The Best Mexican Foods To Buy At Trader Joe's, According To Customers

saran.wheel.v/Shutterstock

Trader Joe's isn't like the other grocery stores. Among some of the most notable ways the chain is unique is its selection of international foods. Whereas competing grocery stores will typically stock imported snacks and international ingredients, Trader Joe's opts instead to package international flavors largely under its house brand. That could mean anything from an Indian-inspired sauce to the 13 best Italian foods to buy at Trader Joe's, including, for example, a premade ricotta and lemon zest ravioli.

Naturally, among its selections of international items, Mexican foods are pretty prevalent, given Trader Joe's founder Joe Coulombe's upbringing in California. Determining the best of that selection meant combing through posts about Trader Joe's Mexican foods online and isolating products with lots of positive feedback. An item wasn't disqualified simply because some customers shared that they didn't enjoy it — picky eaters post too, after all — but positive opinions had to at least outweigh the negative ones for an item to make the cut. So, based on thoughts shared by customers online, each of the following is one of the best Mexican foods available on Trader Joe's shelves. See the methodology slide at the end for more information on how this list was compiled.

The Image Party/Shutterstock

Falling roughly in the middle of the spectrum between raw ingredients and ready-to-eat meals are items like frozen garlic naan, an overlooked Trader Joe's hidden gem. In the realm of Mexican food, another sort of premade carb option at Trader Joe's is the frozen Spicy Mexican-Style Riced Cauliflower. It consists of bell peppers, tomatoes, jalapeños, cumin, cayenne, lime, and garlic, in addition to its cauliflower base.

Simply put, the Spicy Mexican-Style Riced Cauliflower is a staple for a considerable number of Trader Joe's customers. Recipes utilizing the item shared by Trader Joe's shoppers include albondigas con chipotle, salmon burgers, carne asada tacos, and a Tex-Mex sweet potato, among others. Because of its simple, plant-based ingredients, the Spicy Mexican-Style Riced Cauliflower is also popular among vegans and keto diet adherents. The sole hindrance to its otherwise wide versatility is a significant level of spice — a positive for some but an obstacle for others. "I really enjoyed it!" wrote one Reddit user. "But it was spicy. I love spicy food, but this was hotter than expected. Eat with caution!"

Trader Joe's

For many, if not most Trader Joe's customers, the main attraction of the freezer aisle isn't its meal accompaniments like the Spicy Mexican-Style Riced Cauliflower or Garlic Naan, but its wide selection of premade entrees. Foremost among the frozen Mexican entrees at Trader Joe's are the Mini Chicken Tacos. Each taco consists of a chipotle-flavored chicken filling housed in a fried mini corn tortilla — one box contains 15 of them.

At one point, after establishing the Mini Chicken Taco as a customer favorite, Trader Joe's switched suppliers, leaving fans of the product feeling like it had suffered a downgrade. However, around the start of 2025, Trader Joe's returned to the original Mini Chicken Tacos recipe that had won over customers years prior. In a Reddit thread from April of 2020 about the old-recipe mini tacos, recommended preparations ranged from dipping them in guacamole to throwing them into a premade Trader Joe's Southwest salad. Of course, it's equally satisfying to simply heat them up in an air fryer and eat them as-is. "They're my favorite 'junk food' freezer item!" wrote the Reddit thread's original poster.

Trader Joe's

Given how labor intensive as they are to prepare, tamales are one of 14 foods that are often better out of the box than homemade. And some of the most widely available, quality tamales happen to come from the Trader Joe's freezer aisle. While a few different flavors are typically available at any given time, among the most often recommended is a Cheese & Green Chile flavor. Inside each masa casing is a mix of Monterey Jack cheese, green chili, and red chili puree. One bag contains two tamales, and includes instructions for heating in a microwave or steaming on a stovetop.

Just like the Spicy Mexican-Style Riced Cauliflower and Mini Chicken Tacos, fans of the Cheese & Green Chile Tamales don't always eat them as-is, often preparing them as part of more involved dishes — recipes range from simply topping them with extra cheese and enchilada sauce, to serving them in a salad with avocado, pico de gallo, and cilantro. On Reddit, author Gwenda Bond shared high praise for the Trader Joe's Cheese & Green Chile Tamales. "I would also like to thank Trader Joe's for their green chile and cheese tamales, which have saved my life more than once," she wrote.

