If you’re a fan of fast, cheap frozen burritos, then you’re almost certainly familiar with the El Monterey brand. El Monterey’s frozen burritos were a constant in our fridges back when we were in college. So today, when we check out the El Monterey Beef & Bean Burritos, we’re not testing out something new so much as returning to something we haven’t eaten in some time.
That is, unless you count the XXL version of these burritos. See, El Monterey makes family packs of burritos, but they also make XXL-sized versions of those same burritos. We did check out the gigantic version of the Beef & Bean Burritos a while back, but today we’re looking at the ones that come in an eight-pack, as the picture at the top of this article suggests.
The microwave instructions on the package say you can cook these from frozen in about a minute and 15 seconds. We actually found this to not be true, and we needed to give our burrito a bit more time in the microwave before it was warm in the middle. 30 additional seconds seemed to do the trick.
Now, when we tried the larger-sized version, we complained that the filling was dry and chalky. When we picked up this family-size pack, we were hoping that wouldn’t be so much of an issue with these smaller burritos. Thankfully, we did find these to be a bit more moist than the larger one.
However, these burritos just don’t have all that much flavor. They mostly just taste like cheap ground beef with hints of refried pinto bean mash. These are probably best enjoyed if you add some cream, or even dip them in a salsa or some sour cream.
One burrito contains 310 calories (210 from fat) and 330 mg of sodium. While that might not seem all that bad at a glance, keep in mind that you’ll likely be scarfing these down two at a time. Those calories start to add up.
The El Monterey Beef & Bean Burritos are fine if you want something easy, fast, and super cheap. However, if you want a delicious-tasting burrito, there are much higher-quality options on the market. Evol has some great frozen burritos in their lineup, and so does Sweet Earth, so check out some of those if flavor is what you’re looking for.
If you want to learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for these frozen burritos, check out our package scans below.
Of the 5 or 6 brands of frozen burritos available where I live, these are by far the best tasting. One of the competing brands was so awful that my dog literally would not eat them. That said, even the El Monterey bean and cheese are horrible. The only variety I can actually enjoy is the beef and bean.
Might want to put more than 2 tablespoons of product in the tortilla, what a let down from looking at the package.
The XXLarge burrito Bean & Cheese. First and foremost where the hell is the cheese, this thing is dared to be even declared a burrito what is this???? And what is the crap you call the beans that ain’t beans bro it’s liquid diarrhea………. No flavor your basically biting into dough and it’s not even good dough it’s tastes like if you bit into your pillow with no salt. I thought Mexicans were flavorful what is this?! This is a disgrace.