10 Costco Pre-Made Meals So Good You'd Never Guess They're Frozen

When shopping at Costco, frozen foods are smart buys because you can just pop them in your freezer and grab them whenever you want a quick and easy meal. Sure, you have to buy them in bulk, but they won't go off as quickly as other items like fresh produce, meats, and dairy products. And while pre-made frozen meals often get a bad rap for tasting just like what they are — frozen, not fresh — Costco has some surprisingly good finds in the freezer section that can actually pass for homemade or even restaurant quality.

Peruse the freezer cases at a Costco warehouse, and you'll find everything from breakfast burritos to pizzas, burgers, wontons, and fried rice. Even better, there are several Costco frozen meals that ring in at under $10 a serving. But as a long-time Costco shopper, I can attest that not all are created equal. Some of those items turn out exactly how you would expect a frozen meal to in terms of taste and texture, while others could fool people into thinking you cooked them yourself. These are some of the Costco pre-made frozen meals that are fan favorites at my house and get great reviews from other shoppers for tasting as close to fresh as you can get from a freezer section.

You'll find plenty of frozen breakfast items at Costco, but one that stands out from the rest is the Kirkland Signature Breakfast Sandwich. It comes in boxes of eight, and each sandwich features applewood smoked bacon, a cage-free egg, and cheese on a buttery spiral-shaped bun. A box will set you back about $16.50, although prices can vary depending on the warehouse and whether you're ordering delivery. That works out to roughly $2 per sandwich.

These sandwiches are a lifesaver when you're short on time, but want a flavorful, protein-packed meal to start the day. The box suggests cooking them in the air fryer or microwave, but I highly recommend going with the air fryer method. If you open the sandwich between the bacon and egg and place each half bun side down, that helps warm up all the layers and gives you a nice crisp on the croissant.

One of the things that I love about this breakfast sandwich is how flavorful and filling it is, but at the same time, it has a lightness to it that doesn't weigh you down too much. The bun is buttery, you get a nice smokiness from the bacon, and the melty cheese adds extra richness to the neutral egg. In my opinion, these sandwiches are far superior to the Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches sold at Costco. Some people even put them on par with Starbucks' Double-smoked Bacon, Cheddar, and Egg Sandwich.

I'm a huge fan of tempura shrimp, so when I saw the Kirkland Signature Tempura Shrimp at my local Costco, I was intrigued but also a little skeptical. After all, great tempura shrimp needs to have batter that's light and crispy and shrimp that are plump and juicy, and I thought that might be hard to get with a frozen product. Well, I'm happy to report that these shrimp deliver on all those points. 

Priced at about $19, each box of Tempura Shrimp contains 30 shrimp breaded in tempura batter with the tails on. To cook them, you just layer them on a baking pan to cook in the oven or add a single layer in your air fryer. With both methods, you cook them for four minutes, then flip the shrimp and cook them for another four minutes. Every time I've made them, they've turned out perfectly golden, crispy, and juicy inside. The box also contains a soy-based dipping sauce.

I'm not the only one who thinks these shrimp are fantastic. Numerous shoppers laud the shrimp on Reddit forums and in social media posts. The shrimp also earned the number one spot in our ranking of Costco prepared frozen seafood items. It should be noted that Costco also offers a similar product — the Kirkland Signature Breaded Panko Shrimp. However, in my opinion, these are lighter, tastier, and more like what you would find at a Japanese restaurant.

If you're new to Costco and not sure what to get, I highly recommend the Kirkland Signature Italian Sausage and Beef Lasagna. There are several reasons why it's consistently mentioned on lists of the must-buy items for first-time Costco shoppers. For one, it costs $17.99, which is a great price considering you're getting not one, but two trays of lasagna that weigh about three pounds each. Plus, it's meaty, flavorful, and each layer is well-balanced.

One of the things that many people love about this lasagna is that it's made with quality ingredients. You get noodles layered with USDA Choice ground beef, zesty Italian sausage, and vine-ripened tomatoes. It also includes three types of cheese: whole-milk ricotta, Romano, and Parmesan. Plus, it's easy to prepare. You just cut a slit in the plastic topping and pop it in the oven or microwave. If you're cooking it in the oven, you can remove the plastic entirely at the end to crisp up the top.

