{"id":4667,"date":"2010-10-26T15:44:10","date_gmt":"2010-10-26T21:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/?p=4667"},"modified":"2010-10-26T15:44:10","modified_gmt":"2010-10-26T21:44:10","slug":"chi-chis-chimichangas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/26\/chi-chis-chimichangas\/","title":{"rendered":"Chi-Chi&#8217;s Chimichangas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After this recipe, y&#8217;all are going to think that I only cook Mexican food (actually Tex-Mex) and sweets!\u00c2\u00a0 Tex-Mex IS my favorite type of food and since there is so much variety within that category, we usually have Tex-Mex once a week.\u00c2\u00a0 This recipe is a recreation of the famous chimichangas from the Tex-Mex chain Chi-Chi&#8217;s, which closed the last of its 65 restaurants in 2004. \u00c2\u00a0 Did you ever visit Chi-Chi&#8217;s?\u00c2\u00a0 Did you ever try their chimichangas?\u00c2\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t (and I&#8217;m not even sure if there was one in Houston), but I wanted to try this recipe all the same.<\/p>\n<p>There are several things about this recipe that make it a star.\u00c2\u00a0 The cooking technique for the chimichangas (baked, brushed with oil and butter) keep them from being too greasy like a typically fried chimichanga, and get the flour tortilla nice and crispy.\u00c2\u00a0 The filling has amazing flavor with hints of fire-roasted tomatoes (okay, that was my own substitution), fresh cilantro, and a hint of cinnamon.\u00c2\u00a0 And last but not least is that delicious Mexi-sauce on top which is creamy and zesty and just perfect with the chimichangas.\u00c2\u00a0 I used a store-bought rotisserie this week because I was feeling lazy, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/16\/crock-pot-mexican-chicken\/\">Crockpot Mexican Chicken<\/a> would be just perfect for this!<\/p>\n<p>One other note about the tortillas and filling instructions.\u00c2\u00a0 I used made-fresh-at-the-store tortillas instead of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/06\/homemade-tortillas\/\">making my own<\/a>, and since my tortillas were smaller than 10&#8243;, I had to cut back my filling drastically (which I learned the hard way).\u00c2\u00a0 So keep that in mind.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Chimichangas.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4671\" title=\"Chimichangas\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Chimichangas.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"557\" height=\"327\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Chimichangas.jpg 557w, https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/Chimichangas-300x176.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 557px) 100vw, 557px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>Chi-Chi&#8217;s Chimichangas<\/h4>\n<p>adapted from from Food Network Magazine, October 2010<\/p>\n<p>Ingredients:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 tablespoons unsalted butter<\/li>\n<li>4 tablespoons vegetable oil<\/li>\n<li>1 white onion, chopped<\/li>\n<li>3 cloves garlic, chopped<\/li>\n<li>1 jalapeno pepper, diced (remove seeds for less heat)<\/li>\n<li>1 1\/2 teaspoons chili powder<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 teaspoon cumin<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon<\/li>\n<li>Kosher salt<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 cup diced fire roasted tomatoes<\/li>\n<li>2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro<\/li>\n<li>2 1\/2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken<\/li>\n<li>1\/4 cup sour cream<\/li>\n<li>1 15-oz can refried beans<\/li>\n<li>4 10-inch flour tortillas<\/li>\n<li>1 cup shredded monterey jack cheese, plus more for topping<\/li>\n<li>Mexi-sauce, for topping (see recipe below)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.\u00c2\u00a0 Melt the butter with 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a skillet; transfer to a bowl.\u00c2\u00a0 Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil in the skillet.\u00c2\u00a0 Add the onion, garlic, and jalapeno and cook until soft, about 3 minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Add the chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt; toast 30 seconds.\u00c2\u00a0 Add the tomato and cilantro and cook until slightly dry, about 2 minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Stir in the chicken and sour cream and warm through.\u00c2\u00a0 Remove from the heat.<\/p>\n<p>Brush a rimmed baking sheet with some of the butter-oil mixture.\u00c2\u00a0 Spread 2 tablespoons refried beans down the center of each tortilla, leaving a 2-inch border on both ends.\u00c2\u00a0 Top with 1 cup chicken mixture and 1\/4 cup cheese.\u00c2\u00a0 Fold in the ends and roll up.<\/p>\n<p>Put the chimichangas seam-side down on the baking sheet; brush with the butter-oil mixture.\u00c2\u00a0 Bake 8 to 10 minutes per side, brushing again after you flip.\u00c2\u00a0 Top with the sauce and more cheese.\u00c2\u00a0 Serve with remaining beans and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2010\/01\/22\/mexican-rice\/\">Mexican Rice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h4>Chi-Chi&#8217;s Mexi-sauce<\/h4>\n<p>Saute <em>1\/2 cup chopped onion<\/em> and <em>2 chopped garlic cloves<\/em> in a skillet with vegetable oil.\u00c2\u00a0 Add a pinch each of <em>chili powder<\/em>, <em>cumin<\/em>, <em>sugar<\/em> and <em>salt<\/em>; cook 30 seconds.\u00c2\u00a0 Stir in <em>two 4-ounce cans chopped green chiles<\/em>, cook 2 minutes.\u00c2\u00a0 Add <em>1 cup chicken broth<\/em> and simmer until thickened, then puree.\u00c2\u00a0 Stir in <em>1\/4 cup chopped cilantro<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"linkwithin_hook\" id=\"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/2010\/10\/26\/chi-chis-chimichangas\/\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After this recipe, y&#8217;all are going to think that I only cook Mexican food (actually Tex-Mex) and sweets!\u00c2\u00a0 Tex-Mex IS my favorite type of food and since there is so much variety within that category, we usually have Tex-Mex once a week.\u00c2\u00a0 This recipe is a recreation of the famous chimichangas from the Tex-Mex chain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,48,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chicken","category-recipes","category-restaurants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4667"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4676,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4667\/revisions\/4676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepickyapple.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}