Chipotle

A chipotle (/tʃᵻˈpoʊtleɪ/, chi-POHT-lay; Spanish: [tʃiˈpotle]), or chilpotle, which comes from the Nahuatl word chilpoctli (meaning "smoked chili"), is a smoke-dried jalapeño. It is a chili used primarily in Mexican and Mexican-inspired cuisines, such as Mexican-American, Tex-Mex, and southwestern dishes.

Varieties of jalapeño vary in size and heat. In Mexico, the jalapeño is also known as the cuaresmeño and gordo. Until recently, chipotles were largely found in the markets of central and southern Mexico. As Mexican food became more popular abroad, especially in the United States and Canada, jalapeño production and processing began to expand into northern Mexico to serve the southwestern United States, and eventually processing occurred in the United States and other places such as China.

Its heat is similar to that of the Espelette pepper, jalapeño, Guajillo chili, Hungarian wax pepper, New Mexican varieties of the Anaheim pepper, and Tabasco sauce.

Production

Typically, a grower passes through a jalapeño field many times, picking the unripe, green jalapeños for market. At the end of the growing season, jalapeños naturally ripen and turn bright red. In Mexico and the United States, there is a market for ripe red jalapeños. They are kept on the bush as long as possible. When they are deep red and have lost much of their moisture, they are picked to be made into chipotles.

Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (/tʃᵻˈpoʊtleɪ/) is a chain of restaurants in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and France, specializing in Mission burritos and tacos. Its name derives from chipotle, the Nahuatl name for a smoked and dried jalapeño chili pepper.

The company has released a mission statement called Food with Integrity, which highlights its efforts in using naturally-grown ingredients, and serves more naturally raised meat than any other restaurant chain. Chipotle is one of the first chains of fast casual dining establishments.

Founded by Steve Ells in 1993, Chipotle had 16 restaurants (all in Colorado) when McDonald's Corporation became a major investor in 1998. By the time McDonald's fully divested itself from Chipotle in 2006, the chain had grown to over 500 locations.

With more than 1,900 locations, Chipotle had a net income in 2013 of US$327.4 million and a staff of more than 45,000 employees as reported in a 2015 CNN Money syndicated report via WTVR.