Unlike many frozen lasagnas, this one actually tastes homemade. We've served it to visiting family members a few times, and they were all shocked to find out it came from the freezer section of a big-box grocery store. In fact, several family members who don't have Costco memberships often ask us to grab a few trays for them whenever we head to the warehouse. Pro tip: Pair it with Costco's to-die-for Roasted Garlic Butter Baguette with Parmesan.

One of the great things about Costco is that the chain often comes out with fantastic frozen copycats of popular chain restaurant items that actually taste pretty on point. Case in point is the Kirkland Signature Lightly Breaded Chicken Breast Chunks, which many say are a convincing dupe of Chick-fil-A's famous chicken nuggets. While I wouldn't say they're an exact match, they do come pretty darn close in terms of texture, meatiness, and flavor.

Each bag of the Kirkland Chicken Breast Chunks weighs four pounds and rings in at about $14 to $16, depending on location. The chunks are made with boneless, skinless chicken breast that's free of antibiotics and contains no added hormones or steroids. They're also coated in a flavorful breading that's seasoned with paprika, celery seed, and chicken fat. It gets its lightness from a mix of flour and rice starch. You can cook them in the oven, air fryer, or microwave.

I always use either the oven or air fryer to cook the nuggets, and they turn out perfectly crispy on the outside and tender and moist inside every time. They're great on their own or with sauce for dunking, and I also like to chop them up and add them to salads and pastas. You can also throw some in a bun to make a low-key chicken sandwich or toss them in sauce to make dishes like orange chicken or buffalo chicken bites.

If you're a fan of xiao long bao (soup dumplings), you'll be happy to know that Costco offers a few different varieties. The Mila Pork Soup Dumplings and Bibigo Steamed Soup Dumplings are both decent, but if you want soup dumplings that are more along the lines of what the famous dumpling chain Din Tai Fung makes, the Synear Xiao Long Bao are top-notch. They launched last year and made such a splash that we included them on our round-up of the top Costco finds of 2025.

You can grab the Synear dumplings in three flavors: wagyu beef, chicken, and pork. Each four-pound bag costs about $15. They're pretty easy to make, as all you have to do is steam them in a bamboo steamer set in a pot of simmering water. If you don't have a steamer, you can lightly pan fry them, then pour in some water and cover the dumplings to steam them all the way through.

I love that the wrappers are thin enough to let the flavors of the meat and broth inside shine through and that the fillings taste fresh and are seasoned well with onions and spices. All of the flavors are great, but my personal favorite is the wagyu beef infused with truffle flavors. If you want to go traditional, you can serve them with a mix of soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, and sesame oil. They also taste great with chili crisp.

Making burger patties is pretty simple, but sometimes it's nice to have frozen patties ready to go for quick and easy meals that don't require too much prep. They can also come in handy when you're cooking for a large gathering, like a backyard barbecue, and don't have the time to make a big batch of burgers. Here's where Costco comes to the rescue with its Kirkland Signature Ground Beef Patties.

Costco sells a few varieties of frozen hamburger patties, including the Kirkland Signature Ground Sirloin and Loin of Beef Patties and the 100% Grass-Fed Beef Patties. But it's the regular Ground Beef Patties that Costco fans buy on repeat over the other styles, thanks to their superior flavor. Most of that comes down to the fat content. The Ground Beef Patties contain 75% lean meat and 25% fat, while the Grass-Fed Patties contain only 20% fat, and the Sirloin Patties contain just 15% fat.

The Ground Beef Patties are the ones in the bag with the blue label, and they sell for about $26, which is not bad considering you get 18 burgers per bag. Each burger weighs one-third of a pound. Sprinkle the patties with a bit of seasoning and throw them onto the grill or into a pan, and you'll have some pretty solid burgers that can even pass for homemade.

Chicken wings are always a crowd-pleaser, so it's not surprising that Costco sells a few different varieties. You can usually find chicken wings in the pre-made meals section of the deli, but if you want to stock up on frozen wings for future parties or easy meals, the Kirkland Signature Crispy Wings with Buffalo Sauce are a good bet. I have to be honest — I wasn't really expecting much the first time I bought these wings, but wow, did they ever blow me away.

