A burrito is a type of Mexican food consisting of a flour tortilla wrapped around a filling. The tortilla is commonly warmed on a griddle and then folded around any number of fillings, such as rice, beans, salsa, cheese, and meat. Burritos are a popular food item at Mexican restaurants and fast food chains. They make for a convenient, hand-held meal.
While burritos are typically assembled “dry”, meaning the ingredients inside are not wet or saucy, some people enjoy making their burritos “wet” by adding extra sauce, gravy, or other liquids. This results in a messier, saucier burrito. So what exactly does it mean to make a burrito wet? Let’s explore the implications and results of a wet burrito.
Reasons People Make Burritos Wet
There are a few main motivations for making a wet burrito:
Adding Extra Flavor
Adding extra sauce or gravy to a burrito provides an extra blast of flavor. Things like green or red salsa, queso, mole sauce, enchilada sauce, and chile sauce can all bring lots of zesty flavor when liberally added to a burrito. Some people find a regular dry burrito to be too bland or monotonous. Making it wet amps up the flavor experience of each bite.
Making It Easier to Eat
Occasionally a very overstuffed burrito with a lot of dry contents like rice, beans, and meat can be difficult to chew and swallow. Adding a wet sauce helps moisten the contents and makes the burrito easier to eat. The liquid helps the solid contents slide down the throat with less effort. This makes wet burritos appealing for those who don’t want to tussle too much with an overpacked tortilla.
Enhancing Texture
A wet burrito has a different mouthfeel than a dry one. The added moisture makes the bite more luscious and velvety. Some people simply enjoy the enhanced texture of a sauce-smothered burrito versus a plain or sparsely filled one. Getting to sink your teeth into moist, saucy food can be satisfying for texture enthusiasts.
Meeting Cravings
For some folks, wet burritos satisfy flavor cravings more intensely. The combination of the rich, starchy tortilla, hearty fillings, gooey cheese, and bright, tangy sauces creates an indulgent flavor bomb that hits the spot when one is craving serious Mexican flavors. It’s an easy way to experience lots of textures and flavors in one handheld meal.
Adhering to Regional Styles
In parts of California and the Southwest United States, wet burritos are a regional food specialty. Restaurants in these areas may automatically serve wet burritos unless otherwise specified. Making them wet aligns with local flavor profiles and traditions. Allowing the burrito to get soggy helps create the desired end product.
Popular Types of “Wet” Burritos
While any burrito can theoretically become wet with enough added liquid, certain styles lend themselves especially well to getting drenched and saucy:
Smothered Burritos
A smothered burrito is covered with sauce like red or green enchilada sauce or queso sauce. The thick sauce completely smothers the tortilla, saturating it with flavor. Beans, meat, rice, and cheese end up totally saturated in the sauce as well. This creates a cohesive and intense saucy bite.
Wet Beef or Chicken Burritos
Ground beef or shredded chicken fillings work well for wet burritos because they readily absorb sauce. The meat also adds hearty, filling protein that pairs nicely with the rich sauce. The beef or chicken burrito is topped with chile sauce, cheese sauce, mole, or another wet topping to create a satisfying hand-held meal.
Breakfast Burritos
Breakfast burritos with eggs, potatoes, bacon, and sausage are ideal candidates for getting doused with sauce. Popular wet breakfast burrito sauces include salsa, green chile sauce, and red or white breakfast gravies. The gravy perfectly moistens the breakfast ingredients.
California Burritos
This style of burrito contains ingredients like french fries, carne asada meat, guacamole, and pico de gallo. Originating in San Diego, it begs to be made wet by adding on extra salsa or “adobada” red chile sauce. The liquid helps unify the crispy fries with the other fillings.
Mexican-Style Wet Burritos
In Mexico, burritos are often served wet by default. They are bathed in a red or green sauce or meat gravy to add moisture and richness. Beans, rice, onions, cilantro, and salsa soak up the sauce to bring everything together.
Techniques for Making Burritos Wet
There are a few main cooking methods for transforming a standard dry burrito into a deliciously sloppy wet burrito:
Dipping or Dunking
Once the burrito has been assembled, simply dip it or dunk it into a bowl of sauce before eating. This allows the tortilla and fillings to soak up flavorful liquid with each bite. Salsas, enchilada sauce, queso, and chile sauces work great for dipping.
Topping Individual Burritos
Spoon, ladle, or pour sauce over top of each assembled burrito. Let it drizzle down the sides and pool in the plate. The burrito will become saucier as it’s consumed bite by bite. This is good for customization when making burritos for a group.
Smothering Plate of Burritos
For a big plate of burritos being served family-style, smother them with sauce all at once before serving. Put down a base sauce layer over the whole plate, then arrange the rolled burritos and finally top with more sauce. This lets the tortillas baste in it.
Mixing Into Filling
For mega-wetness, add extra liquid directly to the burrito filling before wrapping the tortillas. Mix salsa, gravy, or sauce right into the rice, beans, meat, peppers, etc. This essentially guarantees sogginess. Just beware of over-stuffing the burrito which could cause it to fall apart.
Cooking with Sauce
Cooking proteins like ground beef, carnitas, or chicken in sauce will infuse them with wetness. Then add the saucy meat into your burrito. Similarly, simmer beans or rice in a tomatillo or mole sauce. The ingredients will absorb maximum moisture.
Garnishing Toppings
After assembling the burrito, garnish it with wet toppings that will seep downward into the tortilla layers underneath. Options include drizzled crema, queso, guacamole, shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, and sliced olives. This adds delicious bursts of moisture.
