Dr. Gourmet's Food Reviews

evol Foods: Chicken Burrito + Guacamole

Chicken Fajita Burrito and Gluten-Free Chicken Burrito

We don't like all things Evol but we do like many of their products.  The first ones we reviewed on the Web site we believed were the tipping point for frozen foods.  I wrote, "These meals are pretty much what you might have made for dinner one night and then stuck in the freezer for leftovers. Good, solid, tasty food that's pretty healthy." 

Heady words for frozen convenience food and our other reviews of their mini-burritos and flatbreads found them to be consistently great. 

Many of their products are gluten free, which I appreciate because I get to participate in tasting.  Today we have a split panel with one of their gluten free burritos and one flour burrito. 

I will say that I have become partial to corn tortillas over flour.  While I can't eat wheat flour tortillas any longer there is no doubt that those made with masa are much more flavorful and have better texture.  The other great thing about burritos made with corn tortillas is that they generally have more fiber. 

The gluten free Chicken+ burrito is good, but it's not up to Evol standards of excellence.  The tortilla to filling ratio is good and the texture of the tortilla comes out of the microwave good (the instructions call for wrapping in a moist paper towel while cooking).  The filling is, however, dry.  Much too dry and the flavor is not quite as strong as you might want in Mexican food.  The burrito comes with a little packet of guacamole that you thaw in warm water and without this the burrito would be inedible. 

The numbers make for a good lunch at only 260 calories and 11 grams of fiber.  There's only 380 mg of sodium.  We will give this a very good but falling short of the high bar set by Evol.

We were more disappointed by the Chicken Fajita+ burrito. Good tortilla to filling ratio, but the filling is also dry and the rice included in this burrito comes out looking a little like tiny white bullets (and that's what they taste like). The addition of red bell pepper adds some flavor but not as much as we've come to expect from Evol. The flour tortilla becomes tough in the microwave and the longer it cools the tougher it gets. (That's not Evol's fault, mind you, but rather an issue with microwaved flour tortillas in general.) Put the two together and it's just okay, but only with the addition of the guacamole. (At least one person on the panel opined that cardboard would be edible with guacamole.) We won't be recommending this one - choose one of their other burritos instead.

What's interesting about the comparison of the gluten-free burrito with the flour-containing burrito is that the gluten-free version actually has fewer calories and more fiber: the Chicken Fajito burrito has 380 calories and only 5 grams of fiber with the 320 milligrams of sodium. It's unusual to see more fiber in the gluten-free versions of tortillas and baked goods. They tend to have less fiber and more calories than their gluten-containing version because of the flours used to make them. We'll keep an eye out for the gluten-free chicken and shredded beef burritos in the hopes that they have the same good numbers (but better flavor).