8 Best Frozen Mexican Food Items From Trader Joe's

Trader Joe's is a powerhouse when it comes to freezer friendly foods. Both delicious and stunningly affordable, the cooler-lined aisles offer hundreds of options for shoppers who need high-quality microwaveable dinners. We're not talking about your typical T.V. dinners, either — Trader Joe's offers hearty meals with global inspirations, like Indian paneer tikka masala and Vietnamese chao tôm. It's the only store where you can find jumeokbap, baingan bharta, and tortilla Española all in the same aisle — and better yet, all for less than $6 each.

Trader Joe's has a decent grasp on Mexican food and has a half-cooler's worth of tamales and burritos to prove it. While many of the store's most popular products are admittedly Americanized (orange chicken, we're looking at you), some dishes hit closer to home, even tasting good enough to pass as the real deal. Of course, nothing is as good as it is made fresh, but just how many products does Trader Joe's get close enough? We focused on Mexican cuisine and rounded up a list of the best, most authentic Mexican frozen items in store, which we chose based on flavor, texture, and ingredients used. These eight products are authentic adaptations of some of our favorite Mexican foods with an impressive flavor that makes dinner fast, easy, and effortless.

Tamales are a food that is most certainly better when prepared fresh, and if possible, made by someone who grew up cooking them from scratch. Having tamales in the freezer, though, makes late nights and rushed dinners way easier, especially if you don't have access to fresh tamales nearby. You wouldn't think so, but Trader Joe's is one of the best places to pick up frozen tamales: the store has a few tamale options like chicken, beef, and corn that reheat to a perfect tamale texture in just a few minutes.

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The Cheese and Green Chile Tamales have surprisingly authentic flavor that stand out as the best of the tamale selection. The green chiles are subtle but satisfying, and the melty Monterey Jack is gooey and plentiful. Perhaps the best part is the corn masa, which is soft and flavorful in a way that almost tastes homemade (as much as store-bought tamales can, anyway). The only thing to know about these tamales — they are best when steamed, which keeps the cheese from bursting out of the corn husk shell.

While papas rellenas can be considered Mexican, they are made widely across Latin America and the Caribbean and are often associated closely with Cuban cuisine. "Papas rellenas" translates simply to "stuffed potatoes" and the small croquettes can be stuffed with any number of fillings, so long as they are blanketed in potato and fried until crispy. The Trader Joe's version is stuffed with seasoned, crumbled beef, cooked onions, and peppers, then rolled with potato and coated in breadcrumbs — and they're large, measuring almost 4 inches across.

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Despite their size, the crispy potato balls still qualify as a snack, which is what makes the cook time one of the only drawbacks: the Papas Rellenas take nearly 20 minutes to cook in the air fryer. The long cook time is admittedly worth it for the extra-crispy results, which are further intensified by the flavorful, chile-laced potato filling that pairs well with salsa and Trader Joe's Jalapeño Sauce. The second drawback? There's way less beef than the package suggests, so we recommend these for the potato lovers among us.

If the Beef Birria isn't already one of the staples on your Trader Joe's shopping list, you might want to add it. The brothy, beefy stew is delicious and makes dinner a breeze, whether you are eating it as-is, making it into tacos, or even adding it to instant ramen. It's easy to heat and versatile; and for something as time consuming and complicated to make as birria, it's worth keeping on hand at all times.

Birria is a traditional Mexican dish that is made by blending several types of chiles into a brothy consommé, which slow-cooks the beef into tender pieces and is later used for flavoring tortillas. While making it from scratch takes an entire day, the Trader Joe's version is ready in less than ten minutes — and hardly compromises any flavor, the beef and consommé both well-seasoned and soaked in peppery flavor. The best way to use the small portion is to stretch it into tacos, which can be brushed with the consommé, filled with shredded beef and cheese, and toasted in a skillet until warm and melty.

Say you aren't a birria fan (if that's even possible); then, chicken mole might be your easy-dinner preference. Similarly packaged in a small, saucy, shallow container, the stew comes to life in mere minutes with the microwave, giving you an effortless meal in record time. Like the birria, you can eat the chicken mole on its own or layered into tacos, piling on fresh toppings like avocado and cilantro to calm the heat.

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Chicken mole is spicy — more so than birria, even though mole is often sweetened with ingredients like chocolate and cloves. The Trader Joe's mole is a red mole and doesn't include chocolate, though it's no less sweet because of its absence. What makes this version taste so distinct is the cinnamon, which is particularly forward, almost nearing being too sweet even with the heat of the chiles. Considering the balance of sweet, spicy, and savory, it's the entree that most closely represents Mexican flavor, and is a testament to how authentic Trader Joe's frozen entrees really can be.

