Here is a copycat recipe for the chili cheese burrito from Taco Bell restaurant. The chili cheese burrito combines chili flavored ground beef, refried beans and cheddar cheese in a tortilla. To prepare this burrito—ground beef is first browned in the pan and then mixed with refried beans. A sauce is prepared separately and then mixed with the meat and beans and simmered on the stovetop. The sauce mixture gets its flavor from various seasonings and minced jalapeno peppers. These burritos are kind of messy so you might want to eat them with a fork! I like to serve them with Frito chips on the side. Enjoy.
Taco Bell Chili Cheese Burrito Recipe
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 Servings 1x
Ingredients
Scale
- 8 oz refried beans
- 1lb ground beef
- 16 ounces shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- 2 ¼ cups water
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ¼ cup cold water
- 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dried minced onions
- 2 tablespoons canned jalapeno slices (minced)
- 10 inch flour tortillas
Instructions
- Brown the ground beef in a large skillet over medium-high heat while breaking the meat up into small pieces with a spatula.
- In a saucepan combine the tomato paste and water over medium heat. Stir until smooth. Add cayenne pepper, chili powder, salt, vinegar, and dried onion and stir. Add the minced jalapenos. Heat the mixture to boiling. Mix the 2 teaspoons of cornstarch with ¼ cup of cold water and pour into the sauce pan and stir. Reduce heat and simmer for 3 minutes or until the mixture has become thick. Remove from heat.
- Once the beef has browned, drain off any excess grease. Add half of the refried beans to the beef. Slowly add 2 ½ cups of the tomato sauce mixture. Add half of the cheese and cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring constantly. Let simmer for 30 minutes. Spoon ¾ cup of the chili into each tortilla, add cheese and tomato sauce mixture as desired. Wrap up the tortilla.
Here’s the ingredients from the Taco Bell site…you may want to rethink the beans in this recipe.
INGREDIENTS: Cheddar Cheese: Cheddar cheese (cultured pasteurized milk, salt, enzymes, annatto (VC)), anti-caking agent. Contains: Milk [certified vegetarian], Chili (Regional): Seasoned beef*, water, chili seasoning (enriched wheat flour, spices, modified food starch, salt, paprika (VC), maltodextrin, tomato powder (contain soy and wheat), dried onion, garlic powder, sodium alginate, malic acid, monocalcium phosphate). Contains: Wheat, Soy. *See Seasoned Beef ingredient statement, Flour Tortilla: Enriched wheat flour, water, vegetable shortening (soybean, hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil), sugar, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate), molasses, dough conditioner (fumaric acid, distilled monoglycerides, enzymes, vital wheat gluten, cellulose gum, wheat starch, calcium carbonate), calcium propionate, sorbic acid, and/or potassium sorbate (P). Contains: Wheat. [certified vegan]
While very tasty, this was not the Chilito/Chili Cheese burrito from Taco Bell in the PNW. The one I used to eat was like hot, gooey, meat-and-cheese lava and never had a hint of beans. After seeing many people on both sides of the bean debate who state they worked at Taco Bell during the Chilito/Chili Cheese’s tenure, I’m beginning to think that it was prepared differently depending on region. Thanks for your work on this recipe.
Instructions say for a double batch to use 2 16 oz cans of refried beans. Yet later it says to add only half of that to the mixture. What do I do with the other 16 oz can ?
Lori,
You’re right. That is super confusing. You only need 8 oz of beans for a single batch or 16 oz for a double batch. I updated the ingredients list for clarity.
Catherine