For $17, you get a four-pound bag of wings that comes with packets of buffalo sauce. The wings are fully cooked, so all you have to do is heat them up in the oven or your air fryer and thaw the sauce packets in a bowl of hot water. When the wings are crisped up and heated through, you can toss them in the sauce or just eat them as is.

I'm always impressed by how meaty these wings are and how nicely they crisp up thanks to their thin dusting of seasoned rice flour. The sauce adds a tangy, slightly spicy touch, although I sometimes just serve it on the side for dipping so that the wings stay crispier longer. It should be noted that the bag looks pretty similar to the Foster Farms Take Out Crispy Wings also sold at Costco, but I prefer the Kirkland wings, as I find them less fatty.

If there's one Costco find that I always have in my freezer, it's the Bibigo Chicken and Cilantro Mini Wontons. The small size of the wontons makes them perfect for light lunches or dinners, and if you want a heftier meal, you can always amp up the portion size or add them to soups or noodle dishes. They also pair well with sides like edamame, fresh salads, and steamed vegetables. Each bag weighs three pounds, which gives you multiple servings of wontons.

Even though they're small, these mini wontons pack a ton of flavor. They're filled with a mixture of ground chicken, cabbage, bean thread, onion, cilantro, green onion, soy sauce, garlic, and black pepper. I love that the wrappers are light and pliable and that the filling is well-balanced so that no one flavor overpowers the others. They also taste fresher than most versions of frozen wontons you typically find.

Another key selling point for me is the price of about $10 to $12 per bag. Plus, you can cook them a variety of ways, from steaming to pan-frying and crisping them up in the air fryer. My go-to method is to fry them in a bit of oil first to slightly brown the bottoms, then pour water in the pan and cover them to steam them all the way through. I also like to serve them with a simple soy sauce and rice vinegar mixture for dipping.

Buying frozen seafood can be a gamble, as sometimes you end up with fish or crustaceans that are mushy, bland, rubbery, or dried out. Not so with Costco's Kirkland Signature Garlic Butter Shrimp. This pre-made frozen meal features plump shrimp coated in a rich butter sauce that offers hints of garlic, Romano cheese, parsley, red pepper, tomatoes, and paprika. After one bite, I could see why so many Costco shoppers rave about this frozen Italian entree.

The Garlic Butter Shrimp costs around $16, and each box includes two one-pound bags of shrimp in sauce. The fact that the shrimp is packaged in the sauce may be why it's so flavorful and juicy. It also makes it simple to prepare. You can sauté the shrimp in a skillet, place them on a baking tray and cook them in the oven, or heat them up in the microwave. And if you want the shrimp to be a little saucier, you can simply add water.

There are also several ways you can serve the shrimp. On its own, it makes for a relatively light, protein-packed meal. Then again, you might want to add sides like rice, mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies to round things out. The shrimp also work beautifully in pasta dishes, either tossed simply with the pasta or with additional sauce like marinara or Alfredo. And you can repurpose the shrimp into creative appetizers, like this recipe for baked and stuffed shrimp scampi.

I've tried several types of frozen pizza from Costco, and the only one that I keep going back to time after time is the Motor City Pizza Co. Double Pepperoni Pizza. The pizza has legions of fans who love the thick-crust, Detroit-style pizza, many of whom have come to the same conclusion as me — that this is by far the best frozen pizza on offer at the warehouse. It also earned the number one spot in our ranking of Costco's frozen pizzas.

As mentioned, this is a Detroit-style pizza, so it's tall like a deep-dish pizza and shaped into a square. Each box contains two pizzas that weigh about a pound and a half each and come in their own oven-safe trays. You just take off the plastic wrapper and pop it in the oven for about 20 minutes, then take it out and let it rest for about five minutes before slicing it up.

There's a lot going on with this hefty pizza. For one, the crust is buttery and pillowy with a nice crispiness on the edges. Then you have the toppings, which span from edge to edge and include tangy tomato sauce, melty mozzarella cheese that bubbles up and browns in some spots, salty discs of pepperoni, and little chunks of diced pepperoni. All those textures and flavors come together to make for a thoroughly satisfying pizzeria-quality meal.