How to get 86 percent more burrito from Chipotle for free

Chipotle restaurant workers fill orders for customers on the day that the company announced it will only use non-GMO ingredients in its food. Getty Images

By Meagan McGinnes

2 minutes to read

This may be the most important thing you read all day.

Apartment List intern Dylan Grosz has discovered how to get more burrito for your buck at Chipotle. Literally.

One day he was discussing with co-workers the age-old question, “How do I get more for my money at Chipotle?’’ Then he decided to scientifically test it.

Grosz said the experiment was conducted through seven trials with five burritos each, purchasing 35 burritos total—don’t worry no burritos were wasted in the conducting of this experiment. In each trial, he would deconstruct each burrito and weigh the ingredients. He would then compare the weight of each ingredient to a “control burrito,’’ of white rice, black beans, chicken, mild salsa, and cheese.

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The greatest way to nearly double the size of your Chipotle order? It’s actually human error.

Requesting to go half-and-half on everything should theoretically result in an identical sized burrito or burrito bowl (that preference is a debate we won’t get into) made up of smaller portions of more ingredients. Luckily for us, human error means those additional varieties of rice, beans, and meat are actually adding significant volume—86 percent more burrito to be exact.

Here are the tips:

1. Get a burrito bowl with a tortilla on the side. It increases your ingredients by 15 percent.

2. Ask for two tortillas. It increases the total weight by 25 percent.

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3. Ask for both kinds of rice. This will increase the overall weight of your burrito by 23 percent.

4. Order both types of beans. It increases the total weight by 16 percent.

5. Order half/half meats. This increase in meat grows the burrito’s weight by 9 percent.

6. Add fajita vegetables and corn salsa. It increases the total weight by 15 percent.

So is it possible to apply all of these tricks in one sitting to get the ultimate giant burrito at no extra cost?

Yes, and Grosz said it would weigh almost 2 pounds.

“It would probably require expert tortilla wrapping skills to fit it into one tortilla since it’s so much food,’’ Grosz said.

To that, burrito lovers everywhere say “challenge accepted.’’

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