An everyday Beef Burrito recipe, stuffed with a simple, super tasty seasoned beef, rice and other fillings of choice. These Burritos are a brilliant freezer standby because they are just as good made fresh or frozen then reheated. The burrito beef filling is especially good – made with a homemade Mexican seasoning that’s way better than a packet of Old El Paso!
Flavour packed everyday Burrito recipe!
Having a stash of burritos in the freezer makes me feel smug. Along with homemade Frozen Pizzas, these are one of the all time ultimate freezer meals.
Except burritos have the added bonus that you don’t even need to dirty a tray to reheat them, or a plate to eat them. Food you can eat with your hands always rates highly in my world!!! 😂
I call this Beef Burrito recipe an “everyday beef burrito” because beef filling aside, it’s a terrific one for adding in what you have and what you want. The key part of this recipe is the Beef Burrito Filling – highly seasoned with a homemade spice mix that tastes like Old El Paso – except it’s preservative free!
Freezer burritos: filling tips
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Use ingredients that freeze well
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Use cabbage instead of lettuce – cabbage holds up to freezing better
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Only use a small amount of “watery” vegetables like tomato as they become even more watery once defrosted
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Other raw vegetables used in burritos that do not freeze well include: avocado, cucumber
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Cook vegetables like capsicum/peppers, zucchini, carrot. Dice and add to Beef Filling.
What goes in beef burritos
The Beef Filling is the main flavour component in this burrito recipe. It’s highly seasoned and juicy so it provides the “wetness” in the burrito as well as the flavour mixing through the other ingredients when you roll it up.
So other than the Beef Burrito Filling, there’s endless possibilities for what to put in the burrito! For this recipe, I’ve chosen a combination of ingredients that freeze well:
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Beef Burrito Filling – juicy and packed with flavour!
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Plain white rice – or try brown rice, quinoa, or this Mexican Red Rice!)
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Corn
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Black beans
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Cabbage or lettuce
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Diced tomato
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Red onion
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Cheese
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Coriander/cilantro
How to freeze and reheat burritos
I like to use foil to roll up the burritos as it holds it together and then I can reheat it in the foil in the oven.
To freeze, I wrap in cling wrap (for extra air tight assurance) then put it in a ziplock bag or airtight container.
To reheat the burrito, I simply defrost in the fridge overnight then pop it in the ovenin the foil to make it crisp and heat through. If I forgot to defrost overnight, then I take it out of the foil, microwave on low to defrost, then wrap it up in the foil again and pop it in the oven to crisp up.
Dipping sauces for burritos
I totally forgot to take a photo of what to dip burritos in. They do need something because you can’t make the filling too wet, otherwise it makes the tortilla soggy.
For simplicity, my go-to is sour cream or yoghurt, sometimes with a dollop of some sort of chilli sauce. If I feel like making more of an effort or I’m doing these for a group (I like doing burritos for camping), then I’ll make Restaurant Style Salsa (because it’s smooth, it’s good for dipping) or this Avocado Dipping Sauce.
So – have I convinced you that you need to fill your freezer with these burritos??? – Nagi xx
FAVOURITE MEXICAN RECIPES
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Carnitas (Mexican Pulled Pork)
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Mexican Fiesta Menu and recipes
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Beef Burrito recipe video!
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Beef Burritos
Ingredients
Burrito Seasoning:
- 1 tsp each onion powder , dried oregano, salt
- 2 tsp each dried cumin powder , paprika
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper , or to taste (optional)
Beef:
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- ½ onion , finely chopped
- 500g / 1 lb beef mince (ground beef), I use lean
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 3 tbsp water
Burritos:
- 6 - 8 large soft flour tortillas or round wraps (~25cm/10”+) (Note 1)
- 3 cups cooked rice , warm not piping hot (I use white long grain)
- 3 cups iceberg lettuce or cabbage , finely sliced (use cabbage if freezing)
- 1 cup corn kernels (I use canned, drained)
- 1 cup black beans (I use canned, drained)
- 3 tomatoes, deseeded and diced
- 1/2 red onion , finely chopped
- Finely chopped coriander / cilantro (optional)
- 1 1/2 cups / 150g shredded cheese of choice (melting kind)
Instructions
- Heat oil in a skillet over high heat. Add garlic and onion, cook for 2 minutes until onion is lightly browned. Add beef and cook, breaking it up as you go, until it turns from red to brown.
- Add Taco Seasoning (or use 1 packet store bought) and cook for 1 minute. Then add tomato paste and water, cook for 3 minutes until the water is mostly evaporated but the beef is still juicy, not dried out. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes – piping hot filling will steam the burrito, making the tortilla soggy.
- Optional: If not warming rolled burrito, warm the tortillas before rolling (per packet directions).
- Place a burrito on a work surface. Place 1/4 - 1/3 cup of rice just below the centre. Top with 1/4 - 1/3 cup beef, then some lettuce, corn, black beans, tomato, a sprinkle of red onion, coriander and cheese.
- Fold up the bottom to cover the filling then fold the edges in (video helpful to see how to do this). Roll up tightly, then wrap in foil. Serve as is or heat per below.
- HEATING: To warm through, pan fry (dry pan) in the foil over medium high heat for a few minutes on each side to slightly crisp and warm the outside. Or for 10+ minutes on a medium low heat if you want to melt the cheese. Or they can be baked at 180C/350F for 20 minutes in the foil – this will warm them all the way through and crisp up the tortilla slightly. If they are straight from the fridge, they will take around 30 minutes to warm through.
