chipotle-style salad bowl with homemade pico de gallo

Here's something about me that most people don't know: I worked at Chipotle my first semester in college. That used to really embarrass me. I served tables from the age of 16, and that never bothered me - that felt cool and like a Waite rite of passage because my mom and brother both worked in the restaurant industry for long periods of time. Getting off track for a minute, my earliest memories of eating out are at McDonalds. I can picture the exact McDonalds in Newnan, Georgia - it's still there today. My mom would pay the cashier, and my brother and I - no older than 10 and 6, respectively, would calculate what the 15% tip would be if it were our check at a full-service restaurant. My mom, she's serious about tipping and treating service professionals with respect, as we should all be. But back to Chipotle.

I desperately needed a job. I learned the hard way - after packing my stuff and moving to Nebraska and into a dorm room and starting a full class load fall semester - that just because you get an anticipated financial aid package doesn't mean it's going to cover all the costs. Mine didn't. So I searched for a serving job, but they were all taken. My last option, with heavy feet, I walked into Chipotle and filled out an application. I got hired on the spot. For the next three months, I wore my black visor and embossed shirt, heated tortillas, filled bowls, and desperately avoided eye contact with anyone who might recognize me.

I felt like fast-casual service was less than a step away from flipping burgers, and I was young and entitled and thought it was beneath me. I found a serving job the next semester and a position on campus, and I quit Chipotle. But it was a humbling experience, and I'm glad I went through it. (Another life lesson from my mom, "A paycheck is a paycheck.")

They treated me well. I liked my coworkers and my boss, my shifts were enjoyable, and I totally dug becoming a pro at wrapping those gigantic burritos. That said, it was years after I quit before I ever entered another Chipotle.

Man, I was missing out. I am the first to say that authentic, hole-in-the-wall Mexican joints are some of my favorite places on the planet. I have a favorite in DC (Dulcinea), and I will vouch on my life that it's the best Mexican in the city. But there are days when I don't want to trek to the restaurant, and all I can see when I close my eyes are visions of a bowl layered with lettuce, brown rice, pepper & onion, steak, pico de gallo, corn salsa, the hot salsa, and a small dollop of sour cream and pinch of cheese. Perfect. It is truly delicious. And truly fattening. And truly pricey, when you start craving it 249 times a week.

So I make my own.

When I do go to Chipotle now, I resist jumping behind the counter to roll one of those beasts. It takes skill to not break the tortilla, I'm telling you. And then I mentally calculate a tip and throw it in the tip jar because that's what my mom taught me to do and because sometimes Chipotle is how a kid from Georgia pays her way through school.

diy chipotle-style salad bowl (makes 3 bowls)
head of romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cup brown rice, cooked (on the stove or in a rice cooker - add fresh-squeezed lime juice and a dash of cilantro to get all the flavor chipotle's has)
1 small onion, sliced into half moons
1 red pepper, sliced into strips
1 green pepper, sliced into strips
1 large clove garlic, minced
3 links hot mexican chorizo, skin off
pico de gallo & any other salsas of choice
cheese, sour cream, avocado (optional)

heat a skillet on medium-high heat and begin cooking your chorizo. when it's about halfway done, add onion, pepper, and minced garlic to the skillet. cook the vegetables in the grease from the chorizo. my chorizo yieled little to no fat/grease, so i added a teaspoon of olive oil to cook the vegetables. when the vegetables are slightly softened and aromatic, and the meat is cooked through, pull off the heat and drain on paper towels (if needed). layer your bowl!

pico de gallo (about 1-1.5 cups)
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1/2 diced red onion
1 diced jalapeno
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 lime, juiced
2 teaspoons chopped cilantro
pinch of salt

de-seed your tomatoes (i use a knife and scrape out the innards to keep it simple) and dice. combine with all other ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. use more jalapeno and garlic per your taste. squeeze the lime juice into the mixture. mix and chill for 30 minutes to an hour before scooping onto your bowl and digging into with tortilla chips.