San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Warming up to 10 best frozen burritos
Even in the land of tacos, these are worth a bite
San Antonio is all about the tacos. Take a drive down just about any large thoroughfare, and you’ll likely find at least one spot every quarter-mile serving everything from a basic beanand-cheese to more elaborate tortilla-stuffed concoctions.
But grocery stores are a different story. In the freezer aisles, you’re far more likely to find a frozen burrito than a taco. And we’d know: This week we scoured the city’s supermarkets and came up with more than 40 varieties of frozen burritos from over a dozen manufacturers.
Naturally, we had to taste our way through the lot to identify a Top 10.
Easier said than done.
Frozen burritos were unleashed on the world in 1956, with credit usually given to Duane R. Roberts, who previously revolutionized the fastfood world by selling frozen hamburger patties to the thennascent McDonald’s.
Thanks to their portability and long shelf life, those early frozen burritos provided the first taste of Mexican food to much of America, where the quick and handy meal fit seamlessly into home kitchens, school cafeterias and the like.
It’s believed the earliest frozen burritos were a blend of beef, beans and chili powder. Today, some producers field a half-dozen flavors or more, with Buffalo chicken, sweet potatoes, meat substitutes and more all tucked inside a flour tortilla. And that’s not counting eggy breakfast burritos — we’ll save that category for another day — that McDonald’s popularized in the late 1980s.
For this shootout, we focused on burritos generally recognized as burritos, with fillings that stayed, for the most part, in the lane of beans, beef, rice and cheese. A couple outliers sneaked into the contest, as some of the more boutique burrito brands didn’t have a basic option. All forms of breakfast burritos were categorically excluded.
And a quick note on cooking methodology. Frozen burritos are typically thought of as food that goes in the microwave. These days, virtually every burrito we could find provided instructions for three heating techniques: microwave, oven and air fryer. We tried all three, and they are most certainly not all created equal.
Across the board, burritos heated in a microwave fared worst, with tortillas that went rubbery, fillings that erupted from split seams and an uneven heating of ingredients.
The air fryer was a champ, delivering crisp, yet pliable tortillas and a consistent temperature of the fillings in a relatively short time — about 12 to 15 minutes compared to the roughly three-minute average for a nuked burrito.
Oven heating was the slowest, ranging from 25 to 50 minutes or more, but it had the advantage of capacity and yielded the best results. The microwave was a oneat-a-time operation, and the air fryer could only handle two or three burritos at a time, while the oven could take multiple sheet pans loaded with burritos all at once.
For this evaluation, all the frozen burritos were heated following their instructions for oven cooking.
So who won this battle of the burritos? Read on to learn our Top 10.
10. El Monterey Signature Shredded Steak, Cheese & Rice Burrito
Nothing too fancy here, but nothing offensive, either. The flavors of this burrito stayed pretty classic, with mild levels of spice and seasoning.
This is an all-purpose burrito, sold in large-format packaging, that makes a reliable fast snack.
9. Trader Joe’s Black Bean & Monterey Jack Cheese Burrito
OK, so this is technically a bit
of a cheat, as these burritos are sold in the refrigerated section, not from the freezer.
The creamy black beans were cooked perfectly, and the gooey cheese added a layer of richness. Trader Joe’s stocks several types
of burrito, but this one gets our vote, easily beating the store’s nightmarish hybrid Cheeseburger Burrito, which commits unforgivable sins against both food groups.
8. Mame’s Burrito Co. Chorizo and Sweet Potato Burrito
This luxe brand found at Central Market didn’t offer a classic beef-and-bean option, but it still hit the mark with this unorthodox offering. The sweet potatoes added a wholesome ballast usually taken up by plain white rice, and the chorizo brought a bit of fire to the blend.
The ingredients were lightly doused with a pleasant sauce tasting mostly of cilantro and jalapeño with a subtle hint of cumin.
7. Alpha Foods Mexicali Burrito
Alpha specializes in foods made with plant-based meat alternatives, and this burrito was the only such option to crack our Top 10.
While it was made with meatless crumbles and dairy-free cheese, those guilt-free fillings blended seamlessly with a punchy garlic- and onion-rich sauce with a nice level of spice and just a hint of smoke.
6. Red’s Beef & Bean Burrito
Red’s has clearly cornered the modern frozen burrito market. This brand hailing from Tennessee had nearly a dozen varieties of burritos stocked in area stores with oddballs such as a Philly cheese steak and Buffalo chicken burrito in its lineup.
Red’s classic Beef & Bean was the best of the bunch with a nofuss filling of ground beef, pinto beans and just enough cheese to hold it all together.
5. Feel Good Foods Pinto Bean & Cheese Burrito
This burrito brought big flavors to the table despite its vegetarian fillings. This wrap, stuffed with rice, a blend of cheeses and smooth pinto beans — a few whole beans were thrown in for texture and suspended in a zippy red salsa — this wrap was hearty without tipping the scales. This burrito clocked in at a very modest 290 calories, where others in the field hit 600 or more.
4. Ramona’s Beef & Bean Burrito
California-based Ramona’s has been in the packaged Mexican food game for three-quarters of a century, and that experience shows in this timeless burrito.
The proportions of beef and beans are in harmonious balance, and the flavors are clean and simple, with a blend of chiles and other spices lending oomph.
Bonus: Ramona’s prepares its pinto beans with lard, lending an extra velvety taste and texture to this burrito.
3. Amy’s Southwestern Burrito
Amy’s also fields a wide range of frozen burritos, all made with vegetarian and organic ingredients. Its Southwestern option hit closest to home with a solid base of refried beans and cheese amplified with corn and tomatoes.
This burrito had the longest recommended cooking time, 50 to 55 minutes in the oven, but the wholesome results were worth the wait.
2. Vista Hermosa Bean y Oaxaca Cheese Burrito Bueno
What could be more basic than a bean and cheese burrito? Not this guy. This burrito contained a blend of pinto and black beans along with diced nopal cactus, a heady blend of chiles and small bits of pickled vegetables that offered a tangy counterpoint to the hearty beans and cheese.
If you want to try something (almost) completely different but still wholly satisfying, this just might be the burrito for you.
1. Green Chile Food Co. Steak & Monterey Jack Cheese Burrito
When you’re eating your way through a couple dozen burritos, it’s easy to get fatigued. Green Chile Food Co. overcame that culinary ennui with the best burrito we tried — and the only one that wound up completely consumed.
The key to this burrito’s success lies in the generous quantity of thin-sliced steak that was both tender and flavorful, combined with a reserved quantity of rice, beans, chiles and cheese. If you’re all about the beef, this burrito is where it’s at.