Samuel W. Allenton/Chowhound
Frozen burritos occupy such an interesting niche in the public consciousness. I can’t name anyone I know who hasn’t had at least one of these quick microwavable treats. At the same time I can’t place anyone who would claim them as their favorite food. I believe that a frozen burrito is either seen as a meal you make when your bank account requires it or as a neat little after-party pick-me-up when you’re a little too tipsy to focus on much else. Whether for funds, or focus, I’ve not met anyone who picks up a frozen burrito simply because they enjoy the flavor. Besides myself.
I may be an outlier because I can’t remember a time I didn’t have a few frozen burritos in stock. They’re quick, they’re inexpensive, and they’re filling. Now, I can’t claim to eat a frozen burrito every day. However, I would estimate that I eat at least one a week, which I have been led to believe, by the alarmed looks my friends give me, is a lot. I specifically try to get a meaty, beefy burrito, as it packs a bit more protein into the same convenient packaging as the bean burritos, which we already ranked. As such, I feel wholly qualified to taste test these frozen beef burritos and pass my hard-earned wisdom onto you. I’m happy to dig into these microwavable wonders and let you know which one is the best blend of convenience, flavor, and texture.
8. Tina’s Red Hot Beef Burrito
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Listen, this is the lowest entry on the list. I’m sure you can imagine it wasn’t very good. Tina’s is a brand I wasn’t overly familiar with before starting on this burrito taste-testing journey. I had always passed this brand over in favor of the familiar when picking up my frozen burritos in the past. The low price of 58 cents was alluring when I added it to my cart without a second glance. Long story short, if you’re wanting a spicy beef dish, I’d strongly recommend making some beef chili instead and warming it up later.
This is the worst rated burrito on the list not because of presentation or texture. No, this burrito just tastes bad. This could be complete personal preference, but when I get a hot beef burrito, I would like it to taste like beef. Not green peppers. I wish I were joking, but both of my bites just filled my mouth with what could have passed as pepper slurry. It’s absolutely not the flavor profile I desired or ever would desire. Even sour cream didn’t do much but dispel the spice. The burrito was the cleanest, neatest burrito I made during this taste test, but even a clean microwave couldn’t save this thing from its own flavor.
7. Red’s Cheesy Beef and Bean Burrito
Samuel W. Allenton/Chowhound
Both of the Red’s burritos that I purchased for this ranking were far and away the most expensive things I had to purchase for this entire experience. The price was $2.99 per burrito. I was curious as to why they were so expensive for single frozen burritos, until I realized I could only find them in the organic foods section of my local Stop & Shop. The brand is proud of using real ingredients and a home-cooked recipe. It is even named after the founder’s dog. I hoped that the price would correlate to the experience of the burrito but …
So this burrito tasted fine. I will get out in front of this and say I think that if convenience weren’t a factor, then Red’s would place higher. It’s a pretty popular brand to pick up at Costco, for example. I think part of the issue is that the packaging recommends baking the burrito in the oven or air fryer. I didn’t do that. I used the alternate microwaving instructions, which led to the Cronenberg monster this burrito left behind. The whole thing split, oozed all over my plate, and just really made a mess of things. As I stated previously, this burrito tasted fine. It just couldn’t hold itself together, and so it ended up scoring pretty low. This burrito is single handedly the reason I couldn’t do cross-section photos of the burritos for this article. It didn’t have a section to cross.
6. El Monterey Beef and Bean Burrito
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El Monterey has long been my burrito brand of choice. In the process of researching for this ranking, I was curious to see how the brand that I routinely stock up on would fare against its competitors. I was genuinely surprised and a little baffled to rate this so low. Since I’ve probably eaten well over a hundred of these burritos in my lifetime, I was really expecting them to score higher based off of my personal preferences alone. Still, when I put this $1.09 staple into my cart, I couldn’t have imagined I’d end up putting it in the bottom three. I guess the brand just does better breakfast burritos.
