10 Frozen Entrees Better Than Restaurant-Made Ones & 10 Not Worth Buying
Restaurant-Worthy Or Straight To The Garbage?
Whether you fancy yourself as a chef or would rather do literally anything else than cook, we all have those exhausting days when we just need to throw something in the oven and plop down on the couch. This is when frozen entrees really show their merit. However, not all frozen dinners are created equal, and even when you're feeling lazy, it shouldn't mean you have to completely sacrifice your tasty dining experience. To save you from disappointing rubber meat and mushy vegetables so often synonymous with TV dinners, we've compiled this list of the 10 best and 10 worst frozen entrees.
1. Rao's Rigatoni Bolognese
At over $10, Rao's Rigatoni Bolognese is one of the most premium options you'll find in the frozen food section of your grocery store. It boasts simple, high-quality ingredients that result in a meal that resembles what you'd order at an authentic Italian restaurant.
2. Saffron Road Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Tikka Masala, with its special blend of spices and multi-faceted elements, is just complicated enough to dissuade you from trying to make it from scratch. Luckily, Saffron Road has you covered with their frozen version of the Indian classic. It's incredibly flavorful, convenient, and healthy.
3. Stouffer's Meat Lovers Lasagna
Do you love lasagna and meat? Stouffer's Meat Lovers Lasagna which features meat sauce, pepperoni, Italian sausage, and ground beef and pork between sheets of pasta with cheese is the perfect frozen entree for you. The variety of meats makes for an even more flavorful and hearty take on a classic dish.
4. P.F. Chang's Home Menu Orange Chicken
Out of P.F. Chang's whole lineup of frozen entree options, the orange chicken is pretty much unanimously considered the best. It's easy to prepare, the sauce is flavorful, and it includes plenty of vegetables, adding a variety of textures.
5. Marie Callender's Chicken Pot Pie
As far as frozen pot pies go, you can't get much better than Marie Callender's. The flaky crust encapsulates tender chicken and vegetables enrobed in a creamy and decadent sauce. Each bit feels like a warm hug.
6. Amy's Cheese Enchilada
Amy's products are known for their simple, high-quality ingredients and authentic taste, and the cheese enchilada is no exception. With its exquisite sauce and fresh-tasting ingredients, it could easily be served at a restaurant.
7. Cholula Smoky Chipotle Veggie Burrito Bowl
One of the best value items on this side of our list, the Cholula Smoky Chipotle Veggie Burrito Bowl is less than $5, and packs plenty of protein, vegetables, and smoky chipotle flavor. Especially with a scoop of sour cream and some cilantro, this is an incredibly satisfying meal.
8. Trader Joe's Mandarin Chicken
We're here to tell you the product that everyone's obsessed with, Trader Joe's Mandarin Chicken, really is worth the hype. Its sweet and tangy sauce is perfectly balanced and the breaded chicken is tender and crisps up well in the oven.
9. Fly By Jing Frozen Dumplings
Fly By Jing Frozen Dumplings are currently only available online, but if you're willing to wait, you won't be disappointed. They're so much better than supermarket brands, are exceedingly simple to prepare, and even come in a variety pack so you can taste them all.
10. Amy's Palak Paneer
At $4 to $5 a meal, Amy's Palak Paneer is great value, especially considering how delicious and high-quality this dish is. Palak paneer is vegetarian comfort food at its best and Amy's does an excellent job of making it accessible and healthy.
Now that we've gone over some of our favorite options for frozen entrees, let's talk about the ones we would maybe only serve to our worst enemies.
1. Lean Cuisine Glazed Chicken
"Cloyingly sweet" is not the ideal descriptor for any dish, let alone an entree, but that's just how we would describe Lean Cuisine's Glazed Chicken. Dry and tough chicken is enrobed in an overly sugary and artificial-tasting glaze with some mushy, flavorless vegetables on the side.
2. Banquet Crispy Fried Chicken
The Banquet Crispy Fried Chicken may say chicken on the box, but we're not convinced. Whatever that mystery meat is, it's rubbery, soggy, and tasteless, served with watery gravy to boot.
3. On-Cor Breaded Chicken Parmigiana with Tomato Sauce
The picture on the box depicting disks of breaded something with squirts of ketchup-looking sauce doesn't look appetizing to begin with, but even with the bar set on the floor, this is a bad product. The cheese tastes artificial, the chicken is dry, and the tomato sauce is uninspired.
4. Hungry-Man Country Fried Chicken
Not only is this Hungry-Man product one of the least-healthy, highest-calorie options on this list, but it also tastes bad. The chicken is rubbery and almost inedible salty and the breading ended up soggy and slimy.
5. Hungry-Man Salisbury Steak
Hungry-Man's Salisbury Steak is more like a dry-ish hamburger patty stripped of all its toppings, bread, and condiments. The best part of this meal is the brownie if you can get past the fact that it sits between the side vegetables and mashed potatoes.
6. Marie Callender's Meatloaf and Gravy
First of all, there's a huge discrepancy between how this dish looks on the box versus in real life. Taste-wise, there's a lot to be desired. The most prominent flavor is salt, and the texture of the meat is squishy with runny mashed potatoes.
7. Real Good Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu
The chicken in Real Good Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu is not a chicken breast as expected, but some sort of weird minced poultry comparable to pet food. The other main ingredients of blue cheese and ham that should be present in a cordon bleu are head-scratchingly absent and the whole thing is just a bland, monochrome mass when heated.
8. Boston Market Sweet & Sour Chicken
Boston Market's Sweet & Sour Chicken should be renamed to horrendously sugary chicken. There is no sweet/sour balance, the chicken is mushy, and even the rice is inconsistently cooked.
9. Smart Ones Rigatoni Pasta Tomato Vodka Cream Sauce
It's actually astonishing how badly something as simple as pasta with sauce can be ruined. The pasta is mushy, the sauce is far too thin, and underseasoned.
10. Healthy Choice Balsamic Garlic Steak
Healthy Choice's Balsamic Garlic Steak is so tough, it's almost inedible. The balsamic sauce is overwhelmingly acidic, the mashed potatoes are wet, and the green beans are mushy and far too saucy. This product basically shouldn't be allowed on the shelves.
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