Gwynedd Stuart
Frozen chicken meals can be hit or miss—trust us, we’ve tried dozens. Hell, maybe hundreds at this point. Too often the chicken in frozen chicken dinners is, for lack of a better word, sad. You know, come to think of it, I can think of lots of words: Pale. Insipid. Mushy or, worse, chewy or, worse yet, crunchy with gristle. Sorry if you just had a visceral reaction to that last sentence. Anyway, we’ve done the dirty work of taste testing everything from family-size pasta meals to fried chicken TV dinners for one, and we’ve curated a list of 14 (!) frozen chicken meals that aren’t fowl (get it?).
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- Trader Joe’s Spicy Peanutty Noodle Bowl with Chicken
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Question: Why aren’t more frozen dinners made with ground chicken? While we’re patiently waiting for a response from the Frozen Food Guild of America (an organization I just made up), I’ll just go ahead and praise Trader Joe’s for using ground chicken in this frozen meal for one. You get all the protein, and none of the gnarly textural issues. Plus, it gives these spicy, saucy noodles dan dan vibes. We suspect there’s even some Sichuan peppercorns in the mix. If you’re in the mood for takeout but you don’t want to spend half your day’s salary, this is a great frozen chicken meal.
Read the full ranking of the best Trader Joe’s frozen meals
- Bertolli Chicken Carbonara
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When we taste tested all the Bertolli skillet meals, a pasta dish with shrimp as the protein was our number one fave, but the chicken carbonara was a close second. Granted, it’s not a whole lot like carbonara, but it has smoky bacon, plump peas, and it’s a creamy, satisfying frozen chicken meal that cooks up fast for a weeknight dinner.
Read the full ranking of the best Bertolli skillet meals
- Atkins Chicken Margherita
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Since this low carb meal is pretty much JUST chicken, I guess you could say it’s among the best frozen chicken meals for people who are really in the mood for chicken. You get grilled white meat chicken, spinach, tomatoes, and basil in a balsamic sauce with mozzarella cheese. It’s a little cheesy and very saucy, and even though the sauce doesn’t actually taste a lick like balsamic vinegar, it’s a nice, light frozen chicken meal for carb counters.
Read the full ranking of the best low carb frozen meals
- Healthy Choice Café Steamers Grilled Chicken Pesto with Vegetables
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There aren’t very many Healthy Choice meals that we can recommend, but this one is totally pleasant. We’ll be honest: The chicken itself isn’t great, but the pasta cooks up nicely in the steamer basket and the sauce isn’t gloopy, which can be a problem with meals like this. Mostly, this frozen chicken meal is cheap, high in protein (20g) and pretty low cal, so you could certainly do worse.
Read the full ranking of the best Healthy Choice frozen meals
- Red’s Grilled Chicken & Cheddar Burrito
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One of my favorite rants is about how there are no good frozen chicken burritos. I’ll amend that slightly and say that there are very few good frozen chicken burritos—and this is one of them. The grilled chicken actually tastes like it was grilled, and we loved how that chargrilled flavor paired with the salty cheddar cheese. Top it with some sour cream and you’re in biz.
Read the full ranking of the best chicken burritos
- Stouffer’s Escalloped Chicken & Noodles Casserole
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This noodle casserole is the ultimate comfort food, although chicken is hardly the star. That (shared) honor goes to the creamy sauce, umami mushrooms, and lovely breadcrumb topping that gives it a baked-at-home rather than cooked-in-the-microwave feel. It’s the frozen chicken meal to grab when you mostly want creamy sauce and noodles.
Read the full ranking of the best Stouffer’s frozen dinners
- Hungry Man Country Fried Chicken
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Hungry Man makes a bunch of good frozen chicken meals—I was genuinely SHOCKED that their bone-in fried chicken, if you cook it in the oven rather than the microwave, is as good as day-old KFC. Still, it’s hard to beat a pepper gravy-soaked slab of country fried chicken—and even harder to beat TWO slabs of country fried chicken. Along with the chicken, you get mashed potatoes, green beans, and a side of cinnamon apples. It’s big, filling, and cheap, which is exactly what we expect from Hungry Man.
Read the full ranking of the best Hungry Man frozen meals
- Kevin’s Natural Foods Thai-Style Coconut Chicken Bowl
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Looking for gluten free frozen chicken meals? This is a good one. It comes with chunks of chicken and vegetables in a creamy coconut curry sauce over cauliflower rice. The chicken comes out a little tough, but the other elements make up for it.
Read the full ranking of the best Kevin’s frozen meals
- Spicy Sichuan Style Chicken
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Of all the P.F. Chang’s frozen meals we tried, the noodle dishes were our faves by far, and this one is particularly good (for frozen aisle Chinese food). The sauce is savory and mushroomy, the noodles have bounce, and you can even taste a little bit of that ma la numbing effect from Sichuan peppercorns. It’s a filling frozen chicken meal with a little more going on than your average frozen lo mein.
Read the full ranking of the best P.F. Chang’s frozen meals
- Deep Butter Chicken
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We taste tested a bunch of frozen butter chicken, and only Deep managed to nail that buttery, spicy flavor. You get a ton of saucy chicken over rice that’s actually seasoned (we detected cumin in the mix). If you don’t have an Indian restaurant nearby, this frozen chicken meal is a pretty good stand-in for the genuine article.
Read the full ranking of the best frozen Indian food
- Trader Joe’s Kung Pao Chicken
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We love a frozen chicken meal that’s made with dark meat—and that’s what you get in this bagged skillet meal from Trader Joe’s. It comes with chicken, veggies, sauce packets, and peanuts for topping. Don’t feel like washing a skillet? Well, we cooked this in the microwave and it was still pretty damn good. Steam some white rice and you’re all set.
Read the full ranking of the best frozen Chinese meals
- Banquet Mega Bowls Nashville Hot Chicken
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This is like a KFC Mega Bowl but spicy. What’s not to like? And they actually did a good job channeling that cayenne-forward flavor of Nashville hot chicken. It’s comforting and a kick in the tastebuds at the same time.
Read the full ranking of the best Banquet frozen meals
- Marie Callender’s Chicken Corn Chowder Pot Pie
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When it comes to frozen chicken meals, you kind of can’t do better than a chicken pot pie. Oh, is the chicken disappointing? Well, you’re sure to be less disappointed once you’re eating it along with a forkful of Marie Callender’s butter pie crust. We particularly like this chicken corn chowder version because it just has more going on, like bright, sweet bits of corn and bits of smoky bacon. This is a good way to mix things up if most frozen pot pies strike you as a little bit bland.
Read the full ranking of the best chicken pot pies
- Patti’s Good Life Patti LaBelle Cajun Style Fettuccine Alfredo
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If you see Patti LaBelle’s lovely face on a box of frozen food, buy it. Everything we’ve tried from her brand, Patti’s Good Life, is exceptional—and very decadent, including this Cajun style alfredo. We tried a lot of bland, watery frozen chicken alfredo. This was the antithesis. It’s rich, creamy, and bursting with flavor. This is the definition of depression food, and I mean that in a good way. My serotonin is peaking just thinking about it.
Read the full ranking of the best frozen fettuccine alfredo
Best from Trader Joe’s
Best Bertolli Skillet Meal
Best Low Carb
Best Healthy Choice
Best Frozen Chicken Burrito
Best Stouffer’s
Best Hungry Man
Best Kevin’s
Best P.F. Chang’s
Best Indian Chicken Meal
Best Frozen Chinese Meal
Best Banquet
Best Chicken Pot Pie
Joe Rumrill
Jordan Myrick
Justine Sterling