Trader Joe's

Cheese & Green Chile Tamales are a longtime Trader Joe's staple, however, packages of frozen, premade Chicken Mole only started popping up on store shelves around the end of 2024. That said, Trader Joe's customers took quickly to the Chicken Mole, with plenty of new fans of the product online sharing their appreciation soon after the product's debut. The Trader Joe's mole recipe, the chain explicitly specifies, is not made with chocolate — an iconic ingredient in some mole recipes, to be clear. Rather, Trader Joe's stews chicken leg meat in a red mole sauce that includes guajillo peppers, pasilla peppers, garlic, onion, coriander, cinnamon, and other spices.

Some of the product's proponents have noted that, especially relative to a meager portion of beef in the chain's Beef Birria, the Trader Joe's Chicken Mole contains an ample serving of chicken. Different ways that customers have prepared the Chicken Mole include on rice, in an elevated taco, and even on top of mac and cheese. "As is usual for TJ's it was pretty tasty. I was fine with the texture/size/form of the chicken — it's pretty shredded and it's on the saucy-liquid side, but I consider that a positive because I really wanted to lick the plate clean," wrote one Reddit user. "I would definitely get it again and, in fact, would be really bummed if TJ's stopped selling it. Highly recommended."

The Image Party/Shutterstock

Trader Joe's stores offer robust selections of tortilla chips. Options range from more health-oriented Organic Blue Corn Tortilla Chips, for example, to snack-ier options like the Takis-reminiscent Chili & Lime Flavored Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips. Standing out from the pack, based on widespread praise from customers, are what Trader Joe's calls its Truly Tortilla Chips. What makes the Truly Tortilla Chips work is their simplicity — they're made with basic white corn, and just subtly flavored with sea salt and lime.

Reasons customers enjoy the Truly Tortilla Chips more than their counterparts at Trader Joe's are manifold. One of their foremost qualities is the fact that they're thick and not as easily broken as typical grocery store fare. Plus, their flavor, according to plenty of customers online, is pleasant but subtle enough to not distract from the dips or salsas with which they're paired. "These are now the only tortilla chips I want to buy!" wrote one Reddit user. "So thick, great for nachos and just overall hold their shape in the bag."

melissamn/Shutterstock

Entrees like the Mini Chicken Tacos or Cheese & Green Chile Tamales are in ample supply at Trader Joe's, to the extent that just about a full week's worth of meals could consist of a different premade Mexican dish each night. Of course, those sorts of premade foods typically sacrifice healthfulness for the sake of convenience. For the considerable number of customers whose Trader Joe's carts, rather, consist primarily of ingredients for their own home-cooked meals, one of the best Mexican ingredients in the store is its canned Fat Free Refried Beans.

First of all, the "fat free" label isn't necessarily important — rather, these are the only refried beans available at all Trader Joe's stores. Fortunately, the lack of fat doesn't equate to a lack of flavor, and customers pretty frequently share that they include a serving of Fat Free Refried Beans in Mexican meals made with Trader Joe's ingredients. Some such dishes include quesadillas, fried plantains, and even a Mexican-flavored bowl based around the Spicy Mexican-Style Riced Cauliflower. Simply put, even if they're not necessarily transcendently delicious, they're a must for any at-home Mexican lunch or dinner. "I used to eat these for lunch with a little cheddar mixed in and with pita chips," wrote one Reddit user about the Fat Free Refried Beans. "Random but it was super cheap and filling."

Trader Joe's

Store-bought tortillas can be hit or miss — emphasis on "miss" — and Trader Joe's is no stranger to the struggle of producing a quality tortilla. In 2022, for example, Trader Joe's shoppers were not thrilled about quinoa tortillas the chain stocked at the time. However, for shoppers planning on preparing their own Mexican meals at home, Trader Joe's now offers what it calls Sonora Style Flour Tortillas. For what it's worth, there's no single factor that makes them more Sonoran than other flour tortillas, but invoking the tradition of flour tortillas in Sonora does, at least, seem to indicate a commitment to a higher level of quality than what's standard at most grocery stores.

While they're available in both mini and standard sizes, the standard size is still a little smaller than the tortillas used for burritos at, say, Chipotle. So, while it can be used for a burrito at home, the larger size is still a little smaller than what's become standard for an American burrito. That sole caveat aside, Trader Joe's customers have found the Sonora Style Flour Tortillas to be among the highest quality options on store shelves, Trader Joe's or elsewhere. "These [are] some of the best tasting, if not the best tasting supermarket flour tortillas," wrote one user on Reddit.

