How To Hack The Taco Bell Menu And Order The Discontinued Enchirito

If you eat at Taco Bell often enough, you know that the menu is ever-changing. Not only do new items pop up all the time, but old ones come back every so often, like the limited-edition Nacho Fries or different Chalupa flavors. The Enchirito, however, was a staple that people could rely on getting from Taco Bell for many years. As you can easily guess based on its name, the Enchirito was a cross between an enchilada and a burrito. Much like a burrito, it consisted of ground beef, refried beans, and onions wrapped in a soft flour tortilla, but it was served like an enchilada, topped with enchilada sauce and shredded cheese.

The Enchirito was introduced back in 1970 and remained on the menu until 2013 when the fast food chain decided to discontinue it. It did make its way back to the menu as a limited-time offering in November 2022, but it was only for about two weeks. Luckily for fans who still continue to crave the Enchirito, it's technically still possible to order the menu item.

The Enchirito may have been removed from the official menu, but Taco Bell's kitchens still have all the ingredients needed to make it. If there's a Taco Bell employee who recalls how to make one, you can probably get away with ordering it by name. However, since Taco Bell has plenty of add-on options for its menu items, you can just as easily custom order it.

All you have to do is order a bean burrito, which already contains refried beans, onions, enchilada sauce, and shredded cheese. The only difference between a bean burrito and an Enchirito is that the enchilada sauce and shredded cheese are inside rather than on top, and it doesn't have beef. Simply add beef, and ask for the sauce and cheese on the side, and you'll have an Enchirito. You'll have to pour on the sauce and cheese yourself, but otherwise it's essentially the same thing.

It's worth noting that you can apparently only custom order an Enchirito in person. The website and app both allow you to add beef to a bean burrito, but there appears to no longer be an option to put the enchilada sauce and shredded cheese on the side, which is what would make it an Enchirito.

Sometimes restaurants pull menu items due to lack of popularity, but that doesn't seem to be the case with the Enchirito. When it was discontinued in 2013, customers even began signing petitions advocating for its return. Its popularity is the whole reason that it was brought back in 2022 — Taco Bell asked fans to vote on a menu item to bring back for a limited time, and the Enchirito ended up receiving the most votes.

If you're wondering why Taco Bell would discontinue such a popular item in the first place, the reason probably had something to do with Taco Bell wanting to make room for a more updated replacement. By 2013, the Enchirito would have been on the menu for roughly four decades. Sure enough, soon after the Enchirito disappeared, a new menu item appeared called the Smothered Burrito. It was a lot like the Enchirito, except it was also filled with rice and chipotle sauce. And instead of being topped with just red sauce and melted cheese, it included sour cream. The Smothered Burrito is no longer on the menu either, but at least you can still hack the menu to order an Enchirito.