9 Popular Frozen Meal Brands, Ranked

I have dinner by myself most nights, and while I generally prefer to throw together a simple supper with fresh ingredients, sometimes I just want to eat something good without spending time prepping and cooking. So, I keep a couple of frozen dinners in my freezer to save me from ordering takeout. It works ... usually.

Over the years, I've tried quite a few frozen dinners, from simple Stouffer's meals my mom made when I was young, to today's celebrity chef brands. And, while I would never expect a frozen dinner to compare to a home-cooked meal, some of them do come amazingly close.

For this article, I tried two of the top-rated meals from nine popular frozen dinner brands and judged them head-to-head to determine which was the best. Along the way, there were lots of surprises and a few disappointments, but the best frozen dinner brand ultimately blew my mind.

After my parents divorced, my dad started keeping a stash of Hungry Man dinners in his freezer. He would make dinner for my sister and me, then ask us, "Was it good?" If either of us offered a lukewarm response, he'd ask, "But are you full?" We would nod vigorously, not wanting him to offer us more, and he would conclude, "Then it was a good meal." And, while I'd never prepared a Hungry Man meal for myself before writing this article, I can now only assume he had this same conversation with himself every time he ate one.

I got two of the top-rated varieties among the nine available at my store — boneless fried chicken and roasted turkey. The one positive thing I can say about them is that they contain a huge amount of food. If, like my dad, that's your indicator of a good meal, then Hungry Man dinners are five stars. But if taste and texture play any part in your assessment, then stay far away from these frozen dinners.

The boneless fried chicken was basically a giant chicken nugget. The mashed potatoes were gluey, and the corn was clearly canned. The turkey in the turkey dinner was identical to processed turkey lunchmeat and was only edible when covered in gravy. The gravy, in fact, was the only thing that made any part of the dish palatable, nearly saving even the potato paste. The stuffing was okay, also drowned in gravy, and the two tablespoons of cranberry apple dessert were delicious, but those were the only things I could stomach from either of the meals. A full belly for $3.74 is an okay deal, I guess. But I wouldn't eat a Hungry Man meal again, even if you paid me.

As far as I can tell, the best thing about Michelina's is that it's cheap. At $1.18 per meal, the price is hard to beat, and while it is one of the fanciest foods you can find at the Dollar Tree, I can't even say it's worth that, to be honest. I grabbed the two highest-rated options among the 13 available in-store — five-cheese ziti and fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and broccoli — noting that both were small enough to be more of a side dish than an entree.

I started with the fettuccine Alfredo. It was very beige — even the broccoli was a shade that I would just barely call green — and the noodles were a bit thick, sticking to themselves anywhere they weren't slathered in sauce, even when stirred halfway through heating. The chicken itself was clearly processed and very chewy, while the sauce had a texture that made it obvious that it had been microwaved. It was, admittedly, better than expected for a little more than a dollar, but certainly not something I would purchase again.

After the Alfredo, I had somewhat higher hopes for the five cheese ziti, but those were smashed to smithereens with the first bite. It might as well have been Chef Boyardee Beefaroni, minus the beef. The too-thick, overcooked macaroni noodles, tomato-adjacent sauce, and barely-there cheese made a combination so bad, I couldn't bring myself to take a second bite. In fact, of all the brands on this list, Michelina's was one of only two brands where I didn't save the leftovers.

I grew up on Stouffer's frozen dinners. With two young kids and a full-time job, my mom took all the help she could get in the form of frozen family-size meals. While Stouffer's has way more options than the lasagnas and Salisbury steaks of my childhood, nearly all of the 30+ dishes available at my local Walmart are hearty, homestyle meals that would have fit right in on my mom's kitchen table in the early '90s.

Though there were lots of highly-rated options from Stouffer's, I grabbed one familiar single-serve meal — the three cheese rigatoni — and one I'd never tried before — the cheddar potato bacon bake. The rigatoni was good, but nothing too exciting. I mean, it's pasta, sauce, and cheese, so it's hard to go wrong, but all the noodles that weren't covered in sauce before freezing got hard and crunchy in the oven. 

