Our office microwave really got a workout this year. We taste tested frozen dinners for hungry children, frozen dinners for hungry men, and frozen dinners for people who are hungry but still need to be mindful of how many calories they consume on a daily basis. That said, the best frozen food we tried this year wasn’t a meal or a main—snacks and sides deserve recognition, too. Especially when they’re this good.
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The second best frozen food we tasted this year was a side dish rather than a main or a full meal. That said, I think pretty much everyone on the Sporked team would eat an entire tray of this insanely cheesy, rich frozen casserole and call it dinner. The cubed potatoes are soft rather than dense and grainy, but they aren’t total mush either. The cheddar cheese is sharp and tangy, and the bacon makes the whole thing taste perfectly salty and smoky. The best frozen foods are versatile and this definitely is. Sure, you can serve it with meatloaf at dinnertime, but it would be really good with eggs and toast in the a.m., too.
Even if you’re a frozen chicken wing skeptic—or a Hooters wings skeptic, for that matter—we need you to trust us that these new Hooters-branded wings are the best frozen food we tried all year long. The dry rub, which tastes like the seasoning on BBQ potato chips, adheres nicely to the chicken skin, and the skin crisps up nicely in the air fryer. The meat is juicy, flavorful, and a little bit smoky. Annoyingly, these are only available at Publix, so we’re just going to have to live vicariously through all our friends in the Southeast.
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.
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Gwynedd Stuart
Justine Sterling
Luke Field
Vinz Karl
