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!
Burrito recipe originally published June 2017. Updated for housekeeping matters October 2018 – no change to recipe!
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
- Use ingredients that freeze well
- Use cabbage instead of lettuce – cabbage holds up to freezing better
- Only use a small amount of “watery” vegetables like tomato as they become even more watery once defrosted
- Other raw vegetables used in burritos that do not freeze well include: avocado, cucumber
- 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:
- Beef Burrito Filling – juicy and packed with flavour!
- Plain white rice – or try brown rice, quinoa, or this Mexican Red Rice!)
- Corn
- Black beans
- Cabbage or lettuce
- Diced tomato
- Red onion
- Cheese
- 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
- Carnitas (Mexican Pulled Pork)
- Chicken Fajitas and Beef Fajitas
- Beef Enchiladas
- Queso Cheese Dip
- Mexican Fiesta Menu and recipes
- See all Mexican 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:
LIFE OF DOZER
Staring competition: Dozer vs Burrito. Dozer won.
DELICIOUS!!!!!!
I have made this many times now and it’s always a pleasure to eat! However when I reheat the burritos the next day, some of the foil tends to stick to the tortillas. I was wondering if I’m doing something wrong there. Either way a great recipe indeed!
Hi Thijs, to prevent this you can just spray the foil with a little oil before wrapping 🙂
Also great with venison!!!
Yum!
I love this entire series of recipes. I’m currently making mexican red rice, pulled pork, and burritos. Thank youNagi!
Hi Nagi, I’m making this tonight and am making extra to freeze. Just wondering if I freeze it will they need to be heated or can they be eaten cold? Also how long would they last in the fridge?
Hi Cessiah, I always reheat leftover food whether it’s been in the fridge or freezer, they would probably last up to 3 days in the fridge – N x
They were so delicious Nagi – thank you! My husband gobbled up 2! I have frozen 3 of them. So you would only eat them cold when made fresh then? Do you think they would cook enough in a pie oven for a couple of hours?
Truly a hit. I didn’t put veg in the burrito as I planned on freezing them. Nope! We are working our way thru them. So delicious. We’ll definitely make these again soon.
I’m so glad they were a hit Chris!
My husband was craving burritos, so I went to Pinterest and chose your recipe. I love the flavour combinations! I ate my filling without the tortilla, but I must make it again when I experiment with gluten free tortillas!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Cathy! ❤️
This sounds great! I’m vegetarian so would just add more black beans and maybe some other types of beans, and extra veggies. Also – the other good thing about Mission is they are palm oil free! Palm oil is a huge cause of deforestation in Indonesia and Malaysia, pushing species like orangutans, elephants and tigers to brink of instinction. Support palm oil free where you can! Love your recipes.
Thanks so much Vicki, I hope you try it and love it!
I’ve made this and it was amazing. I did it with nachos, salsa, sour cream and guacamole. So good 🙂
Yum, sounds fabulous!
Hi Nagi
Would a toasted sandwich press work to heat these in step 6?
That would work perfectly Kylie!!
YUM!!!! Made the filling as a burrito bowl/ taco salad filling lunch prep. SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, used kanga instead of beef.
Great Asako 🙌
A remake this time, I went the full hog (literally) and made avocado dip and restaurant salsa. I also had mexican rice leftovers so we were fully Nagi. Next up with leftovers from this, nachos 🙂
I love hearing this!!!
Thanks so much, Nagi for yet another excellent recipe. I made burritos for my sons to take to university and heat during the week. Healthy, and money and time-saving – and a happy mum knowing that they had warm, healthy yummy food.
Just subscribed now to leave comment. I’m very grateful for the time you take to share all these recipes – it has opened my eyes to more adventurous cooking and has saved us money whilst we have not had much. A joy to read your stories – and I feel as though I know Dozer! Thank you from here in London 🙂