The Del Real Arroz y Frijoles is a 64-ounce box of fully cooked Mexican-style rice and refried beans at Costco, packaged in four individual vacuum-sealed pouches — 2 rice pouches and 2 refried bean pouches. It lives in the refrigerated prepared meals section near other ready-to-heat ethnic staples like the Gopi Paneer and the Costco Crazy Cuizine Mandarin Orange Chicken. It's the kind of dinner-rescue product you grab when you don't have it in you to cook, but you still want something better than fast food.
Quick Take: Heat-and-eat Mexican rice and refried beans — restaurant-style flavor in 2 minutes. Verdict: Buy. Scores: Taste ⅘ · Value ⅘ · Convenience 5/5 · Stockpile Score ⅗.
First impression
I grabbed this on a "I have absolutely nothing in the fridge" Thursday. Open the box and you get four sealed pouches — bright orange-red Mexican rice in the smaller bags, creamy brown refried beans in the larger ones. It looks more like restaurant prep than a grocery short-cut, which got my hopes up.
Heated one of each in the microwave for 2 minutes, scooped onto a plate, and was actually impressed. The rice was fluffy and tomato-y, the refried beans were smooth, creamy, and seasoned right. My kids ate it without picking it apart, which is the bar at our house.
Price & value
The 64-ounce box typically runs $10 to $14 at Costco, working out to roughly $0.16 to $0.22 per ounce. To put that in perspective: a single restaurant side of rice and refried beans usually runs $4–$6, and a frozen Mexican entrée with rice and beans is around $7–$10 for 12 ounces.
So Costco's per-ounce pricing is dramatically better. The 4-pouch format is the real win — you don't have to commit to heating the whole tub at once. Open one rice pouch and one bean pouch for a small dinner, save the rest for later in the week. For a family of three or four, the box covers about 2 dinners with leftovers.
Nutrition snapshot
Rice (per 1 cup / 140g): 200 cal · 4g fat · 38g carbs · 1g fiber · 1g sugar · 3g protein · 800mg sodium. Notable: tomato-based, contains a bioengineered ingredient.
Refried beans (per ½ cup / 130g): 190 cal · 8g fat (3g saturated) · 23g carbs · 6g fiber · 1g sugar · 8g protein · 520mg sodium. Notable: real pinto beans, contains lard (not vegetarian), 6g fiber per serving.
Heads up: this is salty. The rice has 35% DV sodium per cup, and the beans add another 23% DV. If you're watching sodium, plan the rest of your meal accordingly — pair with plain protein and unseasoned veggies, skip the chips.
Taste, quality & how to heat them
The rice is Mexican-style red rice — tomato-based, lightly seasoned with garlic and onion, the kind you'd get at a sit-down Mexican restaurant. Not mushy, not crunchy, just right. The refried beans are creamy and smooth — that traditional Mexican-restaurant texture, made with pinto beans and a touch of lard for richness. The beans aren't bland or watery; they have real savory depth from the lard and salt. Together they taste like a real combo plate side, not a pre-packaged short-cut.
For heating, the package says 2 minutes per pouch, which is accurate for the microwave. Snip the corner of a pouch, squeeze the contents into a bowl, cover loosely, microwave 2 minutes, stir, done. The stovetop works too: scoop a portion into a pan over medium heat, stir occasionally for 5 minutes. Skip overheating — the rice can dry out and the beans can scorch on the bottom. Once heated, eat right away.
These are at their best as a side dish under a protein. Pair the warmed rice and beans with homemade air fryer ground chicken seasoned Tex-Mex style and you have an instant taco bowl. Or scoop on top of tortilla chips with shredded cheese and broil for 3 minutes for a quick nachos plate. With the 4-pouch format, dinner becomes a 10-minute job for the rest of the week.
What other shoppers are saying
Other Costco shoppers consistently praise the flavor authenticity of Del Real's products — many call it the closest grocery-store Mexican food they've found that tastes like a restaurant. The most common compliment for the Arroz y Frijoles specifically is the convenience-to-flavor ratio: very few prepared foods at this price point taste this good.
The most common complaint is the sodium level, and a vocal subset wishes there were a vegetarian version since the beans contain lard. A few shoppers also note the rice pouches are smaller than the bean pouches, so you may finish the rice before the beans if you're heating equal portions.
Who it's for & best uses
This box is for busy families on weeknight rotation, taco-night households, anyone who hosts casual Mexican-themed dinners, and meal-preppers who want a flexible base for the week. Also great for last-minute potluck contributions — scoop into a serving dish, microwave, and you've got a side for 8 people in under 10 minutes.
Skip if you have dietary restrictions around sodium, if you're vegetarian (the beans contain lard), or if you're a from-scratch home cook who already meal-preps rice and beans weekly.
A few easy ways to use them: as the base of a burrito bowl with shredded chicken and avocado; spooned over Trader Joe's Chicken Mole for a full Mexican plate; or as a rice-and-beans burrito filling with cheese, salsa, and sour cream in a warm tortilla.
Similar items
- Costco Stuffed Bell Peppers — similar refrigerated heat-and-eat meal format from the same aisle.
- Boulder Organic White Chicken Wild Rice Soup — different cuisine, same "real ingredients, ready to heat" niche.
- Costco Fried Tofu Vegetable Kimbap — Korean version of the same "ready-to-eat ethnic" format.
- Del Real Birria & Cheese Pupusas — same brand, different dish if you want to expand the rotation.
- Rosarita Organic Refried Beans, 16 oz, 8-count — pantry alternative for refried beans on hand year-round (vegetarian option).
The scores
- Taste — ⅘. Real Mexican flavor in both the rice and the beans. Loses a point for the high sodium.
- Value — ⅘. Restaurant-quality rice and refried beans at grocery prices. Big box stretches across several meals.
- Convenience — 5/5. Snip, microwave, serve. Two minutes from fridge to plate.
- Stockpile Score — ⅗. Refrigerated and dated. The 4-pouch format helps stretch shelf life, but once a pouch is opened, eat within a few days.
Verdict: Buy
A solid Buy for families with weeknight dinner chaos. The flavor is genuinely close to restaurant Mexican, the 4-pouch format makes portion control easy, and the cost-per-serving is hard to argue with.
Not a Repeat-Buy unless you really love Mexican food and have a household big enough to eat through it before the use-by date. But for the right house, this box earns regular cart space — especially during taco-night season or when soccer-practice weeks are eating your dinner prep time.
Where to find it
Where to find it: Del Real Rice and Beans, 64 oz at Costco (item #409886). Pack size: 64 oz box, 4 pouches total (2x 12 oz rice + 2x 20 oz refried beans), fully cooked. Price: ~$10–$14, varies by warehouse. Storage: refrigerated, use within use-by date on package. Aisle: refrigerated prepared meals / ethnic foods section.
Disclaimer: Costco Finds is an independent review site and is not affiliated, endorsed, or sponsored by Costco. All opinions are my own, based on personal experience.
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