Credit: Liv Averett / Instacart / Sprouts / Trader Joe's / Walmart
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The best frozen skillet meals are great because you can pretend you made dinner when all you really did is cut open a bag, dump its contents into a frying pan, and then heat and eat. I know we’re all probably tired of hearing about “lazy girl hacks”—stop calling people “lazy” for wanting to save time, TikTok a-holes—but serving skillet meals on weeknight is a worthy hack for busy people. You’re still technically cooking, but you don’t have to chop anything or do a million dishes afterward. Brilliant.
But not all dump-heat-and-eat frozen skillet meals taste good. Over the course of many taste tests, we’ve tried Bertolli skillet meals, frozen stir frys, P.F. Chang’s skillet meals, every single frozen pasta dinner at Trader Joe’s, and more. Here are five frozen skillet meals we love—call us lazy, we don’t care.
Best Stir Fry
- Puravida Skillet Meals Chicken Stir Fry
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When we taste tested bags of frozen stir fry vegetables, a full stir-fry skillet meal (complete with protein) wiggled its way into the mix, and we’re glad it did. Puravida’s chicken stir fry contains a whole rainbow of veggies, and they come coated in a zesty seasoning that makes this meal extremely tasty, no zshushing necessary. The grilled chicken strips come out juicy, tender, and flavorful, too. Sure, making a stir fry from scratch is pretty easy, but all that chopping can be tedious. Skip it, we say!
Read the full ranking of the best frozen stir fry
Credit: Merc / Instacart
Best Frozen Chinese Meal
- Trader Joe’s Kung Pao Chicken
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If you’re in the mood for Chinese but you aren’t about to wait an hour and a half for delivery on a Saturday night, this heat-and-eat kung pao chicken meal from TJ’s is the perfect thing to have in the freezer. You get chicken, veggies, sauce packets, and peanuts for topping. We’re lumping this in with skillet meals, but you can also cook this up in the microwave, which makes it even easier (although, we’ll admit it’s better in a pan).
Read the full ranking of the best frozen Chinese meals
Credit: Liv Averett / Trader Joe’s
Best Bertolli Skillet Meal
- Bertolli Shrimp Penne & Asparagus
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Bertolli makes a lot of pasta-based skillet meals, and we tried every single one of them. Several are great, but this shrimp-and-asparagus meal really impressed our taste testers. You get firm, snappy little shrimp, penne pasta, cuts of asparagus, and sliced bell peppers in a “creamy” tomato basil sauce, and while the sauce isn’t necessarily truly “creamy,” it reminded us of a fresh tomato-olive oil sauce, and that’s pretty good for a frozen meal.
Read the full ranking of the best Bertolli skillet meals
Credit: Merc / Instacart
Best Trader Joe’s Pasta Meal
- Trader Joe’s Cacio e Pepe Gnocchi
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Frozen gnocchi is hit or miss, but TJ’s really nailed it with these pillowy, plump little dumplings in a cheesy, peppery sauce. Trader Joe’s sells a lot of frozen pasta, but this is hands-down the best frozen skillet meal they make. It doesn’t have a protein or veggies, but you could easily toss some pre-cooked chicken breast and a handful of frozen peas in the mix to make it feel a little more complete.
Read the full ranking of the best Trader Joe’s frozen pasta
Credit: Merc
Best P.F. Chang’s Skillet Meal
- PF Chang’s Chicken Lo Mein
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Sometimes a hot bowl of saucy noodles really hits the spot, and that’s why P.F. Chang’s frozen chicken lo mein is one of our favorite frozen skillet meals. The chicken tastes high quality, the noodles are springy and chewy, and the choice of veggies is thoughtful—the edamame are flavorful and filling, and the shitake mushrooms contribute a nice kick of umami. It might not quite live up to the lo mein at your favorite Chinese restaurant, but it comes close.
Read the full ranking of P.F. Chang’s frozen meals
Credit: Merc / Walmart
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About the Author
Howdy! I’m Gwynedd, Sporked’s managing editor. I live in Los Angeles and have access to the best tacos the U.S. has to offer—but I’m a sucker for a crunchy Old El Paso taco night every now and then. I’ve been at Sporked since 2022 and I’m still searching frozen mozzarella sticks that can hold a candle to restaurant sticks.
Why you should trust me: I’ve been a journalist for 20 years (yikes), a consumer of food for 40-plus years, and I’m truly hard pressed to think of foods I don’t like (or that I can’t tolerate at the very least). Oh and one time I cooked my way through Guy Fieri’s cookbook and wrote about the journey through Flavortown.
What I buy every week: Trader Joe’s Original Savory Thins. Fat free plain yogurt (usually Fage or Nancy’s). Honeycrisp apples. Sweet cream coffee creamer for my at-home Americanos. A frozen cauliflower crust pizza and some jarred mushrooms to top it with. Old El Paso Stand ‘N Stuff taco shells and Gardein Ground Be’f, even though I think “be’f” is a nightmarish contraction.
Favorite ranking: Stouffer’s frozen dinners. I don’t own a microwave (I get my cancers the old fashioned way!), so I love taste testing things that I don’t really buy to eat at home.
Least favorite ranking: Soy sauce. Don’t get me wrong, I love soy sauce—but consuming that much sodium in one sitting is probably illegal in some countries. Our frozen enchilada taste test was a close second; the smell of microwaved corn tortillas still haunts me.
Gwynedd Stuart
Joe Rumrill
Jordan Myrick
Justine Sterling
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!