The biggest sin the El Monterey Beef and Bean burrito committed was still being cold. I would swear in court that I’d never undercooked one of these things before. But, being as diligent as I am, I double-checked the recommended microwave time — one minute and 15 seconds — and used that instead of the two minutes I normally nuke it for. The top of the burrito was still chilly as I bit into it. There was also a stink to it. I thought all frozen burritos would be a little fragrant, but no — just the El Monterey ones. There’s also not a lot of initial flavor here. It has a really good, not overly spicy, after taste. But if you’re looking for a strong starting flavor, then this burrito is not for you.
5. Great Value Beef and Bean Burrito
Samuel W. Allenton/Chowhound
If there is one thing that has been consistent across all of my personal taste tests, it’s Great Value. Not that the Walmart brand has placed consistently — just that it has appeared in each one. For example, while ranking store-bought pumpkin pie, the brand came in last. But when I tested and ranked canned beef stew, Great Value nearly ran away with the whole ranking. All this to say that when I put a Great Value product in my cart, I really cannot guess the quality of what I’m about to experience.
The major takeaway from the Great Value Beef and Bean burritos is the oiliness. None of the other burritos I microwaved left an oily impression of themselves on the plate after cooking. I can handle some oil, but I ended up wiping away the oil with a napkin to avoid a bigger mess than testing eight burritos was already going to create. This burrito falls just before the middle of my ranking for its blandness and the fact that, unlike every other burrito, I could not buy an individual burrito. I had to purchase a value pack. This burrito has a distinct lack of beefy flavor and a lot of oil, and it just wasn’t as convenient as the single burritos. Still, if you’re looking to eat on a budget, you can’t go wrong with $3.82 for eight burritos. That’s less than 50 cents per burrito!
4. Red’s Steak and Cheddar Burrito
Samuel W. Allenton/Chowhound
For how expensive each individual burrito was, I have to give credit to Red’s. Its burritos taste good. It’s honestly a little refreshing to have a brand that claims to use real ingredients actually end up tasting like it contains real food instead of flash-frozen approximations of food. I think that if this ranking was based on flavor, only flavor, and nothing but the flavor, that Red’s would have found its way to the top. But combining the texture, convenience, and price together made sure that this tasty treat hovered just below the top three.
Red’s Steak and Cheddar tastes really good. Like, properly good. If it were a steak sandwich, all I would need are a couple grilled onions to really make a meal out of it. However, when presented in burrito form, it doesn’t quite evoke a burrito flavor. It tastes more like it wants to be an open-faced sandwich than a burrito. It also wants to look like an open-faced sandwich. I had to research the quickest ways to clean my microwave after cooking this burrito. It looked like I’d tried to summon an Eldritch horror made of steak and cheese. That, coupled with the wrong flavor profile and wrong texture for a frozen beef burrito, is what kept this where it is in the ranking. But that’s how good it tasted, too. It may not be in the top three, but it’s nowhere near the bottom.
3. Tina’s Big Burrito Beef and Bean
Samuel W. Allenton/Chowhound
This burrito was not part of my initial plan for this ranking. It hadn’t shown up in my initial research on frozen beef burritos. So when I was grabbing the package of burritos from Wal-Mart and saw this behemoth chilling in the frozen section for only $1, I grabbed it on a whim. It wasn’t until later that I noticed it was a Tina’s product. I already had a Tina’s Beef and Bean ready to test, but considering the size … I wondered whether the two would be a different experience.
This extra-large burrito needed one minute and 30 seconds of cooking time, and it was recommended that I give it two full minutes to cool. This was the only burrito to recommend more than a minute of cooling. I ignored the recommendation in favor of being consistent across all the burrito tastings. Thankfully, it didn’t need more than that, and I didn’t end up biting into a molten core. The flavor was surprisingly onion-forward, with a more mellow beef flavor that followed after. That’s just fine for a frozen burrito filling. My only proper complaint about this Big Burrito was the tortilla-to-filling ratio. It was really off, and I had to take an extra-large bite to get enough filling to taste properly. It’s like the opposite of the problem plaguing overstuffed burritos, which require some technique. I’m afraid the only big thing about this burrito is the size of the tortilla and not the amount of filling.
