Recreate Taco Bell's Old-School Enchirito With A Menu Hack

In the fast food realm, it often doesn't pay to get too attached to a specific menu item. Before you know it, the fickle restaurant gods may exile your favorite to the land of discontinued foods. McDonald's Snack Wrap, for instance, was a Golden Arches menu item that Americans were begging for after it went away in 2016 (though fans were thrilled to learn it was making a comeback in 2025, almost a decade later). Across the border at Taco Bell, one discontinued item diners desperately miss is the Enchirito. The disappearance of such beloved foods is why menu hacks became a thing, and — you guessed it — when it comes to the long-lost Enchirito, there's a hack for that.

If you imagine that a burrito and an enchilada had a baby, that was essentially the Enchirito — a coupling of both foods merged into one. It was comprised of ground beef, refried beans, and onions, all wrapped up in a flour tortilla and smothered with cheese and red sauce. All in all, it was a simple dish. So, fortunately, hacking it isn't too difficult, if you're among the many who desperately wish this Taco Bell goodie would make a permanent comeback (but, for real, you don't want to wait until it does to enjoy one again). The restaurant chain has brought it back on a temporary basis here and there — but, really, what does that accomplish, besides whetting our appetites again only to cruelly take it away once more? To re-create the Enchirito, you just need to order a few basic things at Taco Bell.

Unless the fast food franchise decides to bring it back for good, admirers of the Enchirito can either dream longingly of the snack or take matters into their own hungry hands. If you'd like to re-create it, it isn't difficult to do. While nothing can take the place of the original, this hack comes awfully close.

To achieve it, simply roll up to your local Taco Bell and order a bean burrito, which comes with the onions and refried beans needed for an Enchirito. The bean burrito also has cheese and red sauce inside, which the Enchirito didn't (those elements were heaped on top). But you can customize your burrito to have that interior cheese and sauce removed, if you want a truer duplicate (though extra sauce and cheese are never a bad thing!). If you're ordering online, the Taco Bell website lets you easily remove those elements with just a few clicks of the mouse (or a few taps on the screen, if you're ordering from your phone). Further customize your burrito order by adding seasoned beef (for an upgrade fee of $0.90). Finally, ask your server to give you two side cups of red sauce and two cups of the shredded cheese.

Take the whole troupe of elements home, top your burrito with the sauce and cheese, microwave until the cheese is melted, and you're in business — re-created Enchirito! If your Taco Bell server seems friendly and willing, you could also skip the last step and ask them to smother and nuke it for you in the restaurant, rather than doing the extra work yourself at home.

Why did the Enchirito go away in the first place? Taco Bell discontinued it in 2013, after more than 40 years as a fixture on the chain's menu (it was first introduced way back in 1970). The reasons are unclear, though Taco Bell is a frequent offender when it comes to changing its menu, nixing various items over the years despite their popularity. The Mexican Pizza was another fan-favorite snack the chain removed from its offerings back in 2020, citing efforts to streamline the menu as its reason. However, customer uproar was so strong that Mexican Pizza was eventually restored as an available item in 2022. 

The Enchirito is clearly gone but not forgotten, as fans voted for its comeback in 2022, when Taco Bell hosted a contest asking eaters to choose which bygone item they'd like to munch on again. The Enchirito beat out the Double Decker Taco with 62% of the votes. Alas, though, its reinstatement to the Taco Bell menu was only for a limited time, and then the beloved Tex-Mex hybrid went away again.

If enough people continue clamoring for the Enchirito, fans can only hope it will enjoy the same fate as Mexican Pizza and return permanently at some future point. In the meantime, we have our bean burrito menu hack to fall back on. Live más!