Trader Joe's

Just like store-bought tortillas, dairy-free cheese substitutes can disappoint just as much if not more often than they satisfy. Fortunately for anyone who adheres to a dairy-less diet, the Trader Joe's Dairy Free Shredded Spicy Mexican Style Blend Cheese Alternative — as is wordily written on each bag — is a rare dairy-free cheese substitute that cheese-avoiders largely enjoy. Its Mexican flavor, it's worth noting, is twofold. On one hand, it consists of some white and some orange shreds, just like a standard grocery store Mexican blend of Monterey Jack and cheddar. Additionally, it's seasoned with spices like cayenne, paprika, and jalapeño pepper for an even more explicitly Mexican character.

As it turns out, the full lineup of non-dairy cheeses at Trader Joe's has earned a fair number of fans, with items like a feta alternative and a cheese-less cream cheese in particular winning over numerous customers. Likewise, the Mexican Style Blend ranks among various shoppers' favorite non-dairy cheese options at Trader Joe's, thanks to a satisfying flavor and an adequately melty texture when heated. "I love this. Quesadillas, nachos, scrambled eggs," wrote one Reddit user. "Like almost all nondairy cheese I wouldn't eat it unmelted, but it's very good melted."

The Image Party/Shutterstock

Trader Joe's may only stock one type of refried beans, but its salsa options are numerous. From a fresh Mango Pineapple Pico de Gallo to its popular Cowboy Caviar or even a simple Salsa Autentica, salsas at Trader Joe's cover a pretty wide range of flavors. On the more unique end of that spectrum is the Pepita Salsa. Pepita refers to pumpkin seeds, which are finely chopped and added to a traditional, lightly spiced, tomato salsa base. When asked for the single best salsa at Trader Joe's, a fair number of customers have chosen the Pepita Salsa above all others.

Even though pumpkin seeds are a relatively unusual ingredient, the Pepita Salsa's partisans use its flavor in a pretty wide variety of recipes — those include beef chili, scrambled eggs, black bean salads, simple chips with salsa, and more. "Oh my goodness it is so good," wrote a user on Reddit. "I went to a party this weekend and they had the pepita salsa and I was in love with it, so I went the next day to Trader Joe's and picked up a jar. At the party we even had the vegetable samosas and dipped it in the pepita salsa. I will be using this salsa every day I can for the foreseeable future."

Wild As Light/Shutterstock

One of the most iconic products at Trader Joe's is its Everything But the Bagel Seasoning Blend. In each jar is a mix of salt, sesame seeds, garlic, onion, and poppy seeds, meant to resemble what's on a standard everything bagel. So iconic is this product, it's the basis for items like an Everything But The Bagel Seasoned Smoked Salmon, which ranks among the seafood items worth buying at Trader Joe's. It's also the ideological inspiration for an Everything But the Elote Seasoning Blend, comprised of sugar, salt, chili pepper, Parmesan, chipotle, cilantro, and cumin, in addition to some non-flavor ingredients.

Just like its elder sibling, the Everything But the Elote Seasoning Blend has become a kitchen staple for a fair number of Trader Joe's customers. Fans of the product have compared its flavor to the powder on Cool Ranch Doritos, while others have found that it effectively replicates the elote experience, as intended. Its proponents have recounted most often using it as a popcorn seasoning, though it's also something customers have used with eggs, muffins, mac and cheese, vinaigrette-based salad dressings, and more. "This has become my obsession spice," wrote one Reddit user. "It's fantastic on pork chops and chicken. I love it on potatoes and green beans. Of course it makes corn on the cob out of this world."

The Image Party/Shutterstock

Determining the best Mexican foods at Trader Joe's based on customers' thoughts necessitated a multistep process. First, a simple search for "Mexican" on the Trader Joe's subreddit returned threads highlighting both products with "Mexican" in the name as well as homemade Mexican dishes using Trader Joe's ingredients. Supplementing those results were some posts on Bluesky similarly located with a search for "Trader Joe's Mexican." Those featured many of the same products, backing up the initial findings.

To supplement that first step, searches on the Trader Joe's subreddit for various kinds of Mexican products, like burritos, enchiladas, and salsa highlighted some additional items. Then, for any item to qualify for this list, customers' opinions from at least two sources — be it two Reddit threads or one Reddit thread and one Bluesky post — had to characterize the product in a prevailingly positive light. That process resulted in this list of the 10 best Mexican foods at Trader Joe's.