I want to tell you something about my kitchen before we get into the recipe. My kitchen is a mess. Not a dangerous mess. Not a health code violation. But there are things stacked on other things. There is a jar of fajita seasoning with a $3.99 price sticker still on it because I bought it at the discount grocery store and I am not ashamed of this. There is wine on the counter because I am cooking and I am an adult and this is allowed.
Here is what is not a mess: my dishes. My cookware. My cast iron skillet, which is seasoned to a mirror finish and treated with more care than most of my relationships. My work surface, which I bleach before I start cooking every single time, even if it’s just two square feet of counter space between the cutting board and the stove. The food is clean. The process is clean. The aesthetic is chaotic. These things can coexist.
Burritos are the perfect food for this kind of cook. The burrito does not care about your mise en place. The burrito does not require precision. The burrito says: what do you have? Put it in me. I will make it work.
This particular batch started because I had steak that needed to be used, peppers that were getting soft, rice left over from two nights ago, and a can of black beans that had been sitting in the cabinet since I bought it with vague intentions. I seasoned the steak with the $3.99 fajita packet. I cooked the peppers and onions in the same pan. I assembled everything on my bleached two square feet of counter with a glass of red wine nearby.
The cast iron is the move. You seal the burritos seam-side down in a hot dry cast iron and they come out golden and tight and they hold together when you pick them up. This is the difference between a burrito and a sad tortilla situation. The cast iron does not negotiate. It delivers.
I made ten of them. I ate two immediately, standing at the stove. I wrapped the rest and put them in the fridge and ate them over the next three days. They were better on day two. Most things are.
The recipe below is a framework, not a prescription. Use what you have. Season it. Put it in a tortilla. Seal it in cast iron. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
✦ Recipe
Random Burritos
prep
20 min
cook
25 min
serves
8–10 burritos
- 1 lb skirt or flank steak, thinly sliced
- 1 packet fajita seasoning (the $3.99 one is fine)
- 1 large red onion, sliced
- 1 each green, orange, and yellow bell pepper, sliced
- 2 cups cooked white rice
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
- 8–10 large flour tortillas
- whatever else is in your fridge, honestly
- 01 Bleach your work surface. I’m serious. Two square feet of clean counter is all you need. Everything else can be chaos.
- 02 Season the steak with fajita seasoning. Heat a large pan over medium-high. Cook the steak in batches until browned and cooked through. Set aside.
- 03 In the same pan, cook the peppers and onions until softened and slightly caramelized, about 8 minutes. Add the steak back in and toss everything together.
- 04 Warm your tortillas. Lay one flat on your clean work surface. Layer: rice, black beans, cheese, then the meat and pepper mixture. Don’t overfill. You will overfill. It’s fine.
- 05 Fold the sides in, then roll from the bottom up. Tight but not aggressive.
- 06 Heat your cast iron skillet over medium. Place burritos seam-side down. Press gently. Cook 2–3 minutes per side until golden and sealed. The cast iron is doing important work here.
- 07 Transfer finished burritos to a tray while you work through the batch. Try not to eat them directly off the pan. You will eat them directly off the pan.
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