The Best Frozen Bean Burritos On Store Shelves Could Make You Forget About Chipotle

Store-bought frozen burritos are a godsend for the busy (or the lazy, if we're being honest). They're flavorful, filling, and are ready in minutes with minimal effort. They're also flexible enough to experiment with if you're feeling fancy and want to try making something like a multi-meal casserole out of frozen burritos. The very best ones can be so good that getting Chipotle just stops being an option; why bother ordering in when you've already got something better in the freezer?

To find out which burritos are worth forsaking Chipotle for, Chowhound taste-tested 10 different store-bought frozen bean burritos. After careful review, our taste-tester picked Vista Hermosa's Burrito Bueno Bean and Oaxaca Cheese as the top-ranked. The hefty burrito was almost as large as the ones you'd find at restaurants, and was well-seasoned. If there's one thing we should all agree on, it's that the best burritos don't skimp on seasoning.

Vista Hermosa's offering was a lot spicier than its competitors in our review, so it may not be for everyone. The price tag is also worth considering — at nearly $6 for a single burrito, it's more expensive than some of the other options we tested. The bottom-ranked El Monterey Bean & Cheese Burritos, for instance, can get you an eight-pack for roughly $5 at Walmart; that's just 62 cents per burrito. You definitely get what you pay for, however, so if you can handle the heat and the cost, Vista Hermosa should be your go-to frozen bean burrito.

We have Vista Hermosa's humble origins to thank for the quality of its Bean and Oaxaca Cheese burritos. Vista Hermosa is the packaged goods brand of Tacombi, a Mexican taqueria that was founded in 2006 and first operated out of a vintage Volkswagen Kombi bus in Playa del Carmen. The taqueria expanded to the United States in 2010, and eventually launched its frozen Burrito Bueno line through Vista Hermosa in 2022 with the aim of bringing more authentic flavors to store shelves.

That quality shines through in the burrito's choice of ingredients. To start, it uses whole pinto and black beans instead of refried beans, which adds a distinctive textural element to the bite. The tortillas are made in a style inspired by the traditional Sonoran method, which involves cooking them quickly on a hot comal until they puff up, adding a mild crispness to the chewy bread (if you like that, you can also add extra crunch to your frozen burrito with a crispy coating of breadcrumbs). Other traditional ingredients in the burrito include Oaxaca cheese, cactus, tomatillo, guajillo, and epazote (a pungent Central American herb), among others.

All of this is put together in a sizable 8-ounce frozen burrito, making it big enough for a meal. Other brands from our testing were decidedly smaller, ranging from El Monterey's 4 ounces to the Black Bean Burrito from Amy's Kitchen, which weighs in at 6 ounces. While size isn't everything, it most certainly matters when you're looking for a quick meal, and Vista Hermosa's frozen bean burrito satisfies both in terms of sheer volume and in flavor.