2. El Monterey Shredded Steak and Cheese Burrito
Samuel W. Allenton/Chowhound
Shredded steak may seem like a stretch for a beef burrito, but there’s just not a whole lot of frozen beef burritos on the market. After this taste test I have to chalk that up to it being difficult to get enough flavor into a frozen beef burrito to make a decent product. After all, the best burritos don’t skimp on flavor. Since steak and beef come from the same place, I figured I’d give the few steak burritos a whirl alongside their beefy brethren. While it may not texturally be the same as a beef burrito, it matched the flavor a lot better than expected.
While the El Monterey Shredded Steak and Cheese burrito was still a little less flavorful than I was anticipating for the brand, this burrito tasted a whole lot closer to what I’d expect from a beef burrito than the actual El Monterey Beef and Bean burrito did. It also, notably, was not cold when I bit into it. I used the same exact cooking method as the other El Monterey burrito, so I’m still unsure as to why the beef and bean variety came out cold and this one didn’t. Whatever the reason, I think I’ll be picking up a few more of the Shredded Steak and Cheese burritos next time I’m in the mood for El Monterey’s non-breakfast offerings. Not bad for $1.99, if I do say so myself.
1. Tina’s Beef and Bean Burrito
Samuel W. Allenton/Chowhound
Call this a come-from-behind victory. After tasting the Red Hot Beef burrito, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to trying the Beef and Bean burrito from Tina’s brand. However, after researching the company a little more, I found myself endeared to its mission of consistent, affordable food. It wants to keep prices as low as possible, selling its cheapest burritos for around 58 cents. So I made sure to really forget about how the other Tina’s burritos had tasted and went about testing this one with a clear mind.
This burrito tasted exactly, and I mean exactly, like I wanted a beef and bean burrito to taste. The filling remained fully inside the tortilla, the burrito didn’t ooze oil, and it didn’t stink up my microwave. I think this is as close to a perfect frozen burrito as you’re likely to get. Unlike the jumbo-sized beef and bean burrito, the filling-to-tortilla ratio was on point, and the strong onion flavor was mellowed to be more beef centric. The only issue was that the filling was very smooth; there was no beef texture. I’m going to be honest. It’s a microwave-from-frozen product. A processed texture in the filling is not an issue when I am running out the door. When it comes to price, taste, and convenience, this burrito is far and away the winner. I highly recommend popping a few Tina’s Beef and Bean burritos into your cart the next time you’re looking to stock up.
Methodology
Samuel W. Allenton/Chowhound
I made sure to cook each burrito in the microwave to the specifications on the packaging and to let it cool for exactly a minute before taking the first bite. I try to eliminate variables for these rankings by making each dish the same way as all the others. I took two full bites of each burrito to make sure I could mark down some notes. The third bite was accompanied by a dollop of sour cream. I’ve found that condiments play an important role in foods like frozen burritos. For example, I’m not a fan of a lot of Tyson’s products (and many reviews agree), but if I there is some ketchup or golden barbecue sauce, I’m happy to snack. Sometimes the main dish is just a vehicle for whatever condiment is on offer.
I rated each burrito based on its flavor, texture, and convenience. Convenience involves price, how long the packaging wanted me to leave it in the microwave, and how much cleaning I had to do afterward. I also took into account how the minute of cooling time left the burrito. A minute should not sap a burrito of all of its heat, but I should also not be biting into lava. All in all, I think there’s only one burrito I will be dropping from future shopping lists, and I may be adding a few to my regular rotation. That’s the joy of doing these taste tests. They help broaden my horizon on foods I thought I already knew!
Dining and Cooking