Gwynedd Stuart
The best Hungry Man meals aren’t just for men. How do I know? I’m a hungry woman, and I ended up finding a handful of meals I really like after taste testing 11 classic Hungry man TV dinners. I’m not trying to sound like a WOKE WARRIOR here, but I do think Hungry Person dinners would be more accurate. Write your senator!
What makes a Hungry Man dinner one of the best Hungry man dinners?
The best Hungry Man dinners are a pleasant surprise. These things are cheap. Like, disturbingly cheap. They’re not great for you (they’re pretty high in fat and calories), but a lot of them are also pretty high in protein, and the trays really do contain enough food to fill you up, although some of these could stand to come with a bigger portion of vegetables.
What we looked for in the best Hungry Man dinners:
- Sides that taste like something…anything. Weirdly, some Hungry Man dinners have well-seasoned mashed potatoes and veggies, while others have SUPER bland sides. We didn’t eliminate meals because their sides were underseasoned (you probably own salt and pepper shakers), but we tended to favor the meals in which all the elements tasted good.
- Big portions. Hungry Man meals should be sizable. It’s, like, their whole thing.
- Flavorful mains that taste good whether you cook them in the oven or the microwave. In our first taste test, I cooked all of the meals in the microwave. Who has the time to cook a dozen meals for 40-plus minutes each? Couldn’t be us. In our second taste test, we only taste tested a handful of meals (Hungry Man “Selects,” specifically), so I had time to experiment with cooking them in the oven. It makes a difference, but they should still taste good and have enjoyable textures out of the microwave.
Here are the 6 best Hungry Man dinners we could find at our local grocery store.
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- Hungry Man Salisbury Steak
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This is actually one of our favorite Salisbury steak dinners, and I think that says a lot about the state of the frozen Salisbury steak market. This is totally fine—I mean, anything that involves brown gravy is going to be sort of good—but I couldn’t quite get past the texture of the beef patty. I know no one wants to gnaw on a tough-as-leather chop steak, but these Salisbury steak patties are just so, so soft. Your teeth slide right through it, unless they encounter some gristle. I will say: Like many Hungry Man TV dinners, this one contains a little fudge brownie, but it actually tasted a little bit better than some of the others.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Hungry Man Roasted Carved White Meat Turkey
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Remember when you were in elementary school and the day before Thanksgiving break the school cafeteria would serve a special turkey dinner that seemed like the most delicious and fun thing in the world even though it was still school cafeteria food? Well, this Hungry Man meal has that vibe. It comes with some chopped and re-formed turkey slices (it’s like turkey loaf), stuffing, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, and an apple-cranberry dessert. Everything is serviceable and tasty. Granted, this turkey dinner can’t really hold a candle to Stouffer’s, but this ranked among the best frozen turkey dinners for a reason. It’s nostalgic as hell.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Hungry Man Chicken Parmesan
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This was the first Hungry Man dinner we tried in our initial taste test and it kind of set the tone. My colleague Jordan Myrick and I took a beat, looked at each other, and agreed: This Hungry Man dinner is good! The sauce is thick and zesty. The breading on the chicken is well-seasoned. The green beans taste salty and buttery (which wasn’t the case in other Hungry Man meals). Could this chicken parm use a little more cheese? Sure. But this is a surprisingly tasty and filling meal if you’re craving red-sauce Italian.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Hungry Man Selects Classic Fried Chicken
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In our second taste test of Hungry Man frozen meals, we tried all of the “Selects” meals we could find. To be honest, I’m not totally sure what differentiates a regular Hungry Man meal from a “Selects” meal, but the bone-in fried chicken really worked for us. The mashed potatoes are bland (sadly), but the corn is perfectly sweet and salty. The portions of the sides are teeny tiny, but the chicken portion is nice. You get a leg and a breast. Cook this in the oven, and the chicken is oily and crispy and tastes almost exactly like KFC’s original recipe. Cook this in the microwave, and the chicken is more like KFC you put in the fridge overnight and then reheated—but the flavor is still pretty damn good. We also really liked the Selects meal that came with spicy fried chicken. These are the best Hungry Man meals to have around if you have a spare 50 minutes.
Credit: Liv Averett / Walmart
- Hungry Man Beer Battered Chicken
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This Hungry Man meal’s high ranking comes with a huge disclaimer: If you cook it in the microwave, which I’m certain most people will, the beer battered chicken does not get crispy. Of course it doesn’t. But if you can make peace with that, you will be rewarded with a seriously flavorful Hungry Man meal. The beer batter on the chicken is soggy, but it tastes great. It really tastes like batter made with beer, and the chicken itself has a McNuggets quality we really like. Have you ever had Long John Silver’s Chicken Planks? That’s what these remind me of, flavor wise. I’d go with that theme and douse these with some malt vinegar. Hey, they’re already soggy, so who cares! I will say that this is one of the Hungry Man TV dinners with a shamefully small serving of mixed vegetables, but they actually taste good—salty, crisp, and a little buttery. I would buy this again!
Credit: Merc / Instacart
- Hungry Man Country Fried Chicken
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Full disclosure: I love white gravy. There are very few things that I think a healthy glug of gravy can’t make delicious, especially if the gravy is very salty and peppery. This is the best Hungry Man meal we tasted, in part because it’s absolutely drenched in white gravy. Along with the fried chicken patty covered in gravy, you get mashed potatoes, green beans, and cinnamon apples. Everything tastes good. My one criticism is that the gravy is a little on the thin side, but it does thicken as the meal begins to cool, which helps it cling to everything a little bit better. Both Jordan and I flipped for this. I didn’t think any of these Hungry Man meals would feel like a treat, but this one really does.
Credit: Merc / Instacart
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Other Hungry Man frozen meals we tried
Hungry Man Smokin’ Backyard BBQ, Hungry Man Boneless Pork Rib Shaped Patties, Hungry Man Grilled Beef Patty, Hungry Man Boneless Fried Chicken, Hungry Man Selects Mexican Style Fiesta
Tyler Bowers
Jessica Block
Naajia Shukri
