I Tried 9 Chef Boyardee Items And Ranked Them Worst To Best

A fun and tasty favorite for kids, or a time-saving hack for busy adults? Either way, Chef Boyardee is a reliable buddy with a proven track record for being quick, easy, and filling. This shelf-stable convenience product with a tiny price tag has always been a staple of my childhood, and has also saved me during times of hungry, strapped-for-cash desperation in my adulthood. And when I've asked friends, family members, and coworkers about their own relationship with the mustachioed celebrity cook, there's a general consensus of happy, nostalgic reverence. Many have enjoyed eating it growing up straight from the can, not even warmed up. Others, with kids of their own now, feel a sense of pride when serving their family a bowl of Beefaroni or Spaghetti & Meatballs, paving the way for another generation of Boyardee devotees.

But here is where I get mixed reviews: what is the favorite choice, among the whole lineup of Chef Boyardee products? Opinions were pretty divided when I asked this question. And while I trust everyone's top picks and bottom-rung choices, I had to personally put them all to the test side by side to form my own professional judgement. Equipped with a microwave-safe bowl, a spoon, and my appetite, I taste-tested nine different Chef Boyardee items and ranked them worst to best.

Given all the other opportunities to enjoy boxed mac and cheese, the canned option from Chef Boyardee should be tossed away immediately. While the presentation was decent (it at least looked like a hearty bowlful of plump, vibrant mac and cheese), my last-place choice was far from pleasant to consume.

The sauce had a chemical, artificial taste, with no bold cheddar flavors. This shouldn't come as a shock, since the sauce is not made with actual cheese. Instead, it's clearly identified as a "cheese-flavored sauce" on the label, with ingredients like cheese flavor, natural flavor, seed oils, and margarine.

The overarching problem of soft, overcooked pasta in mostly all Chef Boyardee products reared its ugly head the most in the mac and cheese. The macaroni pieces were flabby, gummy, and instantly disintegrated once I took a bite. And with no other ingredients to bring even a minutia of textural excitement, I quickly lost my appetite.

Chef Boyardee's microwaveable option for Mini Spaghetti Rings & Meatballs was a sad little dish I never want to eat again. There was way too much sauce in relation to the minuscule number of rings and meatballs. Those poor little guys were drowning in that bizarrely thickened madness. The more concentrated ketchup-y flavor and consistency of the sauce was unpleasant, and was a far cry from the characteristically smooth and creamy Chef Boyardee tomato sauce I have known and loved ever since childhood. I'm going to blame that issue on the microwaveable container format.

But even if there was a better balance between the tomato sauce and the spaghetti and meatball mix, it still would not have earned a higher ranking. The pasta rings were soft and gloopy, and the tiny meatballs were so small and delicate that they broke down into a weird, grainy consistency when I was trying to eat them.

As a 90s kid, playing with my Tamagotchi while wearing a bucket hat, I'll never forget the fun little ditty in the Chef Boyardee commercials that would air between my favorite Nickelodeon shows. I would sing out loud with the other kiddos: "We're having Beefaroni, beef and macaroni!" While the song is a joyous core memory of my childhood, the taste of Beefaroni certainly is not. I didn't really like it back then, and I still don't like it now. I'm a kid at heart, after all.

Chef Boyardee's Beefaroni features cylindrical pasta pieces in a tomato-and-meat sauce. The tomato sauce tasted just like the signature base used in most of the Chef Boyardee canned pastas: it's like a homogenized, velvety tomato soup with a pleasant balance of acidity and sweetness, with just a little saltiness and a faint hint of Italian herbs and seasonings. The sauce wasn't the problem here — the main offenders were the severe lack of meat and the poor quality pasta. The pasta pieces in the Beefaroni were so overcooked and mushy, and there were only a few teeny-tiny specks of beef scarcely scattered throughout the sauce. This was a severe problem for me, especially because a product with "beef" in the title should include far more than what I had.

Chef Boyardee's Lasagna, prepared with long lasagna noodles in a tomato sauce mixed with meat, had nearly all the same issues as the Beefaroni — but with a few winning qualities. The shapely ribbons were wide and thick, so they had a more wholesome texture and were more fun to eat than the short pasta pieces in the Beefaroni. I was entertained by the deconstructed, canned concept of a lasagna casserole, though I missed the presence of a cheese component.

The tomato sauce base satisfied all of my expectations, but I had to wallow in my own sad disappointment when I realized this contender also did not contain enough meat in the sauce. However, there was just a little more beef in the Lasagna can than in the Beefaroni can. This obviously isn't a monumental win for Chef Boyardee's Lasagna (I would rather choose a store-bought frozen lasagna over this), but it earned some small bragging rights over its lower-ranking contenders.

Not as boring as plain pasta swimming in soupy sauce like Beefaroni or Lasagna, a stuffed option, such as Chef Boyardee's Cheese Ravioli, at least has some heartiness compared to the others. There were still enough weird flaws that prevented it from climbing closer to the top of the list.

But let's start with the positive. The tomato sauce was not as sweet or runny as a typical Chef Boyardee base — it had a pronounced tomato flavor and actually coated the ravioli well. I could also more distinctly taste assorted Italian herbs, and — to my pleasant surprise — even a little heat from some pepper. The pasta was definitely soft, but not to the level of immediate disintegration like some of the other products.