Potential Drawbacks of Wet Burritos
While saucy, soaked burritos can taste amazing, the wet style does come with a few disadvantages:
Messiness
Excessive liquid in a burrito almost inevitably leads to mess. The tortilla shell loses structural integrity and can split open, spilling contents everywhere. This causes spillage onto hands, clothes, and plates. Wet burritos may be most practical when eating at home casually.
Sogginess
Nobody likes a soggy, mushy tortilla. Too much moisture makes the burrito floppy, slippery, and downright messy. The tortilla itself can start disintegrating, making the burrito hard to eat like a typical hand-held food. There’s a fine line between just right and overly soggy.
Less Portable
Unfortunately wet burritos don’t travel particularly well. The liquid makes them prone to falling apart so they’re best consumed immediately. Dry burritos can be packed to-go, but wet ones are likely to make a mess inside a take-out container or bag.
Masking Fresh Ingredients
Some argue that overloading burritos with sauce detracts from the fresh, bright flavors of ingredients like cilantro, lime, avocado, and pico de gallo. When everything becomes drenched, individual components get muddied together. Balance is key for maximum flavor.
Fat and Calorie Content
While certainly delicious, combining a carb-heavy tortilla, hearty fillings, and fatty sauces ratchets up the calorie and fat content. For those watching their waistline or blood sugar levels, naked burritos are generally healthier. But an occasional indulgent wet burrito may be worth it!
Serving Suggestions
Here are some tips for serving wet burritos while minimizing the mess:
– Provide lots of napkins so diners can wipe their hands. Wet burritos are not dainty eats!
– Use a plate or shallow bowl rather than just a napkin or piece of parchment paper. This catches any spilled toppings or fillings.
– Use lettuce leaves or rice under the burrito to soak up excess moisture pooling on the plate.
– Cut the burrito in half or quarters using a knife and fork. This minimizes messy bites.
– Include a spoon for scooping up saucy fillings that may ooze out.
– Set out small dishes of extra sauce for dipping bites, rather than soaking the whole burrito.
– For to-go orders, wrap wet burritos in foil and serve with the seam side up to prevent leakage.
– If eating by hand, have a pile of spare tortillas available just in case the first one disintegrates!
Recipes for Fantastic Wet Burritos
Want to get in the kitchen and start enjoying delicious wet burritos? Try out these top-rated recipes for making your burritos sensationally sloppy:
Smothered Chicken Burritos
| Ingredients | Instructions |
| 2 tablespoons oil | 1. In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and cook 1 minute. Add chicken and spices. Cook until chicken is cooked through, about 5-7 minutes. |
| 1 onion, diced | 2. Warm tortillas in microwave 30 seconds. Divide chicken mixture between tortillas. Top with beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, sour cream, and salsa. |
| 2 cloves garlic, minced | 3. Fold tortillas over filling and place on serving plates. Smother with desired sauce (red enchilada sauce, green chile sauce, etc.) |
| 1 lb. boneless chicken thighs | 4. Optionally garnish with extra toppings like guacamole, olives, cilantro before serving. |
| Taco seasoning | |
| 8 flour tortillas | |
| Refried beans | |
| Shredded cheese | |
| Lettuce, sour cream, salsa | |
| Enchilada sauce |
Carnitas Wet Burritos
| Ingredients | Instructions |
| 1 lb. pork carnitas | 1. In a skillet, heat a bit of the pork lard over medium-high heat. Add the chopped onions and jalapeno. Cook for 1 minute. |
| 1 onion, chopped | 2. Add the carnitas and toss to coat. Add 1/2 cup of enchilada sauce and toss to coat. Cook until heated through, about 3 minutes. |
| 1 jalapeno, sliced | 3. Microwave tortillas to warm them up, about 30 seconds. |
| 8 flour tortillas | 4. Place carnita mixture down the center of the tortillas. Top with beans, rice, cheese, cilantro, and crema. |
| Refried beans | 5. Fold and place on serving plates. Smother with remaining enchilada sauce. |
| Brown rice | 6. Garnish with extra crema, cilantro, and lime wedges if desired. |
| Shredded cheese | |
| Cilantro | |
| Crema | |
| Enchilada sauce |
Chimichanga Wet Burritos
| Ingredients | Instructions |
| 1 lb. ground beef | 1. In a skillet over medium heat, cook ground beef until browned and crumbled. Drain excess fat. |
| Taco seasoning | 2. Add taco seasoning and sauce and mix well to coat beef. |
| Enchilada sauce | 3. Place some beef mixture into each tortilla. Top with beans, rice, cheese, and other desired fillings. |
| 8 flour tortillas | 4. Tightly roll up tortillas and place seam side down in air fryer or oven. Cook at 400F for 10-15 minutes until browned and crispy. |
| Refried beans | 5. Remove chimichangas and place on serving plates. Smother with more enchilada sauce. |
| Mexican rice | 6. Top with salsa, guacamole, crema, cilantro, etc. |
| Shredded cheese | |
| Salsa | |
| Guacamole | |
| Crema | |
| Cilantro |
Conclusion
While saucy, drippy burritos can seem messy and indulgent, they provide incredibly satisfying texture and flavors. There are many techniques for achieving deliciously wet burritos, from mixing in sauces to smothering on toppings. Just be prepared with plenty of napkins! When made with care, wet burritos are a wonderful way to experience all the best textures and aromas Mexican cuisine has to offer. With the right balance of tortilla, fillings, and sauce, a wet burrito can be an amazing culinary experience.