The Chef Boyardee Meal We Ranked Best Surprisingly Wasn't A Pasta Option

Ol' Chef Boyardee. He seems like a jolly old chap. You see him on his branded cans, a sly smile below a hearty mustache, all adorned in his chef whites and hat. He's not just a cartoonish mascot either. Chef Boyardee was a real chef who immigrated to America at the age of 17 and founded the company way back in 1928.

Nearly 100 years later, the brand still exists, selling all sorts of canned and microwaveable pastas executed to varying degrees of success. With all these options, we thought we'd give the iconic chef's culinary creations a little taste test, so we tried nine Chef Boyardee items and ranked them worst to best. Our favorite of the bunch wasn't even one of the brand's classic Italian pasta options, though. Instead, the top spot went to Chef Boyardee's Rice with Chicken and Vegetables.

Most of the products we reviewed had a soft and gummy consistency, but the rice with chicken and vegetables actually delivered a pleasing texture. Each individual grain of rice had a nice al dente bite — a far cry from the mushy mess that ruined some of the other options like Chef Boyardee's Beefaroni and mac and cheese. A few other factors set it apart even further from the brand's various meals we tried. 

The protein should be the star of the show here, and the chicken in this microwaveable soup is on point. It was moist and meaty, and well complemented by the carrots, peas, celery, and onion, which — while slightly overcooked — offered a nice earthy depth of flavor. Our reviewer called the soup "a mix between a thick chicken stew and a creamy risotto" with a thick and hearty broth that delivers on flavor. Keep in mind, Chef Boyardee's Rice with Chicken and Vegetables is on the smaller range of serving sizes, at 7.25 ounces. But, at just $1.25 per cup, depending on your grocery store, go ahead and buy as many of these as you want, especially since they're shelf-stable and will keep for a while. 

Though we loved this offering from Chef Boyardee, let's just say some of their other products might not resemble what the chef cooked in his own kitchen back in the day. Compared to the appetizing flavor and texture of the rice with chicken and veggies, the canned mac and cheese tasted incredibly artificial, the microwaveable Mini Spaghetti Rings and Meatballs were soft, gloopy, and grainy, and the Beefaroni had a sparse amount of beef with an unappetizing, mushy pasta. And we won't even speak of the discontinued chicken Alfredo.

Chef Boyardee is a long-standing brand with plenty of canned and microwaveable Italian-American meals available to try. We counted 16 options in the "Classic" section of the online store alone. Some of those products, though, are worth a hard pass. That said, don't miss out on the Rice with Chicken and Vegetables — an inexpensive, microwavable soup that's worth every penny.