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A chimichanga: The quintessential Tex-Mex dish.
PLATE UP
You can’t go wrong by taking something delicious and deep-frying it. Just ask the good people of Scotland, who deep-fry everything from haggis to pizza to Mars Bars.
Americans, too, understand the greatness of a foodstuff allowed to wallow in hot oil – hence, the popularity of the chimichanga.
This is a quintessential Tex-Mex dish, a standard flour-tortilla burrito filled with rice, beans, meat of some sort, and American cheese, that’s deep-fried until crisp on the outside and all hot and gooey inside.
It’s then topped with even more melted cheese, or enchilada sauce, or salsa verde, and served. You know it makes sense.
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FIRST SERVE
Though there’s plenty of conjecture over who exactly invented the chimichanga, it’s reasonably certain that it was done in Tucson, Arizona.
There, multiple restaurants claim to have been the host of a mysterious cook who dropped a burrito into a deep-fryer by accident and exclaimed, “Chimichanga!” – a bastardisation of a popular Mexican-Spanish curse word. And a legend was born.
Are any of these stories true? Probably not. But by the 1950s, everyone in Tucson was deep-frying their burritos.
ORDER THERE
One of those restaurants that lays claim to the chimichanga’s creation is still around today: El Charro Cafe in Tucson (elcharrocafe.com). Founded in 1922, El Charro is also Tucson’s oldest Mexican restaurant.
ORDER HERE
Bay of Plenty’s The Barrio Brothers takes its chimichangas very seriously, offering three varieties across its two locations in Tauranga and Mount Maunganui (https://barriobrothers.co.nz).
In Auckland, Mexican food truck Taco Loco takes large flour wraps and stuffs them with the filling of your choice – chicken, beef or jackfruit – before throwing them in the deep fryer (tacoloconz.co.nz), while fellow mobile vendor Māorimex is known for its unique creations, including strawberry cheesecake and breakfast chimichangas (maorimex.co.nz).
ONE MORE THING
Though chimichangas are almost certainly American in origin and are generally disavowed by Mexicans, the dish does get a brief mention in Diana Kennedy’s seminal book on traditional Mexican cookery, The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, and “chivichangas” are served in some restaurants south of the border.
– traveller.com.au
