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.
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!