The potato bake, though, was awesome. The cheese had a strong cheddar flavor, and the dish tasted like bacon throughout, even in the bites without meat. The breadcrumb topping was crispy and golden, and the whole dish reminded me of Cracker Barrel's loaded hash brown casserole. I would totally make this as a side dish, or maybe even as a breakfast to share with my kids, especially since there's a 24-ounce version of the same dish with 4.5 servings for about $2 more than the single-serve portion. Overall, I would say Stouffer's is hit or miss, depending on the dish. I would still go to Stouffer's for a family-size lasagna, and I'll definitely be trying out more of its side dishes after tasting the cheddar potato bacon bake, but I'll be looking elsewhere for individual meals.

Marie Callender's was another household staple when I was growing up. The pot pies were less than a dollar a piece, and easy enough to throw in the oven to feed the whole family for dinner. And the frozen dessert pies gave us a restaurant-like experience at a time when we couldn't afford meals out — as long as someone remembered to pull them out of the freezer in time.

For the sake of nostalgia, I grabbed the highest-rated pot pie — the turkey pot pie — as well as a fan-favorite dish, the sweet and citrusy orange chicken bowl. I realized when I got home that I'd bought the large-size turkey pot pie, with two servings per pie, which seemed like an especially great deal for $3.27. The instructions had changed slightly from the last time I had a pot pie, too, with guidance to wrap the edge of the crust in foil, preventing the burned edges I'd grown familiar with as a child. In fact, everything was even better than I remembered, with crisp veggies, tender turkey, and a silky gravy holding it all together inside the crust.

But, while the pot pie was a hit, the orange chicken bowl was a miss for me. It was too sweet, and the chicken breading was dry. But worst of all were the rice and veggies, which were chewy and underhydrated in spots. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great either. In fact, Tai Pei has an orange chicken variety, and while I didn't try it, based on the Tai Pei meals I did try, I'm certain it would blow Marie Callender's out of the water. 

I've had By Chef Ramsay frozen meals a handful of times, and have always enjoyed them, though I had never prepared them as directed before, as I didn't have a microwave. So, I was curious how my past experiences with the upscale, restaurant-style brand would differ from enjoying the dinners as intended. I purchased the two top-rated dishes from the five available at my local grocery — the lemon caper chicken, which I had not tried before, and the lasagna with Bolognese meat sauce, which I had. Then, despite my reservations, I followed the instructions, plopping each one unceremoniously onto the microwave turntable.

The lemon caper sauce was delicious, but the broccoli was mushy, and any potatoes that weren't sauced before freezing were chewy. The chicken itself was tender in the middle, but the tough edges had "microwave" written all over them, and there was no crispness to the breading at all. I'm certain oven preparation would have vastly improved this dish.

Likewise, the lasagna was very tasty, with plenty of herbs in the sauce and a rich cheese filling. But microwaving the dish means you have to spoon the sauce over the top halfway through, burying the cheese and destroying its visual appeal. It certainly held up better in the microwave than the chicken, but it still didn't live up to my past off-label oven preparation — 40 to 45 minutes in a 400 degrees Fahrenheit oven, if you're curious. Both were good, but still somewhat disappointing, especially with a price of nearly $6 per plate, which may still be cheaper than Gordon Ramsay's cheapest restaurant, but is a lot for a frozen dinner.

Tai Pei has a surprisingly large range of frozen and dry food options, from instant noodle dishes to egg rolls, plus half a dozen frozen takeout-style meals. I grabbed two of the top-rated varieties — beef and broccoli, and chicken fried rice — for $3.74 each, and headed home, looking forward to other brands much more than the Tai Pei meals. But these frozen takeout dinners went beyond what I expected.

The Tai Pei frozen meals come in a lidded cardboard container vaguely reminiscent of the folded takeout boxes, and they cook super quick in the microwave — much faster than trying to decide what to order at Panda Express –  with no prep at all, other than snipping the plastic seals on the lid. Both dishes smelled and tasted exactly like good Chinese takeout. The beef and the chicken were clearly made from whole cuts of meat, and they cooked perfectly in the container. Even the bits of chicken that looked like they may have gotten fried in the microwave were still tender, and there wasn't a crunchy bit of rice in either dish.

I had seen Tai Pei frozen takeout meals while browsing the frozen foods section in the past, but never gave them a second thought. But, after trying the beef and broccoli and chicken fried rice, I'll probably start keeping one or two of these in the freezer for those late-night takeout cravings.