We know what you're thinking: Does Spanish rice belong on a list of Mexican food items? The Spanish introduced rice to Mexico in the 1500s, bringing with it cattle, pigs, goats, and chickens. Native ingredients like tomato, chiles, and cilantro were added to the rice to impart flavor, turning it into the orange-hued dish known in Mexico today as arroz rojo. The Spanish influence stuck, and in English the rice is often still called Spanish rice despite its technical country of origin. In case you're still skeptical, Trader Joe's can confirm the intent of this rice: the product description on the Trader Joe's website clarifies that the dish is also called Mexican rice.

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Spanish or Mexican aside, is the rice worth buying? Definitively yes — the quick-to-heat, simple arroz rojo is a perfect replacement to the real deal, which can take 20 minutes or longer to cook from scratch. The flavor is far from homemade but satisfying, especially when stuffed into tacos or paired with refried beans. If you're missing the vegetables often added to Mexican rice, simply buy a frozen pack of mixed veggies and some cilantro and combine them for a seriously good rice dish in less than five minutes.

We'll be the first to admit that Trader Joe's is a little hit-or-miss when it comes to burritos; we've had plenty of misshapen wrapped tortillas that oozed cheese out of one side while the other remained frozen and inedible. In a sea of questionable choices, there is one burrito that is worth recommending, especially if you have an air fryer handy — the Chicken Chile Verde Burrito.

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These burritos are one of the only products on the list to claim origins in Mexico on the front of the package, which may explain why it sticks out as a great Mexican dish to buy. The cook time, like the Papas Rellenos, is a little long — you'll need nearly 20 minutes to cook these burritos, which can feel like forever for someone looking for a quick and easy meal or midnight snack. The truth is, though, that this is likely what makes these burritos superior compared to quicker versions: there is no spillage, cold parts, burned bits, or mushy centers. Just a perfectly toasted tortilla, moist chicken, and a flavorful green chile verde salsa that fills the burrito with flavor.

Arguably the best item on the list is the rich and creamy Tres Leches Cake, a limited time frozen dessert that seems to pop up for a few months every year in several lucky locations. If your location happens to stock this moist Mexican creation, don't hesitate: add it to your cart, fast.

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Tres leches cake is not easy to make from scratch. It requires three types of milk and a few hours' worth of time to put together. Unless you're an experienced baker, it may take a few tries to perfect the recipe. Buying it store-bought can be tricky, too, though — the cake relies on being endlessly moist and sticky, which can be hard to package and even harder to freeze. Somehow, Trader Joe's manages to make it work, and the result is a delicious, perfectly moist cake that is just slightly sweet but not overly so. It won't fool anyone — it's still a store-bought cake (and a tiny one, at that), but the texture and flavor are enough to make it a passable, if not delicious, easy option for those of us who simply cannot (or do not want to) bake.

Unless you hate cheese, fried food, or peppers, there's really nothing to dislike about chiles rellenos. A perfect dish, chiles rellenos involves stuffing poblano peppers with cheese before frying them in a particularly airy batter until crunchy and golden brown. To further flavor the gooey fried pepper, chiles rellenos are typically served in a tomato-based sauce or salsa. The lengthy, oily, multi-step cooking process makes these a delicacy, and one that can be hard to find in many places in America. Thankfully, Trader Joe's lets you try a pretty authentic version anywhere with just 20 minutes and an air fryer.

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The Chiles Rellenos are the second product on the list to have "product of Mexico" written on the packaging, which typically means that the product's components or production originated there. That may explain how this dish manages to include both fire roasted poblano peppers and Asadero cheese, ingredients authentic to the Mexican version of the dish. More impressive is the crispy exterior, which has the distinctly airy, crunchy, almost-spongey texture that comes from the egg white batter that chiles rellenos are traditionally coated with. The only trick is reheating them properly: like any fried food, the air fryer will produce the best results, and with chiles rellenos, you don't want to take any chances.

Besides personal taste and texture, it was important to us to choose items that reflect authenticity towards Mexican cuisine. Trader Joe's is notorious for never revealing its suppliers and producers, and without knowing who exactly is behind the recipes of our favorite items, we couldn't simply use the source of production as proof of authenticity. 

Instead, we chose products that are real dishes in Mexico (not American fusion or Tex-Mex) and reviewed the ingredient lists for similarities between the Trader Joe's product and the Mexican equivalent. With authenticity verified as much as possible, we then taste tested and reviewed each product for flavor and texture, choosing the products with the best chile taste, crispiest fried exteriors, meltiest cheese, and richest corn flavor.