How To Eat Keto At Chipotle: Everything You Need to Know
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Have you ever wondered how to eat keto at Chipotle? In this post I’ll share what are the best (and worst) foods to eat at your local Chipotle restaurant, where to look for hidden carbs, and tips to make your meal keto friendly.
It’s easy to eat keto at Chipotle! Build a bowl or salad with steak, carnitas, chicken, carne asada, or barbacoa as a base. Add romaine lettuce and/or fajita veggies for lots of tasty, low carb nutrients. Then bring on the toppings! Choose from Monterey jack cheese, sour cream, fresh guacamole, and any of their freshly made salsas except for the roasted chile-corn salsa. Chipotle even offers a Keto Salad bowl to make things super simple!
Avoid the white or brown Cilantro Lime rice, and anything made with tortillas, including: tortilla chips, soft or crispy tacos, and burritos. Also avoid the pinto beans, black beans, and Chipotle honey vinaigrette.
New in January 2021! For the scoop on Chipotle’s new Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower Rice, see this post:
Review of Chipotle's Cilantro-Lime Cauliflower Rice (Keto, Vegan)
In this post you will find:
What is Chipotle Mexican Grill and similar fresh, fast Mexican restaurants.
The easiest thing to order at Chipotle for your keto diet.
All the Chipotle low carb food options, and how to create a keto meal.
What not to eat at Chipotle on a keto diet.
Go in with a plan: 3 ways to approach your Chipotle keto meal.
How To Eat Keto At Chipotle: Everything You Need to Know
What is Chipotle?
Chipotle Mexican Grill is an American chain of fast casual restaurants specializing in tacos and big ass burritos. Tacos and burritos aren’t keto, of course, but with lots of low carb protein and topping options, you can create a perfectly keto (and tasty!) low carb bowl or salad.
Chipotle focuses on real, fresh ingredients.
Chipotle prides itself on using just 51 ingredients (listed on their website) to make all of their delicious foods. Because they don’t make a secret of their ingredients, it is easy to order a delicious, filling, keto meal at Chipotle.
We're all about preparing food without added colors, flavors, or preservatives (other than lemon or lime juice, which can be used as preservatives — though we use them only for taste). Just genuine raw ingredients and their individual, delectable flavors.
—Chipotle
They don't use animals who are given non-therapeutic antibiotics or hormones, and they are committed to sustainable farming. You can learn more about the company on their Values page.
Find a Chipotle near you.
As of November 2019, Chipotle has 2,524 locations in USA. Click to find the closest location to you: Find a Chipotle
Similar restaurants to Chipotle.
If you don’t have a Chipotle near you, similar chains of fast casual Mexican style restaurants include:
Now let’s chat about the easiest keto option at Chipotle and how to create your own perfectly keto meal!
Keto Salad Bowl. Photo Credit: Chipotle
Order the Keto Salad Bowl for a no-brainer keto meal at Chipotle!
The EASIEST option is to order a Keto Salad Bowl with only 6g net carbs!
No thinking or carb calculations required. It’s also the perfect keto minimalist solution…
Chipotle offers a Keto Salad Bowl on their online menu which you can easily order in the restaurant as well.
The Keto Salad Bowl includes:
carnitas (shredded pork)
romaine lettuce
cheese
guacamole
tomatillo red-chile salsa
The Chipotle Keto Salad bowl has 585 calories, 42g fat, 31g protein, 14g carbs 8g fiber. So this spicy, filling bowl is only 6 grams net carbs!
The Keto Salad Bowl is only one keto option at Chipotle. There are lots of low carb, and high fat options at Chipotle so you can combine your favorites to create your own keto meal.
The best keto-friendly options to eat at Chipotle.
Low carb proteins at Chipotle, each 0-1 grams net carbs:
Barbacoa (tender beef shoulder, braised and shredded) (1 gram net carbs)
Carnitas (seasoned, braised, shredded pork) (0 grams net carbs)
Chicken (marinated in a smoky, spicy chipotle pepper adobo sauce, and grilled) (0 grams net carbs)
Steak (bottom rounds, top rounds, sirloin, and other cuts of beef grilled to a nice char on the outside and medium-rare inside) (0 grams net carbs)
Low carb toppings at Chipotle, each 0-4 grams net carbs:
Fajita veggies (grilled peppers and onions) (4 g net carbs)
Guacamole (2 g net carbs)
Monterey jack cheese (1 g net carbs)
Queso (3.5 g net carbs)
Romaine lettuce (0 g net carbs)
Sour cream (2 g net carbs)
Low carb salsas (each 3-4 grams net carbs):
Fresh tomato salsa (3 g net carbs)
Tomatillo green-chile salsa (4 g net carbs)
Tomatillo- red-chile salsa (3 g net carbs)
A simple (minimalist!) method to creating your Chipotle keto meal.