As for the negatives, the cheese filling was unforgivably stingy and didn't really have any flavor to it. And there was something odd about its texture ... was that a grain of rice I nibbled on? After consulting with the label, rice is included as an ingredient. I do have an expert guess as to why there's rice in my ravs: the addition of rice must be a more cost-effective attempt to mimic the texture of a grainier ricotta cheese, which is the traditional filling in most cheese ravioli. It didn't fool me, and I didn't like it.

The Beef Ravioli from Chef Boyardee is only a small improvement over the Cheese Ravioli. On the plus side, rice was not used as a cheap filler, and there's actual beef listed as an ingredient. There is also a bit more filling in the Beef Ravioli than in the Cheese Ravioli. But considering the Cheese Ravioli was offensively lacking, the barely fuller Beef Ravioli wasn't all that impressive. As for the sauce, it was the typical, expected Boyardee base: smooth, velvety, and mild, like a creamy tomato soup.

Despite these small upgrades, there were some strange textural issues that I did not find appetizing. The filling didn't taste that great — the texture was similar to a creamy bean dip and was rather flavorless, lacking any beefy, meaty flavor. And the pasta used for the Beef Ravioli was soft and flabby, but was still hardy enough to encase the filling without falling apart when I stirred the whole dish or cut into the pieces.

What's the solution to a stingy ravioli? Find an overstuffed one. Out of all the ravioli I ate for this review, the Chef Boyardee Overstuffed Italian Sausage Ravioli had the most appeal. True to its name, there was an abundance of filling compared to the others, which offered a well-balanced ratio between the pasta and the meat inside. The filling had a lot more flavor and a slightly better mouthfeel than the Beef Ravioli. It was still creamier than I expected a meat-based product to be, but I could tell there was a better chew to it. Instead of beef, this one included Italian sausage, made with pork and assorted spices and seasonings.

The tomato sauce was the main issue here. While the flavor wasn't anything to complain about, the consistency was much runnier than all the other sauces. The looseness was a little odd, and I missed the velvety thickness I typically expect from a Chef Boyardee sauce.

Even though the concept is similar to the Mini Spaghetti Rings and Meatballs, Chef Boyardee's classic can of Spaghetti & Meatballs reigns supreme. Due to the size difference between this and the mini version, the meatballs here had a much better texture and flavor. They weren't excessively bouncy or rubbery — instead, they were tender with a perfect amount of chewy resistance that maintained the integrity of their beautifully bulbous shapes. And for a single-serving can, I was impressed by how much it contained.

But there's a very good reason why Spaghetti & Meatballs didn't take first place. The tasty meatballs will never erase from my memory the horrific and inexcusable texture of the spaghetti strands. No different from most other pasta-focused competitors, this dish featured noodles so soft that they dissolved instantly as soon as I ate them. Similar to what I observed with the Mini Spaghetti Rings, their size is to blame — with such a long and thin pasta shape, the noodles were destined to be mushy. But I would take this can of pasta over all the others. The meatballs really were delicious, no lie. And that's coming from someone who grew up making meatballs from scratch for decades, with all the multi-generational tips and tricks to make them as flavorful as possible.

Phew, what a refreshing change ... Chef Boyardee's microwavable Rice with Chicken & Vegetables finally gave me the one gift I was desperate to have after tasting the other contenders: texture! When all the soft, gummy pastas I tasted utterly failed in that judging category, the rice excelled. The individual grains were not soft and mushy, with a perfectly al dente texture.

The chicken was also an impressive feature — there were plenty of moist, meaty pieces to enjoy with each bite. Sure, the mixed vegetables (small bits of carrots, peas, celery, and onion) were definitely on the overcooked side of the doneness spectrum, but they contributed to the overall depth of flavor and provided a colorful, earthy contrast to the starchy base. The whole dish reminded me of a mix between a thick chicken stew and a creamy risotto, with enough beautifully thickened broth to slurp up one happy sip after another.

I understand this product is designed for the kiddos, and that the serving size is therefore small. So, if you are a busy adult on the hunt for a quick meal, buy yourself two or three of these little guys for a warm and comforting dinner. Better yet, since these are shelf-stable, buy a dozen.

Price was not a consideration in my methodology, as all the products retailed for under $2.00. All items were heated in the microwave according to the label directions. For any items in a can, I used a microwave-safe bowl for heating and eating. For the items already pre-packaged in microwaveable containers (such as the Rice with Chicken & Vegetables and the Mini Spaghetti Rings & Meatballs), I prepared and ate them as intended: directly from their packaging.

I taste-tested every contender multiple times, using water to cleanse my palate between each tasting. Though I was tempted on multiple occasions to sprinkle a little hard-aged grated Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano on top, I ate each one exactly as is without any additional garnishes. I based my judgment on appearance, texture, aroma, seasoning, and overall enjoyability. I also focused on the balance between sauce, meat, grains, and/or pasta. This was particularly important with any stuffed pasta, as I needed to judge the ratio of the filling to the pasta dough. I also seriously considered my husband's opinion, a fellow food industry professional with years of culinary experience. My ranking was ultimately determined by how I answered this final question: Would I definitely buy this product again, or would I never want to eat it again?