Frozen Burritos That Are Definitely Worth Your Money

Who doesn't love a frozen burrito? Whether it's a spicy meat version, a basic cheese, rice, and beans combo, or something more exotic (and there are plenty of those nowadays), we all seem to love stuff wrapped in stuff. That's not to say that all burritos are created equal, and there are some that definitely aren't worth your money, but that depends on your burrito preferences — and to each their own! 

While you might love a convenience store version that's bland and mushy and 100 percent comforting, someone else might crave an organic, gluten-free, new-age burrito that comes with an eco-friendly pat on the back. There are a lot of differences to consider between frozen burritos, including flavor, texture, quality of ingredients, nutritional content, sustainability, and size. That's why this list includes options that consider all those criteria. Some of the listings are for specific burrito flavors from a particular company, while others are for the company itself. 

Overall, this list is about value and whether each frozen burrito excels at what it's supposed to do, rather than whether absolutely everyone's going to agree that it's awesome. Hopefully you'll see a couple that you love and discover a few new ones, too.

Considering the price and organic certification of the ingredients in Red's chicken, cilantro, and lime burrito, it's a good buy. Not all of the company's flavors are organic, but this one is. It also contains no artificial preservatives, making it a healthier and more eco-friendly option than your average grocery store burrito. It's also a fair bit more flavorful thanks to a great ratio of sauce to chicken, with just enough lime juice to add a little life to what's too often a bland mess. According to reviewers, all that juiciness tends to make the burrito explode in the microwave or oven, but a delicious mess is still delicious.

Red's also has a plant-based beef, bean, and cheese flavor now, since faux meats are growing in popularity. The plant-based beef is made with real cheese and soy protein concentrate, which includes malted barley extract, so it's not gluten-free or vegan-friendly, but for anyone wanting to reduce their meat consumption and still get that beefy burrito flavor, you've got another option.

This brand is generally a bit more expensive than most of the other frozen burritos on this list, but if there was a vegetarian exotics category, it'd come in at the top for flavor and texture. Sweet Earth has a more classic Santa Cruz flavor with pinto beans and Monterey Jack cheese and a more new-school vegetarian Mayan burrito with black beans, ground seitan, and Cotija cheese, but the clear winner in the lineup is the Peruvian. With sweetness from sweet potatoes and corn, creaminess from the black beans, chewiness from the quinoa and, most importantly, umami from goat cheese, each mouthful is one to savor. 

Sweet Earth also has a line of meatless breakfast burritos featuring vegan bacon and non-vegan cheese or seasoned tofu and no cheese. These are not your average late-night mushy frozen burritos, but they still might be what you pop in the microwave after a few too many fancy cocktails.

Trader Joe's has its own extensive line of frozen burritos. And in true Trader Joe's form, they're pretty good and pretty affordable. Sure, you could probably make a better version of the chicken chile verde and the classic bean and rice burritos pretty easily at home (take some rice, refried beans, salsa, cheese and optional chicken and wrap it in a tortilla, or get fancy), but that's not what frozen burritos are for, right? They're supposed to be pre-made, factory-perfect, and dependable. 

These burritos are also pretty small, which feels intentional and can counter-intuitively work in your favor if you're the type of person who'll eat two small burritos and feel more full than eating just one larger burrito. There's also a carnitas with salsa verde flavor for Trader Joe's patrons looking for a frozen burrito flavor that punches above its weight. It has soy sauce for umami flavor along with roasted onions and tomatillo puree. The wheat in the soy sauce, however, adds to the wheat flour and malted barley in the enriched flour tortillas, so it's not a good option for the gluten intolerants among us.

If you're not in Austin or San Francisco or Los Angeles and can't get an impeccably fresh and tasty breakfast burrito from a nearby food truck on any given morning (or afternoon or evening for that matter), then El Monterey might be what's stocked in your freezer for desperate times. The egg, sausage, and cheese combination is hearty, widely available, and very inexpensive, meaning it'll likely be the favorite of many, especially in quarantine when online food ordering is exploding, much like a reheated frozen burrito.

According to the company website, El Monterey is already the #1 frozen Mexican food in America. And this breakfast option shows why: It's a comforting, eggy, creamy mess with little dabs of meat to make it feel indulgent and carnivore-friendly. Replace the pork sausage and its corn syrup solids with Canadian bacon and celery juice solids or turkey sausage and soy protein concentrate thickened with modified food starch and you've got two more clear winners.

Most people would probably just call this flavor of frozen burrito a wrap, stuffed as it is with sun-dried tomatoes, basil, shallots, "mozzarella style cutting board shreds," and meatless beef-style crumbles (which is strangely less weird sounding than the faux mozza). You can see that Daiya is trying hard to appeal to the dairy-free, plant-based foodies who want a melted cheese-like texture in their frozen convenience food, so let's forgive the company for its improper nomenclature. 

The Santa Fe burrito with beef-style crumbles is more traditional, as is the Fiesta Breakfast Burrito, despite its pea protein-based egg-style scramble. The tortilla itself might be the most bizarre creation, though, since instead of just using non-GMO corn, the company created its own blend of rice flour, rice starch, chickpea flour, sorghum, psyllium, xanthan gum, and flax-based leavening to wrap around its dairy-free fillings, which includes yeast extract and konjac gum. But there are no eggs, fish, dairy, gluten, or peanuts in the regular burrito line (there is coconut oil in the breakfast burritos, though), making this one product that allergen avoiders can get behind.

Johnny Ringo's makes this list because its burritos are delicious and satisfying and the vegetarian bean and cheese flavor uses mayocoba beans. There's also a ton of pepper jack cheese in there, which helps. What are mayocoba beans? They're small, creamy yellow beans also known as Peruvian, canary, or Mexican yellow beans. They're often used in place of pinto beans for refried beans in the Mexican state of Jalisco. And they're also good replacements for cannellini beans or Great Northern beans. To try mayocoba beans for yourself, you can order them directly from Rancho Gordo, but the buttery flavor is a perfect pairing for the cheese in Johnny Ringo's vegetarian burrito. 

The company's spicy beef with pinto beans flavor and the chipotle chicken flavor are also perfectly acceptable Southwestern style burritos. Fun fact: The company is named after a famous Old West outlaw, a former constable who later joined the Clanton Gang in Tombstone, AZ. Coincidentally, that's near where his own tombstone now resides.