When we set out to find the best Costco frozen meals, I gotta be honest, I was expecting more from everyone’s favorite buy-in-bulk big box store. See, Costco sells a lot of frozen ingredients to make meals—big bags of frozen chicken breasts, big bags of frozen vegetables, big bags of frozen rice (big bags of things are kind of their thing). But we weren’t looking for the best dinner components, we were looking for the best frozen meals at Costco—trays of lasagna, frozen noodle and rice bowls you can microwave for lunch, and premade pastas and stews you can simply heat and eat when actually cooking is out of the question after a long, hard day.
Ultimately, we taste tested 12 Costco frozen dinners and found just four we think are worth recommending. If we missed any bangers, let us know and we’ll try them in our next taste test. But for now, these are the best Costco frozen meals.
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- Sukhi’s Butter Chicken Bowls
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To be perfectly honest, the rice might be the best part of these bowls, which come in a three-pack at Costco. It’s firm and flavorful; it doesn’t turn to mush like the rice in a lot of frozen meals. Likewise, while a lot of frozen meals come with sad strips of flavorless, chopped-and-reformed chicken, Sukhi’s Butter Chicken Bowls are packed with nice big hunks of high quality white meat chicken. Is it dry? Yeah, it is. Does it taste like butter chicken? Absolutely not. (Check our ranking of the best frozen Indian meals for the real good stuff.) But it does have a nice spice mixture that’s heavy on the cardamom pod and it’s one of the best Costco frozen meals to buy if you’re craving Indian food, even if it doesn’t replicate butter chicken. A little plain Greek yogurt and a dollop of chutney will go a long way.
Credit: Merc / Sukhi’s
- Ajinomoto Yakisoba
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I’m a freak for lo mein and yakisoba, and these frozen noodles are good. They’re greasy and have the perfect bouncy texture. This is another of the best frozen meals at Costco if you’re looking for quick lunches. You get noodles and veggies in a plastic-wrapped disc you can just toss in the microwave or open and heat in a pan. For better or worse, we cooked the frozen yakisoba in the microwave and I will say that the veggies turned out a little soft and bland. I would’ve liked a little more crunch from the snow peas and a little more flavor from the water chestnuts, but this would still be really good with a little sprucing up. We suggest a drizzle of that sweet-savory Banchan BBQ sauce.
Credit: Merc / Costco
- Rana Beef & Short Rib Lasagna
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This big ol’ tray of lasagna is one of the best Costco frozen dinners for a family, for sure. It’s savory and tomatoey and the pasta is nice and thin rather than fat and bloated like the pasta in most frozen lasagna. Like, I love Stouffer’s lasagna (check out ranking of the best frozen lasagna for proof), but you have to admit that the pasta isn’t exactly restaurant quality. Rana’s lasagna also has nice big chunks of shredded short ribs that are super tender and flavorful. There’s a lot of cheese. It’s very oily, but in a nice way. Could it use more ricotta cheese? Yes, def. But, all in all, this is a pretty great weeknight dinner with a little side salad and some frozen garlic bread.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Rana Organic Chicken Alfredo Taliatelle with Fresh Spinach
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Of all the Costco frozen meals we tried, this is the one I would actively seek out again. The tagliatelle is thin and tender with just a little bit of chew, kind of like freshly made egg noodles. So many frozen dinners say “freshly made pasta” on the box, and we’re always like, what does that even mean? It’s a frozen meal! If the pasta was “freshly made,” it was a long time ago and some heavy-duty industrial machinery was involved. But this really looks and tastes like fresh pasta. It’s pretty amazing for frozen pasta. The chicken isn’t spectacular, but everything else is. The sauce is creamy and super flavorful—it tastes like a good bechamel with some nutty cheese in it. And the spinach is plentiful, so you aren’t just eating creamy pasta, you’re eating leafy greens, too. The best frozen meals at Costco have protein, a starch, and a veg—and this is the best tasting of the bunch.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
Costco Frozen Meals!
Costco Frozen Meals!
Costco Frozen Meals!
Best of the Best
Other Costco frozen meals we tried: Rana Beef & Sausage Lasagna, Bibigo Chicken & Rice Bowl with Teriyaki Sauce, Kevin’s Beef Stroganoff, Pierre Angus Cheeseburgers, Ajinomoto Yakitori Fried Rice, Ruprect Irish Stew, Snapdragon Chicken Pad Thai
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!