How much does it cost to make a Chipotle bowl at home?

I stayed at my college roommate’s apartment last week while my wife was in Portland for a business trip.

He and I would eat out once or twice a week during our college years. Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, and a local place with $5 sushi rolls were all regulars in the rotation.

I’ve cut my eating out budget to almost zero since then while he still eats out a few times a week.

From a sample size of one week, it seems like Chipotle is the main beneficiary of his hunger (though he did sneak in a Chick-fil-A sandwich on our way to Walmart.)

I totally get it—Chipotle is fast food without the guilt. Pick a protein, add rice, beans, and some toppings, and you’ve got yourself a tasty and fairly healthy meal. The price is not ridiculous and you didn’t have to cook or do dishes.

But I’ve got a bit of a disease, you see.

When I saw the empty Chipotle bowls on the kitchen counter, I didn’t think about the tasty food or the ease and convenience.

My eyes instead darted over to the crumbled receipts piling up on the edge of the counter and the main thought running through my head was, I wonder how much he could save if he made the bowls at home.

It’s a problem, I know. But I’m in too deep.

So let’s put my issues aside for the time being and figure out how much it would cost to make a Chipotle bowl or burrito at home.

Setting the ground rules

My wife and I enjoy—or at least don’t mind—cooking dry beans instead of using canned and making our own tortillas for weekend brunch.

The result is healthier food with fewer ingredients for less money.

Cooking and doing dishes takes time, however, and the big selling point of fast food is that it’s fast and easy.

For my college roommate to switch from Chipotle to Chipotle-at-home, the bowl making process would have to be equally fast and easy, or as close to it as possible.

So we’ll set two ground rules:

1. Every ingredient comes from Walmart so we can get everything in a single trip and avoid having to go to multiple stores
2. We’ll use ready-made ingredients where possible to save time

What goes into a Chipotle bowl?

The first step is to determine what goes into a Chipotle bowl so we can calculate what we’ll need to buy and in what quantities.

I used Chipotle’s nutrition calculator to see the nutrition facts for a burrito bowl with chicken, brown rice, black beans, fresh tomato salsa, fajita veggies, cheese, and a tortilla on the side.

Here’s what I got:

Calculating the cost of a Chipotle burrito bowl

Now that we know what ingredients we need to buy, the next step is to determine quantities and cost.

Based on Chipotle’s paper menu, a burrito bowl contains 4 oz each of chicken, rice, beans, and salsa, 2 oz of fajita veggies, and 1 oz of cheese.

We can use these portions as well as the calories provided by each ingredient to figure out how much of each ingredient we’ll need to buy and what it will cost us.

Long story short, I did the math and here’s what I ended up with:

If you’re curious about how I landed at these serving sizes and costs, the sections below go into the details.

If you couldn’t care less, feel free to jump ahead to the Breaking the rules section.

Chicken

Serving required to reach calories

Chipotle uses 4 oz of boneless, skinless chicken thighs in their recipe, so we’ll do the same.

Cost of serving

One pound of boneless, skinless chicken thighs costs $2.96 at Walmart.

$2.96 ÷ 16 oz × 4 oz = $0.74.

Brown rice

Serving required to reach calories

A 0.25 cup serving of uncooked brown rice contains 150 calories.

210 rice calories in a Chipotle bowl ÷ 150 calories in 0.25 cup of brown rice × 0.25 cup = 0.35 cups of brown rice to reach 210 calories.

Cost of serving

A 5 lb bag of rice costs $3.98 at Walmart and contains 13.5 cups.

$3.98 ÷ 13.5 cups × 0.35 cups = $0.10.

Black beans

Serving required to reach calories

A 0.5 cup serving of canned black beans contains 120 calories.

130 black bean calories in a Chipotle bowl ÷ 120 calories in 0.5 cup of canned black beans × 0.5 cup = 0.54 cups of canned black beans to reach 130 calories.

Cost of serving

A 15.25 oz can of black beans costs $0.78 at Walmart and contains 1.75 cups.

$0.78 ÷ 1.75 cups × 0.54 cups = $0.24.

Fresh tomato salsa

Serving required to reach calories

A 1 oz serving of pico de gallo contains 10 calories.

25 fresh tomato salsa calories in a Chipotle bowl ÷ 10 calories in a 1 oz cup of pico de gallo × 1 oz = 2.5 oz of pico de gallo to reach 25 calories.

Cost of serving

A 10 oz container of fresh pico de gallo costs $3.18 at Walmart.

$3.18 ÷ 10 oz × 2.5 oz = $0.80.

Fajita veggies

Serving required to reach calories

Based on online recipes, a serving of fajita veggies includes half of a green bell pepper and a quarter of a red onion.

Cost of serving

At Walmart, two green bell peppers cost $2.96 and a red onion costs $0.94.

$2.96 ÷ (2 × 2) + $0.94 ÷ 4 = $0.98.

Cheese

Serving required to reach calories

A 0.25 cup serving of shredded cheese contains 110 calories.