I've been a fan of the Devour mac and cheese bowl-style meals for a long time. I occasionally go through phases where my appetite is limited and nothing sounds good, and these meals still always manage to hit the spot. They're not gourmet, by any means, but they're flavorful, filling, and loaded with protein — anywhere from 20 to 40 grams per meal.

At my local Walmart, there are seven available options in-store — four of the original meals, and three "Big Bowls" for less than a dollar more. Notably, though, the Big Bowls don't seem to have much more protein than the regular-sized meals. The original white cheddar with bacon meal has 32 grams of protein, for example, while the Big Bowl of the same variety has 37 grams.

For this article, I sampled the chicken cordon bleu mac and cheese and the Buffalo-style chicken mac and cheese. The chicken cordon bleu was very beige, with the only visible seasoning being black pepper, but the cheese was gooey and stretchy, the sauce wasn't lumpy or sticky, and the ham flavor was rich and satisfying. The Buffalo-style sauce was grainier, and the shell pasta didn't hold up as well in the microwave as the spiral cavatappi pasta did in the cordon bleu meal, but it had just the right amount of heat, and the chicken was like a super saucy boneless wing. Both meals were satisfying and full of flavor, and despite their shortcomings, I loved them, especially for the price of $3.74.

Of all the brands on this list, Amy's Kitchen struck me as the one with the greatest variety. Of the roughly 25 single-serve meal options available in-store, Amy's has a mix of country casserole-style bowls, international dishes, breakfast scrambles, and more, to say nothing of the family-style enchiladas, frozen pizzas, and arguably some of the best frozen burritos you can find. Most are very highly rated, so, having plenty to choose from, I went with the cheese enchilada and the broccoli cheddar bake.

The cheese enchilada was not a very pretty plate, but it sure smelled good. The cooking directions say that cheese will ooze out of the enchilada if you overheat it, but I honestly don't know how you would ever tell. Still, it had just a little bit of spice, and the cheese was nice and stretchy. The only real complaint I have is that, for some reason, while other Amy's enchilada meals come with rice and beans, the cheese enchilada had no sides — just two enchiladas smothered in sauce.

The broccoli cheddar bake was also delicious. The pasta had a good consistency, and the broccoli was firm and crisp. The cheese sauce was a little bit bland, but the whole dish was still very satisfying, especially with the crunchy breadcrumb topping. Both dishes were incredibly filling, and while the nearly $6 price tag is a little high, it's certainly not unreasonable for a satisfying organic meal.

I have to admit that I was very nervous about Guy Fieri's Flavortown frozen meals. Don't get me wrong — all six options available in my local Walmart (the only place you can buy them) looked incredible. There are all kinds of concoctions I might come up with after a particularly boisterous night out — sloppy joe mac and cheese, pepperoni pizza lasagna, and Philly cheesesteak tots, to name a few. But most are also made up of notoriously difficult-to-microwave ingredients, like potato tots and pasta, and there are no oven instructions given.

I grabbed the two highest-rated items from the freezer section — the fiesta beef taco pasta and the chili cheese dog loaded tots — and brought them home, ready to pop them into the microwave. Both shocked me with how tasty they were, and how well they handled being heated. The taco pasta had loads of gooey cheese, and the peppers still had some crunch to them. The texture of the beef was indistinguishable from pan-browned taco meat, and the whole dish gave me Skyline chili vibes, in the best possible way.

I was especially skeptical about the loaded tots, but they were so good, I'll probably go back for more. The hot dogs were high-quality and seared after slicing, which gave them a great flavor and texture. And, while there wasn't a crispy tot to be found anywhere — they were all too loaded with chili and cheese to retain any crunch — none of them had the microwaved chewiness I had anticipated. I couldn't get enough of either of these dishes, and while they're a little pricy at just shy of $6, I was too full to complain.

For this article, I chose brands across a variety of styles, including organic meals, celebrity brands, hearty meals, Asian-style meals, and classic, household-name brands I grew up eating. I excluded health food brands like Lean Cuisine, Smart Ones, and Healthy Choice, because it wouldn't be fair to compare brands with sodium, fat, and calorie limitations against brands that aren't similarly restricted. 

I chose the individual meals from the highest-rated options for each brand based on customer reviews, cooked them according to package directions (opting for oven over microwave wherever oven instructions were available to maximize texture), and ranked them according to: taste and texture (most important), especially how it holds up to freezing and cooking; availability of options; uniqueness of options; and value for the price.