College Cooking 101: Frozen Burritos

Frozen food is an absolute staple of the college pantry. And for the semesters when eating out at a Mexican joint isn’t an option, frozen burritos will fill the void. They are inexpensive, delicious, and keep for months. They do involve cooking, but at their most basic level, they can be done almost entirely in the microwave. I’ll be discussing both stovetop and microwave preparation for frozen burritos. Seasoning will be discussed at the end of the article.

The Microwaveable Frozen Burrito

Image by Karl Hildebrand from Pixabay

In its most simple form, a frozen burrito is three ingredients wrapped in a tortilla. To begin you will want to layer the tortillas with damp paper towels making sure to top the pile with a damp paper towel. Next on the medium power setting on your microwave them in 15-second intervals until the tortillas are soft. Next, follow the on-box instructions for microwavable rice. This should be fairly easy. After completing that set it aside. Now you will need a can of refried beans and some form of cheese (either pre-shredded or from a block of cheese that you’ve shredded using a cheese grater). For assembly smear the refried beans on a tortilla, top with rice and shredded cheese. Then fold the bottom of the tortilla up to the middle of the tortilla. Next fold in the sides. Then continue to roll the tortilla until you achieve a burrito. At this point continue making burritos until you run out of ingredients. Then wrap them in aluminum foil and stack them in the freezer. To cook them set your oven to 350 and once it is preheated place the aluminum foil wrapped packet into the oven and cook for about 35-45 minutes. Alternatively, you can remove the burrito from the aluminum foil, place the burrito on a plate, and microwave for 3 minutes, flipping halfway through.

The Stove-top Frozen Burrito

Image by Nevena Mikec from Pixabay

Next up is the more labor-intensive stovetop frozen burritos. For this variant, you want to brown some ground beef and season with salt and pepper. After starting the ground beef follow the instructions on a package of rice and set aside when cooked. Next, drain and rinse a can of black beans and heat them in a small pot with a small amount of chicken broth. While the meat is browning follow the package instructions for heating tortillas on the stovetop. After the meat and rice are cooked and the beans are heated begin assembling and storing the burritos as described in the microwave version. Reheating from frozen is the same as the microwavable version also.

Tips and Tricks

Finally, to avoid bland, boring burritos I suggest seasoning them with chili powder, cumin, and hot sauce. Also, you can find cans of chipotle sauce very cheap on the international food aisle of your grocery store. These burritos are delicious when dipped in chipotle sauce. For the price of one meal from a Mexican restaurant, you can make at least a half dozen of these. Enjoy, and remember to check back next week for our Thanksgiving special: leftovers!  

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