maybe if I have time later I will expand them as separate posts and change this one to be links only.
Coriander and lime basmati rice
Pretty simple - cook some basmati, and while it's still warm add a couple of big handfuls of chopped coriander and the juice of one or two limes, to taste. You want to add enough so that the rice has a good zing of freshness.
Black beans
I have tried this recipe using the slow cooker, but found that the dried black beans simply don't cook until they're as soft as the canned, even when I let them cook for 2 days. So canned it is.
Ingredients:
1 can black beans
1 onion
1/2 a red pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1-2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
salt, to taste
Liquid smoke, optional (you can probably skip this if you have chile powder and adobe sauce in the chicken marinade, since it adds smokiness)
Chicken when just added to the pan - lovely red colour from the marinade
Just about cooked and the flavours are filling the kitchen, amazing!
Salsa
Chipotle offers you a choice of mild, medium or hot salsa. The mild is simply pico di gallo (which I avoid due to the fresh tomatoes, but my family enjoy) and then a cooked salsa for the medium or hot. I've found this salsa to be unbelievably good with this dish, so that's what I do, but feel free to make your own or substitute for whatever salsa you like.
A lot of inspiration for this recipe came from here and here - but adjusted for the ingredients that I can easily find in South Africa and a little bit for our tastes.
This recipe is to create a Chipotle chicken bowl, but you can easily do a burrito just by adding a store-bought wrap, or a taco, or whatever. My kids tried it as burrito once and liked it but not enough to make me buy wraps every time, so bowls it is.
The basic idea is that you layer the following in a bowl:
Coriander and lime basmati rice
Black beans
Stir-fried veggies (Chipotle calls them fajitas)
Meat (Chipotle has a LOT of options - chicken, beef, pork, chorizo, tofu etc but we generally do chicken or pork)
Salsa
Cheese
Sour cream
Guacamole
Lettuce (Chipotle does a beautiful mixed lettuce, apparently baby kale, baby spinach and romaine; I usually just do mixed baby lettuce leaves)
In this picture, I also added a bit of corn salsa - just a mixture of barely cooked frozen corn with some red onion, roasted poblano pepper, jalapeno, coriander and lime/lemon juice, from this recipe.
I'll do the short version of each of these recipes below, and maybe if I have time later I will expand them as separate posts and change this one to be links only.
Coriander and lime basmati rice
Pretty simple - cook some basmati, and while it's still warm add a couple of big handfuls of chopped coriander and the juice of one or two limes, to taste. You want to add enough so that the rice has a good zing of freshness.
Black beans
I have tried this recipe using the slow cooker, but found that the dried black beans simply don't cook until they're as soft as the canned, even when I let them cook for 2 days. So canned it is.
Ingredients:
1 can black beans
1 onion
1/2 a red pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1-2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
salt, to taste
Liquid smoke, optional (you can probably skip this if you have chile powder and adobe sauce in the chicken marinade, since it adds smokiness)
2-3 slices bacon, chopped, optional
Method:
Stir-fry the onion and pepper, and bacon if using, for a few minutes until soft. Add the garlic and spices and fry for another minute, then add the bay leaves and can of beans. You can either add the liquid from the can or drain and add water or stock. The Chipotle version is in this black liquid which I suspect is just the can liquids. Cook this for 20 minutes or so on low heat to let all the flavours infuse, and then keep warm until you serve it. Just before serving, add a few dashes of liquid smoke (I use this one); it gives this lovely deep smoky flavour to the whole dish.
Stir-fried veggies
I must admit that I've never actually made the stir-fried veggies - I always plan to and when push comes to shove it feels like too much effort. But tonight for "book club" I'm planning to do these (and I'll only publish this post after, since I'll have a chance to take pictures) so this is what I'm planning to do:
1 green pepper
1 red onion
pinch of salt
dried oregano (fresh would be better if you have)
Cut the veggies into long strips and fry in olive oil on low heat until soft, 5-10 minutes. Add spices. That's it.
Chicken
The secret with the chicken is in the marinade. Unfortunately we don't have easy access to many of the ingredients in the US copycat recipes but I've managed to make a very decent version using substitutions (Google is our friend).