110 cheese calories in a Chipotle bowl ÷ 110 calories in 0.25 cup of cheese × 0.25 cup = 0.25 cups of cheese to reach 110 calories.

Cost of serving

A 2 lb bag of shredded cheese costs $7.48 at Walmart and contains 8 cups.

$7.48 ÷ 8 cups × 0.25 cups = $0.23.

Tortilla

Serving required to reach calories

A large tortilla contains 220 calories.

320 tortilla calories in a Chipotle bowl ÷ 220 calories in 1 tortilla × 1 tortilla = 1.45 tortillas to reach 320 calories.

We’ll round this to 1.5 tortillas.

Cost of serving

A bag of 8 large flour tortillas costs $1.98 at Walmart.

$1.98 ÷ 8 tortilla × 1.5 tortillas = $0.37.

Breaking the rules

It turns out we can make a Chipotle burrito bowl for $3.46 if we buy all the ingredients at Walmart and opt for ready-made ingredients where possible.

But what if we broke these two rules?

How low can we get this cost if we’re willing to shop around for better prices and put in more time cooking?

Four changes we can make are:

1. Make the fresh tomato salsa from scratch to save $0.30
2. Make the tortillas from scratch to save $0.17
3. Use dry beans instead of canned to save $0.09
4. Get the green pepper and red onion at Aldi instead of Walmart to save $0.62

With these four optimizations, we can bring down the cost of a homemade Chipotle bowl to $2.28, saving an extra $1.18.

If you’re curious about how I landed at these savings, the sections below go into the details.

If you couldn’t care less, feel free to jump ahead to the Summary section.

Make the fresh tomato salsa from scratch

I’m crazy enough to sit here and calculate the exact cost of making pico de gallo, but I won’t.

Based on online recipes, for one serving, we’ll need a quarter pound of tomatoes and (roughly) 0.06 cups each of onion and cilantro, as well as a jalapeno pepper.

At Aldi, a pound of Roma tomatoes costs $0.80—that’s $0.20¹ on tomatoes—and a jalapeno pepper costs about $0.10.

That’s $0.30 plus another $0.20 for the cilantro and onion and we’re at $0.50 for a serving of homemade pico de gallo.

This saves us $0.30 compared to the $0.80 for the premade pico de gallo at Walmart.

Make the tortillas from scratch

You need only four ingredients to make flour tortillas: flour, oil (Chipotle uses canola oil), salt, and water.

A 5 lb bag of flour costs $2.19 at Aldi. Half a cup of flour and a bit of oil should be enough for a Chipotle-sized tortilla.

The 5 lb bag contains 18.75 cups, so half a cup would cost $0.06.²

We’ll be generous and add $0.14 for the oil, salt, and water, and end up with a $0.20 tortilla.

This saves us $0.17 compared to the $0.37 cost of the Walmart tortillas (and gives us fresher, less processed, and healthier tortillas).

Use dry black beans instead of canned

A 0.25 cup serving of dry black beans contains 100 calories.

130 black bean calories in a Chipotle bowl ÷ 100 calories in 0.25 cup of dry black beans × 0.25 cup = 0.325 cups of dry black beans to reach 130 calories.

A 1 lb bag of dry black beans costs $1.48 at Walmart and contains 3.25 cups.

$1.48 ÷ 3.25 cups × 0.325 cups = $0.15.

This saves us $0.09 compared to the $0.24 for the canned beans (and gives us fresher, less processed, and healthier beans).

Get the green pepper and red onion at Aldi instead of Walmart

At Aldi, three green bell peppers cost $1.69 and we only need half a bell pepper.

A 2 lb bag of red onions, meanwhile, costs $1.99 and we only need a quarter of a red onion. Let’s say the bag contains 6 onions.

$1.69 ÷ (3 × 2) + $1.99 ÷ (6 × 4) = $0.36.

This saves us $0.62 compared to the $0.98 for the bell pepper and red onion at Walmart.

Summary

The cost of a Chipotle burrito bowl with chicken, brown rice, black beans, pico de gallo, fajita veggies, and cheese is $8.65. A tortilla on the side is an extra $0.50 and tax is $0.75 for a total of $9.90.³

The other option is to get this as a burrito instead in which case the tortilla would be included and the cost would drop to $9.36.⁴ It’s hypothesized, however, that a burrito bowl includes more food and offers a better bang for your buck.

To be as fair as possible, let’s use $9.36 as the price.

Given that we can make the same burrito bowl at home for $3.46, someone who eats at Chipotle three times a week could save $17.70 per week and $920.40 per year.⁵

That’s not too shabby—$920 is more than enough for a weekend getaway for two or round-trip flights to Europe or some other fun destination.

Not to mention the health benefits from eating less processed food and the cooking skills picked up along the way…

But I’m preaching to the choir.

If you’ve made it this far, go and make yourself a tasty, homemade Chipotle burrito bowl. You’ve earned it.