Skip the freezer aisle and make your own freezer-friendly Beef and Bean Burritos at home. Flour tortillas are layered with a well seasoned ground beef filling, two kinds of beans, and plenty of shredded cheese.

Looking for a meatless meal? Try my Baked Cheesy Bean and Rice Burritos.

If you’ve got teenagers in the house over the summer break, I guarantee you’ll be happy to have your freezer stocked with these Beef and Bean Burritos!

But honestly, it’s been years since we’ve had teenagers here and we still love them. They stay fresh a good long time in your freezer and can be reheated quickly from frozen for an easy lunch or dinner. And most importantly, they’re more wholesome and taste so much better than store-bought frozen burritos.

The next time you’re in one of those Marie Kondo I’m-going-to-tackle-my closets-and-the-world kind of moods, add these easy Beef and Bean Burritos to your to-do list. That way when all heck breaks loose, as it seems to frequently, you’ll have a homemade microwaveable meal in minutes.

Ingredient Notes

• Ground beef filling – 90% to 93% lean ground beef, diced yellow onion, tomato paste, Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix (or a store-bought blend), a little water, canned diced green chiles, and a little hot sauce. These ingredients create a moist and flavorful ground beef fillig.
• Beans – A can of refried beans and a can of pinto beans, rinsed and drained
• Cheese – I use a combination of sharp cheddar and Monterey Jack cheese.
• Tortillas – Burrito size (10-inch) flour tortillas. For smaller burritos, you can use 8-inch soft taco tortillas.

How to Make Beef and Bean Burritos

1. Ground beef filling: Follow the recipe directions to cook the easy ground beef filling in a large nonstick skillet. Remove the skillet from the heat and allow the mixture to cool slightly.
2. Beans: While the beef is cooking, combine the refried beans and pinto beans in a medium mixing bowl.

1. Fill: Layer a tortilla with beef filling, beans, and shredded cheese.
2. Fold: Fold the ends of the tortilla over the filling.
3. Roll: Then, roll tightly roll up the burrito.
4. Repeat: Repeat this process with the remaining tortillas and filling ingredients.

Be sure to tuck the edges of the flour tortilla in over the filling and roll the burritos tightly to form a neat package so the ingredients won’t spill out when they are heated.

How to Freeze Burritos

1. Layer 1: Securely wrap the burrito in a small sheet of parchment paper (I cut sheets of parchment paper in half to create squares).
2. Layer 2: Then, wrap it again in a sheet of foil. Two layers of wrap is an important step to help prevent freezer burn.
3. Freezer bag: Place the wrapped burritos in gallon size freezer-safe plastic storage bags.

Heating Frozen Burritos

These burritos can be heated straight from the freezer in the microwave or a conventional oven. If you’d like to heat an entire batch of them all at once, this can be done best in a conventional oven but it does take much longer.

I also tested reheating these burritos from their frozen state in an air fryer and didn’t love the outcome so I’m not sharing that method. In the time it took for the frozen filling to warm through, the tortillas became overly browned and somewhat dried out. Not ideal.

Microwave method: Remove the foil and parchment paper from one burrito and wrap it in a paper towel. Cook for 2 minutes and then flip the burrito and cook for an additional 30 to 45 seconds, or until heated through. Allow the heated burrito to sit for 20 seconds or so before serving. When using the microwave you should reheat them one at a time for the best result.

Conventional oven method: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. If you used plastic wrap or wax paper, unwrap the burrito and re-wrap them with just the foil. If you used parchment paper, you can leave the burrito wrapped in both. Place the foil-wrapped burritos on a baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until heated through, flipping halfway through the cooking time. The tortillas will toast up a little and they will cook up perfectly.

Variations

• Burrito Size: This recipe will make 8 burritos using 10-inch burrito size flour tortillas. For mini burritos, use smaller 8-inch soft taco size tortillas and you’ll get 10 or more, depending on how beefy you want them.
• Tex-Mex Burritos: Sauté some diced red bell pepper and add some frozen corn to the ground beef filling. Layer the burritos with pepper Jack cheese for a Tex-Mex twist!
• Lower Carb Burritos: I like to wrap half the burritos in low carb wraps like Ole Extreme Wellness High Fiber Wraps or La Tortilla Factory Whole Wheat Tortillas for my husband and I. This is an easy substitution to make that will cut a substantial amount of refined carbs from your meal.

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This post was originally published March 9, 2019. It has been updated with new text and images.