Chorizo is coming to Chipotle.
Starting today, the Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill added the spicy chicken and pork sausage to the menu of a select number of its 2,000 restaurants nationwide, including the restaurant off 16th and Blake streets in LoDo.
The previously announced addition to Chipotle’s seemingly immutable menu comes amid a slew of promotions and changes at the burrito chain as it attempts to recover from last year’s food-safety crisis that sickened hundreds of people and triggered a deep slump in sales and investigations.
Chipotle has given away millions of burritos and just this week launched a loyalty program to help lure back customers.
Chipotle is introducing chorizo at restaurants in Columbus, Ohio; Manhattan; Sacramento, Calif.; San Diego; Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C.; and the restaurant at 1480 16th St. in Denver, officials said. The company plans to expand the menu offering to all restaurants this fall.
Chipotle has tested chorizo at a couple of restaurants during the past few years, but has not pulled the trigger on the chain-wide menu item addition until now. The company’s current recipe for chorizo consists of a blend of pork and white-meat chicken seasoned with paprika, toasted cumin and chipotle peppers, officials said.
Shares of Chipotle (NYSE: CMG), which are running at nearly half of their 52-week high, were up slightly Wednesday morning — $10.21, or 2.61 percent, to $401.88.
