Instead, most researchers agree that the chimichanga was created by accident at a Mexican restaurant in Arizona, United States, although they disagree over precisely where.

[4][5][6][7] The words chimi and changa come from two Mexican Spanish terms: chamuscado (past participle of the verb chamuscar),[8] which means seared or singed, and changa, related to chinga (third-person present tense form of the vulgar verb chingar[9]), a rude expression for the unexpected or a small insult.

[12] Knowledge and appreciation of the dish spread slowly outward from the Tucson area, with popularity elsewhere accelerating in recent decades.

[14] These "fried burritos" became so popular that by 1952, when Woody's El Nido became Macayo's, the chimichanga was one of the restaurant's main menu items.

[5] Although no official records indicate when the dish first appeared, retired University of Arizona folklorist Jim Griffith recalls seeing chimichangas at the Yaqui Old Pascua Village in Tucson in the mid-1950s.