Shredded Beef or Pork Chimichangas

Submitted by Chef Booshman

"This is the one recipe everybody asks me for. This recipe is an all day project. It is well worth the effort. If you have a large freezer, you'd probably fill it up with these. The kids can eat these when they come home from school, a quick dinner when you don't feel like cooking, etc. When I tripled this recipe I started at 10am and finished around 6pm. I made about 60 of these. I roll up the sleeves and make these about twice a year. There is always a family gathering on the night they come out fresh. Bet you can't eat just one!"

 

• Ready In: 4hrs 30mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 10-20

ingredients

• 3 lbs beef (cheap roast kind, or pork shoulder) or 3 lbs pork (cheap roast kind, or pork shoulder)
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons oregano leaves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground red pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon white pepper
• 1⁄2 teaspoon black pepper
• 6 -8 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• water
• 20 flour tortillas, 9-inch (dinner plate size)
• 1 lb monterey jack cheese or 1 lb cheddar cheese
• canola oil (for frying)

directions

1. Cut meat into large chunks (3-4") and place in cooking pot. cover with water. Add all ingredients except for last three items.
2. Bring to a boil then cover and cook on medium hear for at least two hours.
3. After 2 hours, bring back to full boil with lid removed.
4. While evaporating water, remove several pieces for pot and shred using two forks. When only +/- 1/2" of goop is left in the pot, remove from heat and return shredded meat back to the pot and blend with remaining slurry.
5. Open a package of tortillas and place in microwave with a wet paper towel placed on top. Microwave on high for 1 minute.
6. Place a tortilla on plate and spoon 1-2 Tblspn of meat at bottom of tortilla. Sprinkle with shredded cheese, chopped onion(optional) and roll up burrito style.
7. Repeat with remaining tortillas until all the meat is used up.
8. In large skillet, heat up 1-1/2" depth of oil to approximately 350 degrees. (If you put too much oil in the skillet or if it gets too hot, the chimis will begin to unravel). Cook until browned on each side (about 3 minutes). Drain on paper toweling.
9. Eat'em while they're warm -- freeze the rest.
10. Reheat frozen ones in the microwave on high for three minutes or place on rack in a preheated 450 degree oven for 8-10 minutes.
11. Serve with chopped tomato, lettuce, cheese, sour cream (stuff you'd put on a taco).

Reviews

[Mande B.]

The flavors in this were fantastic! Next time, I will do it in the crockpot so I can just "set it & forget it".

 

[sudenkorento13]

This is a delicious recipe! I used leftover pulled pork (that had been cooked with latin american spices), and the results: YUM! I'm not sure what Poollady 5's problem was with your recipe (she should've just written her own recipe, and spelled chimichanga correctly, especially when attempting to eviscerate another person's recipe!); I'm sure there are many ways to prepare chimichangas, but I found YOUR recipe to be very tasty. Everyone around my dinner table was happy!

 

[Loraine S.]

This recipe is impossible to mess up and it's insanely delicious! It's become a staple in my house we have it at least twice a month. Thank you for the great recipe it's one of my favorite things to cook!

 

[AshleyMiranda]

Ridiculously good! Seriously incredible! I've tried to make chimichangas before and they just didn't turn out but I decided to give it another try and picked this recipe because it seemed fairly easy and straightforward. I've been trying to cut some fat out of my diet so I used a very lean pork tip roast and threw it in my crockpot with all of the spices and stuff for 8 hours. When it was done I didn't even have to shred the meat it was so tender, it fell apart as soon as I took it out of the pot! A couple pulls of my fork and it was ready to go. I didn't reduce the liquid down, I just strained the onions out of the liquid (personal preference) and added some of the liquid into the meat. The first two I put into the pan ended up falling apart so I stuck some toothpicks into the ends of the others and fried them folded side down first and then pulled the toothpicks out and flipped them over. Absolutely amazing! I can't wait to heat the rest up for lunch tomorrow!

 

[gailanng]

Requested by kid #3. Ohh and shall I, too, pass the sour cream, your Royal Highness?