Take Your Burrito To The Next Level And Smother It With These 2 Store-Bought Ingredients

You may look at a rolled burrito and see an end result, but with just a few store-bought ingredients, it's actually just the beginning. While plenty delicious and popular as a handheld food, burritos can also serve as the base of some real hearty knife-and-fork dishes. The most popular version of this, and the easiest, is a burrito smothered in sauce, which is known as a "wet" burrito. It's a quick way to transform the flavor of your meal into something that maintains most of what people love about it but somehow feels totally different. When talking to food truck owner and "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" winner Miguel Escobedo about tips for making burritos, he said two ingredients you always want to consider when smothering a burrito are enchilada sauce and cheese.

Those are far from the only options for making a smothered burrito, but they are widely available and a great place to start. The ambiguously named enchilada sauce usually comes in two store-bought varieties: red and green. Both are welcome additions. Red enchilada sauce is usually smooth and made with red chiles, while green comes from tomatillos and green chiles, not that different from many salsa verdes. The cheese you want to use for smothering a burrito is pretty much any melting cheese you like. Different versions of Monterey Jack, like cheddar jack or pepper jack, are the go-to options, but you can also opt for a Mexican cheese option like Oaxaca.

Making a smothered burrito is as easy as buying the ingredients. All you need to do is make a burrito the normal way with the fillings of your choice, then put it on an oven-safe pan. Cover it in sauce, then the shredded cheese, to make sure the heat can better melt it. Then, just stick it under a broiler until the cheese is melted to your liking.

There are plenty of other store-bought ingredients that can be subbed in here to take the place of the enchilada sauce while still providing the same spice. Two great options that are very similar are the New Mexico favorites: red chile sauce and Hatch green chile sauce. Both are increasingly available nationwide and often take the place of red and green enchilada sauce in their home state. In fact, almost any saucy salsa can work. Escobedo recommends mole sauce as well, although you may want to try that without cheese. If you want a slightly more unique option, go extra meaty and cover your burrito with some good canned chili.

While store-bought enchilada sauce will be solid and quick, you also have the option of homemade enchilada sauce. It's a great, versatile sauce that's worth having around on its own merits, and it will save you a trip to the store next time you're craving a smothered burrito.