Gwynedd Stuart
The best frozen turkey dinners have history. Once upon a time, way back in the mid 20th century, Swanson put some sliced turkey, cornbread stuffing, peas, and potatoes into a metal tray, and frozen meals were born. The turkey TV dinner was the king of the frozen aisle, but it’s since been overshadowed by frozen burritos and bowls and frozen pizzas with cheese all jammed up in their crusts. Still, there’s something to be said for a classic—especially when this time of year rolls around—so we rounded up all the frozen turkey dinners we could get our hands on to find the best.
What makes a frozen turkey dinner the best frozen turkey dinner?
Tasty sides: Damn, a lot of microwavable meals come with mashed potatoes that taste like nothing. We weeded those out.
Plenty of gravy: Ideally, frozen turkey dinners should have plenty of gravy. It’s tricky, because so often the gravy just gets sopped up by the stuffing. That turns into a gummy pile of poop and your turkey is bare. Bonus points to brands that have figured out how to keep the gravy from disappearing by osmosis.
Good turkey: Frozen turkey dinners can be divided into two categories: the kinds with slabs of glorified deli meat and the kinds with tender little medallions of meat. We have our preferences (I’m team medallion), but even if the turkey type wasn’t to our tastes, we just wanted it to be flavorful and satisfying.
These are the best frozen turkey dinners so you can have Thanksgiving dinner any ol’ day.
- Healthy Choice Honey Glazed Turkey
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This meal gets a shoutout because it’s the most unique. Instead of mashed potatoes, you get roasted russet and sweet potatoes. Instead of a salty gravy, everything comes in a sweet, peppery glaze—they even tossed a few dried cranberries in there for good measure. This is not the best frozen turkey dinner for my personal tastes—what can I say, I like salty slop—but I’m certain some people will like how fresh and different this is.
Credit: Merc / Ralphs
- Smart Ones Slow Roasted Turkey Breast
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We’re recommending this meal strictly because it’s SO low calorie. If you’re looking for a diet option and the 300 calories in a Lean Cuisine are simply too many calories for your daily count, this is an option with its mere 170 calories. Not a great option, but a fine option. The turkey is decent quality and it has that whole salty slop thing going on. Sure, it could use something green, but hey, you could always throw a handful of frozen peas in there!
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Banquet Turkey Meal
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If you’re into the “glorified deli meat” variety of frozen turkey dinner, Banquet makes the best one you can buy, not Hungry Man. This comes with turkey, gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes, and peas. The stuffing is in the same compartment as the turkey slices and gravy, BUT there’s so little of it, it can’t sop up all the gravy. And I think that’s good! There’s LOTS of gravy in this meal. Enough to spoon onto the mashed potatoes, which have a nice creamy texture all on their own. And we were all fans of the peas. More peas in frozen dinners; fewer waterlogged green beans, please! Another nice thing: This costs about two bucks. It’s really affordable and very satisfying for the price.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Marie Callender’s Roasted Turkey Breast and Stuffing
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The turkey is this meal’s saving grace. Rather than medallions, you get what I’ll call turkey batons. They’re meaty and surprisingly flavorful. The whole meal needs salt, especially the side of green beans and carrots, which is completely devoid of flavor. BUT a pat of butter will do wonders. And while the gravy and mashed potatoes form a wet slurry, it’s actually pretty tasty—just use the mashed potato-gravy substance as a sauce unto itself.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Lean Cuisine Protein Kick Roasted Turkey Breast
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When I taste tested Lean Cuisine meals, this meal ranked high for a variety of reasons. The turkey medallions have a surprisingly pleasant taste and texture (much better than any of the chicken we tried), the gravy is savory, and the stuffing is clumpy and herby in that delicious Stove Top kind of way. Turns out it’s not just a good low-cal frozen dinner, it’s one of the best frozen turkey dinners, period. My favorite thing about this dinner? The cinnamon apples, which are sweet and crisp and piping hot. You get to eat what’s basically apple pie filling as part of a diet frozen dinner. Hell yeah.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Stouffer’s Roast Turkey
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No surprise, Stouffer’s makes the best frozen turkey dinner. It has white meat medallions in a nice, thick gravy. The stuffing gets all gelatinous from the gravy–that sounds bad but it tastes good. The mashed potatoes are delicious, too. They taste a touch butterier and more indulgent than the mashed potatoes in the Lean Cuisine turkey dinner. “The turkey’s really moist,” my colleague Jordan Myrick said. “When you want warm soft holiday mush, this is perfect.”
Credit: Merc / Target
Best Honey Glazed
Best Low Cal Frozen Turkey Meal
Best Budget Meal
Best
Best Low Cal
Best of the Best
Other frozen turkey dinners we tried
Boston Market Turkey Dinner, Hungry Man, Lean Cuisine Glazed Turkey Medallions, Marie Callender’s Honey Roasted Turkey Breast
Justine Sterling
Jordan Myrick
I usually get the Lean Cuisine one with a bowl of instant mashed potatoes for lunch if I’m craving Thanksgiving in July at work. Glad to see it get #2!
I am confused you mentioned Hungry-Man having dark meat in its frozen Turkey dinner. It stopped using dark meat years ago which I think was a mistake. As you can see the package says “White Meat Turkey” only now.