Marinade ingredients:
2 T ancho chile powder
Method:
Stir-fry the onion and pepper, and bacon if using, for a few minutes until soft. Add the garlic and spices and fry for another minute, then add the bay leaves and can of beans. You can either add the liquid from the can or drain and add water or stock. The Chipotle version is in this black liquid which I suspect is just the can liquids. Cook this for 20 minutes or so on low heat to let all the flavours infuse, and then keep warm until you serve it. Just before serving, add a few dashes of liquid smoke (I use this one); it gives this lovely deep smoky flavour to the whole dish.
Stir-fried veggies
I must admit that I've never actually made the stir-fried veggies - I always plan to and when push comes to shove it feels like too much effort. But tonight for "book club" I'm planning to do these (and I'll only publish this post after, since I'll have a chance to take pictures) so this is what I'm planning to do:
1 green pepper
1 red onion
pinch of salt
dried oregano (fresh would be better if you have)
Cut the veggies into long strips and fry in olive oil on low heat until soft, 5-10 minutes. Add spices. That's it.
Chicken
The secret with the chicken is in the marinade. Unfortunately we don't have easy access to many of the ingredients in the US copycat recipes but I've managed to make a very decent version using substitutions (Google is our friend).
Marinade ingredients:
2 T ancho chile powder
2 T adobo sauce
(If you can't find chile powder and adobo sauce, substitute with 1 50 g packet of tomato paste)
2 tablespoons smoked paprika (I use this one or this one which you can sometimes find at portuguese shops and even Woollies sometimes has it. You can probably use plain paprika but smoked is better.)
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper
Mix all of the marinade ingredients together. You can add more oil or even water to thin it out - the volume here is enough for about 8 chicken breasts.
Marinade skinless chicken fillets for at least 30 minutes - it will probably be magic if you leave it longer but I don't have that kind of patience. Then fry them in a pan for 10 minutes or so until just cooked through. Watch for the tomato burning; a bit of charring is great but you don't want it to taste burnt. Cut the chicken fillets into pieces.
2 tablespoons smoked paprika (I use this one or this one which you can sometimes find at portuguese shops and even Woollies sometimes has it. You can probably use plain paprika but smoked is better.)
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper
Mix all of the marinade ingredients together. You can add more oil or even water to thin it out - the volume here is enough for about 8 chicken breasts.
Marinade skinless chicken fillets for at least 30 minutes - it will probably be magic if you leave it longer but I don't have that kind of patience. Then fry them in a pan for 10 minutes or so until just cooked through. Watch for the tomato burning; a bit of charring is great but you don't want it to taste burnt. Cut the chicken fillets into pieces.
Chicken when just added to the pan - lovely red colour from the marinade
Just about cooked and the flavours are filling the kitchen, amazing!
Salsa
Chipotle offers you a choice of mild, medium or hot salsa. The mild is simply pico di gallo (which I avoid due to the fresh tomatoes, but my family enjoy) and then a cooked salsa for the medium or hot. I've found this salsa to be unbelievably good with this dish, so that's what I do, but feel free to make your own or substitute for whatever salsa you like.
For my first time making this since moving to Australia, we tried this one and it was amazing. Very liquid, more sauce than salsa, but the flavour is fantastic.
Guacamole
Being the tomato-phobe that I am, I do not add tomatoes to my guacamole - mine is simply mashed avo with salt, lime juice and chopped coriander, but you can do whatever you want to make it your way. I have found a Chipotle copycat recipe that states they don't use tomatoes either though.
Guacamole
Being the tomato-phobe that I am, I do not add tomatoes to my guacamole - mine is simply mashed avo with salt, lime juice and chopped coriander, but you can do whatever you want to make it your way. I have found a Chipotle copycat recipe that states they don't use tomatoes either though.
Other additions
Sour cream and grated cheese are borderline compulsory to take this to the next level. You can add some more chopped coriander (cilantro) over the top too.
That's it! Deliciousness ensues.
That's it! Deliciousness ensues.
Comments
Post a Comment