Chipotle restaurant is a Mexican fast food chain with a limited menu of only five items: burritos, fajita burritos, burrito bowls, tacos and salads. You can order what you want on a burrito, taco or salad, including choices like chicken, pork, beef or vegetables. The price depends primarily on what you choose for the main entree. You can also order side items, such as rice or beans, or burrito toppings like guacamole, salsa, sour cream, cheese or lettuce.
Burrito and Burrito Bowl
Chipotle's burrito is a large flour tortilla rolled up with rice, beans, meat, salsa, cheese and sour cream. The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) sent a batch of Chipotle burritos to an independent lab for nutritional testing and found that many of the burritos were high in calories, including the chicken (1,000 calories and 12g of saturated fat), the shredded beef (1,300 calories and 14g of saturated fat) and the vegetarian (1,120 calories and 14g of saturated fat). Tested burritos included black or pinto beans, rice, cheese, salsa and guacamole. To cut calories, order the burrito as a bowl (without the tortilla), because each tortilla has 290 calories and 3g of saturated fat. The burrito bowl has 160 to 640 calories, depending on what you order. Skip high-fat items, like cheese and sour cream to save more calories. Chipotle also has a fajita burrito on the menu, with 350 to 830 calories. The fajita burrito has 2.5 oz. of sautéed peppers and onions instead of beans. These vegetables have only 20 calories and no saturated fat, compared to pinto or black beans in a standard burrito with 120 calories.
Taco
Chipotle offers a variety of choices for meat or vegetable tacos, wrapped in a soft flour or hard corn tortilla shell. Taco tortillas are smaller and lighter than burritos: the flour taco shell has only 90 calories and 1g of saturated fat and the crispy taco shell has only 60 calories and 0.5g of saturated fat. Total calorie count for the tacos ranges from 320 to 670 calories, depending on the main ingredients you select. Adding more ingredients can increase the calorie count. An independent lab test sponsored by the CSPI found that the chicken soft taco with cheese, lettuce and salsa has 710 calories and about 14g of saturated fat.
Salad
Chipotle's salads have chopped romaine lettuce served with black or pinto beans, chicken, steak, pork, or beef, and salsa and cheese. The dressing offered is a 2-oz. serving of chipotle-honey vinaigrette with 260 calories and 4g of saturated fat. Total calories for the salad range from 170 to 780, depending on what you order.
Salsa
Chipotle has four kinds of salsa available with any menu item. The salsa is fat-free. Mild is made with fresh tomatoes and has only 20 calories per serving. Medium is made from roasted green chilies and corn with only 80 calories per serving. Medium hot has the least calories, only 15 calories per serving, and is made from tomatillo (a small Mexican green vegetable) and green chilies. Hot has 40 calories per serving and is made from tomatillos and red chilies.
Side Orders
Side items, like fried tortilla chips and salsa or guacamole are also available for an extra charge. These items come in servings for two people. Chips and guacamole has 720 total calories (or 360 per person) and chips with salsa have 590 to 650 calories (or 295 to 325 per person). Guacamole by itself (no chips) has 150 calories, and the tortilla chips alone (served in a bag for two) have 570 calories.
Member Comments