One of Costco’s latest ready-made meals is the Kirkland Signature Pork Carnitas Burritos. Burritos are a convenient, versatile option that can be both tasty and nutritious but making them from scratch can be time consuming. So how do these Costco burritos stack up against restaurant-quality versions? Read on to find out!
Location in Store
These are located in the pre-made deli section at Costco, near the Kirkland Signature Shrimp Tempura Tacos and the Kirkland Signature Loaded Pierogi Bake. The item number is 12275.
Taste
The batch I had of these was not amazing, and I probably wouldn’t purchase them again. They have a mild to moderate amount of heat that my toddler found too spicy. There’s a ton of rice in the filling and not much meat. We also noticed a bit of a curry flavor, which was a bit odd for a burrito!
I was also very confused to find peas and carrots in the filling, as those aren’t listed on the ingredients list. The pork itself is good, although not very flavorful.
I found the burritos a bit dry and feel like they could benefit from more cheese. Also, the ends of the burritos are quite doughy. The tortillas themselves don’t taste special in any way and, combined with the rice, make this a pretty carb-heavy dish.
Cost
The cost of the burritos is $13.99 per kilogram, and it depends on the weight of the tray. I paid $22.47 for my 1.606-kilogram tray. That’s over five dollars per burrito which isn’t cheap.
Convenience
We baked the burritos in the oven in the tray they came in, and they took about ten minutes longer than the instructions indicated. After baking, they came out quite crispy on the outside, especially on the edges.
The burritos need to be kept refrigerated, and the best-before date is four days from the date they were packaged. I think these would be fine to freeze either before or after heating them up, although they may get a bit soggy.
I recommend serving these with a side salad, guacamole, salsa, and sour cream. My absolute favorite store-bought guacamole is the Good Foods Chunky Guacamole from Costco. It’s in the refrigerated deli section near all the other dips.
Nutrition
Calories
Half of one burrito contains 410 calories, 13 grams of fat, 53 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 3 grams of sugar, 20 grams of protein, and 1,030 milligrams of sodium. Keep in mind, this is for half of a burrito only! I think a lot of people will eat a whole burrito, which is over 2,000 milligrams of sodium!
Ingredients
The ingredients list is rather short and sweet, with Mexican-style rice, tortillas, pork, cheese, salsa, bell peppers, cilantro, and onion as the main ingredients. I wish they listed what’s in the Mexican-style rice because that must be where the peas and carrots are coming from.
The burritos contain milk and wheat and may also contain egg, fish, molluscs, crustaceans, tree nuts, peanuts, soy, sesame, and mustard. It’s too bad they didn’t use corn tortillas to make this a gluten-free item!
Scoring
Taste: 6/10
Cost: 7/10
Convenience: 9.5/10
Nutrition: 3/10
Overall
Walk on by!
There are tastier options available in Costco’s pre-made meal section than these burritos. I recommend the chicken tacos or the lasagna.
Have you tried these Costco Kirkland Pork Carnitas Burritos? What did you think of them?
Please note that this review was not paid for or sponsored by any third party. This product was purchased by Costcuisine for the purpose of producing this review. The opinions in this review are strictly those of Costcuisine. Costcuisine is not affiliated with Costco or any of its suppliers. In the event that Costcuisine receives compensation for a post from the manufacturer of a product or some other third party, the arrangement will be clearly disclosed (including where the manufacturer of a product provides Costcuisine with a free sample of the product).