If you don’t want the Chipotle Keto Salad Bowl, just create your own bowl or salad using this simple formula:
Order a salad, or a bowl without rice and beans. (0-1 g net carbs)
Add fajita veggies, if you like. (4 g net carbs)
Pick any protein (chicken, steak, carnitas, barbacoa) except sofritas. (0-1 g net carbs)
Add some fats, like cheese, guacamole, sour cream, and/or queso.. (1-3.5 g net carbs per topping)
Finish with any salsa except the roasted chile-corn salsa. (3-4g net carbs)
Use this formula to create lots of tasty keto combos!
Choosing one option from each category, you can get a spicy, delicious keto meal for a maximum of 13.5 net grams carbs. Skip the fajita veggies and we’re talking only 9.5 net grams carbs! (Full disclosure, I love low carb veggies and never skimp on them.)
Use Chipotle’s Nutrition Calculator to calculate the macros for your exact order.
I love that Chipotle is super transparent about their ingredients and nutrition facts. You can use their online calculator to plug in the ingredients you want and see the EXACT number of fat, protein, and carb grams.
Choose the ingredients you want and then tweak to meet your exact keto macros. Need more fat, add extra cheese or more guac. Play around with combinations first, and then order online or in the store.
Try out the Chipotle nutrition calculator here: Chipotle Nutrition Calculator
Where to find hidden carbs at Chipotle.
Unless you looked at the nutritional information, you might think these foods are lower in carbs than they really are. It doesn’t mean you can’t include them in your keto Chipotle meal, but do be aware of the carb count.
Sofritas has 6 g net carbs.
Sofritas (listed as a low carb option on the website) is actually a bit higher in carbs because it is a soy-based plant protein option. It has 6 grams net carbs. Not outrageous at all, but just know it’s not as low in carbs as the other proteins at Chipotle.
Roasted chile-corn salsa has 13 g net carbs.
This salsa was also listed as a low carb option on Chipotle’s website, but hopefully with “corn” in the name a keto eater would use caution.
What NOT to eat at Chipotle when you’re following a ketogenic diet.
These foods are best avoided at Chipotle (or similar Mexican restaurants) unless you have just a bite or two, or if it is part of a planned carb up.
Avoid tortillas in all forms on your keto diet.
Tortilla chips
Flour or corn tortilla shells (for soft or crunchy tacos)
Burrito wrappers (flour tortillas)
Say NO to rice at Chipotle when you’re eating keto!
Cilantro-lime brown rice (34 g net carbs)
Cilantro-lime white rice (39 g net carbs)
Skip the beans.
Black beans (15 g net carbs)
Pinto beans (13 g net carbs)
Chipotle honey vinaigrette is high in fat, but also high in carbs.
Chipotle honey vinaigrette (17 g net carbs)
Go in with a plan: 3 ways to approach your Chipotle meal.
Usually it’s not a complete surprise when we go out to eat, right? So there are three ways to approach your meal. Choose what works best for YOU. I always have a plan in mind before I set food inside a restaurant.
1. Eat straight up keto.
This means you will eat a high fat, low carb, moderate protein meal. You know, like you do most of the time at home. This is super simple to do at Chipotle either by ordering the Keto Salad Bowl or creating your own meal with low carb ingredients.
2. Eat a keto meal, but have a few bites of higher carb foods you really want.
If you can control yourself around carbs, it’s ok to plan a keto meal but have a few of your friend’s tortilla chips, or splurge a bit of roasted chile-corn salsa, or maybe a half scoop of black beans.
A few bites of delicious high carb foods shouldn’t throw you out of ketosis, and your daily macros may still be spot on. But if you can’t stop at just a few bites, this strategy may not be for you.
3. Have a carb up meal.
Do you really, really want to go all in a burrito or the crispy chicken tacos?? Maybe you want a small order of tortilla chips and guacamole just this once.
If so, consider a carb up.
Carb ups are a good strategy to enjoy carbs on occasion, once you are fat adapted. Carb ups keep your body guessing, and help balance hormones. and can help with muscle growth.
PS, carb up is another way to say “treat meal.” It will likely kick you out of ketosis, but only for a day or so.
I hope you found this guide helpful in your quest to eat keto at your local Chipotle restaurant.
Happy keto eating!
—The Keto Minimalist
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