- Burritos are best served with something to dollop/dip - sour cream (or yoghurt) and some sort of chilli sauce are my usual because it's easy. When I'm making more of an effort, I use Restaurant Style Salsa or Guacamole.
Recipe Notes:
- MICROWAVE/STOVE: unwrap then microwave for 2 minutes then crisp in dry pan over medium heat;
- STOVE: Leave in foil and turn over medium heat in dry pan for 10+ minutes until crisp all over (takes a while to warm all the way through). 3. MORE VEGGIES / Great for Freezing: One way to pack more veggies into this and/or reduce the carbs by leaving out the rice is to add veggies into the beef filling. To do this, increase the Seasoning, tomato and water by 50% (use the scaler by hovering your cursor over Servings) then add 3 cups of diced veggies of choice, like zucchini, carrots, celery, capsicum, corn. Use a large skillet, saute these veggies after the onion, then push to the side and add the beef and proceed with the recipe. 4. Nutrition per serving assuming 10 burritos.
Nutrition Information:
Burrito recipe originally published June 2017. Updated for housekeeping matters October 2018 – no change to recipe!
Burrito Fever
Life of Dozer
Staring competition: Dozer vs Burrito. Dozer won.
These burritos are delicious. I love that I was able to add carrot, zucchini, capsicum and black beans to the mixture and the kids didn’t complain. Being able to also then add cabbage, tomato, avocado and cheese just made this such a healthy meal. Mexican red rice took it to another level. An all round winner in our house!!!
I made these tonight as a special treat to myself. Soooo delicious! I’m also happy I have 7 more burritos waiting for me in the freezer. I definitely recommend this recipe!
I’ve made the chicken and shredded beef, excited to make these! I want to take them for lunch the next day and can’t reheat it, any tips I should consider?
This recipe is a winner. Absolutely. You wouldn’t think lettuce would work in a warm dish, but it did. 180c was perfect. I made my own “taco” seasoning and had sour cream and some Avacado on the side.
In the movie, cayenne, salt, oregano and paprika are listed, but not on the recipe.
Should I just us equal amounts of each?
I can’t believe the best burritos I have ever had come from an Australian recipe! My whole family loved these. I subbed refried beans for beef for the vegetarians. Both versions were amazing. I left out the sweetcorn, because I have never had a burrito with sweetcorn, it felt wrong somehow. But next time I will include the corn and I’m sure it will only enhance the recipe. I served guacamole, soured cream, salsa and hot chilli sauce as dips – all worked wonderfully well.
Recipe Tin Eats has emerged as one of my favourite recipe sources. I can also highly recommend the Thai Green Curry. Thank you RTE, keep ‘em coming!
Made these last night but subbed sliced mushrooms instead of mince and paired them with the avocado crema from your book. WOW! These were soooo good:-) Can’t wait to have these again.
Congrats and thanks for “Dinner”, it is an absolute joy to use and look at!!!
Easy and flavorful. Thanks for sharing.
Hello! I’m curious how you’d do this for camping. Would you just freeze 6-8 and then reheat in the foil in the fire?
Hi,
I made these for camping once, exactly as you said. Unfortunately they stuck to the foil so badly that they were hard to eat when I reheated them. Haven’t tried since!
you’d need to find some way to stop them sticking..
My “go to” recipes all come from your site Nagi. These burritos are with out doubt the yummiest and most straight forward recipe. Thank you for “talking”your way through each recipe. ❤️, I feel like you are a friend in the kitchen.
Made these today and they are a family favorite now. Delicious!!!! One question, when you freeze them do you wrap them in foil first then wrap them in the cling wrap for extra air tight assurance? Or do you skip the foil and just wrap them in cling wrap. Thank you for sharing this recipe!!!
I ate one from the freezer just the other day! I do foil then the clingfilm. When you want one, remove the film and you can pop them in the oven in the foil to heat from frozen! N x
Thanks for this great recipe! I paired it with the homemade tortilla recipe from Mexican Please.
Ole! Sounds delicious Rosalie! N x
This is such a great recipe that I even asked my friend from school if he wanted to use this recipe but he said no because he has other burrito recipes but I said that he should definitely use this one. SO this is such a good recipe I am definitely cooking this more often for my family.
Cheese melting? It isn’t listed in the ingredients, but in the instructions. Just gonna add a bunch…kids love it. Great recipe.
Could you please make a vegetarian version because to much meat. It wasn’t the best but it was ok
Just magnificent! Next time will get the super large tortillas – but a great flavour. could add jalapeños and ranchero to pimp up the spice, but absolutely loved by all. Sadly, it meant my plans for the spares as tomorrow’s lunch went out the door when everyone wanted more!
Not a bad problem to have Gordon! N x
I didn’t realize how crucial the tomato paste was! I’ve attempted burritos before, but these were amazing!!!!
Excited to try these! Just wondering how long these will keep in the freezer? im trying to make freezer meals for after I give birth and would love to make these if they’re suitable!
Hi Dorothy – these are great in the freezer. They will keep about 3 months frozen if well wrapped, possibly longer! N x
Best burritos ever
So glad you enjoyed them April! N x
The best burritos I’ve ever had! So much amazing flavor!
Wow! 😋
Thanks! So glad you enjoyed them! N x