We can’t say that we’re fond of the El Monterey brand of frozen burritos and chimichangas, though we are pretty familiar with the stuff. It reminds us of a simpler time, back when we were struggling through college and oftentimes had to eat the cheapest thing we could find. So we definitely have some deep familiarity with the El Monterey brand.
What we’re getting at here is that familiarity and fondness are not the same thing. That might seem like it’s too obvious to be worth stating here, but we think it’s a concept to keep in mind as we walk through our thoughts on the El Monterey XX Large Spicy Red Hot Beef & Bean Chimichanga.
First off, we should point out that we typically like to heat our frozen burritos (and likewise chimichangas) in the oven, but when it comes to El Monterey brand frozen food, it doesn’t seem worth the effort. Our attempts at cooking this stuff in the oven didn’t go well.
This chimichanga came out a crumbly mess. We’re confused, because we can’t tell if this was an attempt at a crispy outer shell gone wrong, or an attempt at a soft tortilla shell gone wrong. Either way, it’s not pretty. In fact, this thing kind of looks like an old gym sock that’s been filled with sand.
The filling isn’t great either. It’s a mushy bean mix with some beef that really just gives it a course consistency. It’s also too dry — almost chalky. The flavor is bland, but it’s familiar. Yes, this is the flavor we remember from back in college, only it’s less potent than we remember. It kind of tastes like a faded version of our memory of it.
It does have a spice level to it. It’s not a mega-spicy food, but it’s actually spicier than we expected. It had a little bit of a burn upfront, and a lingering burn on it’s way down our throat. (We don’t want to keep going with this, even though it’s not where the burning ends. We’ll let you use your imaginations to figure out the rest.)
This is also not a healthy meal. It’s jam-packed with 780 calories (380 from fat), which is one of the highest calorie counts we’ve seen on a frozen food. If you’re going to consume this many calories, you should probably save it for something tastier, like Devour’s White Cheddar Mac & Cheese with Bacon.
The El Monterey XX Large Spicy Red Hot Beef & Bean Chimichanga is not something we recommend eating. It may be a familiar frozen food from a different time in our lives, but we can’t muster up any fondness for it. It’s just not very good — and we’re going to go out on a limb here and say it probably never was.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this frozen chimichanga, check out our package scans below.
