All the Classic Hungry Man Meals, Ranked

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  nine 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!

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. 

We were very dubious that these Hungry Man dinners would taste good because so many of them involve breaded chicken, and breaded chicken doesn’t tend to do well in the microwave. Hungry Man figured it out. Many of the meals that falter in terms of texture have enough flavor to make up for it. In the end, our top three picks ended up involving breaded chicken! Sometimes life is wild that way. Here are the nine classic Hungry Man dinners we could find at our local grocery store, ranked from worst to best.

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hungry man backyard bbq review

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Smokin’ Backyard Barbeque

Does a boneless rib-shaped patty sound delicious to you? Okay, interesting! It didn’t sound great to us, and unfortunately, sampling the rib patty in this Hungry Man meal didn’t change our minds. This Hungry Man TV dinner comes with a chicken breast patty and a boneless rib patty (kind of like a McRib), all doused in BBQ sauce, plus mashed potatoes, corn and a brownie. Both the rib patty and the chicken patty are pretty spongy. If you are hell bent on eating a pork patty with a pronounced faux bone bulge, see the next entry on this list…

Rating:

3.5/10

Sporks

hungry man boneless pork shaped patty review

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Boneless Pork Rib Shaped Patties

Wow, Hungry Man, what a terrifically unappetizing name for a dinner! Still, this Hungry Man meal is better than the Backyard Barbeque meal for a couple of reasons. For one thing, the weird pork patty in this meal tastes slightly better than the pork patty in the Backyard Barbeque meal. Why? Couldn’t tell you! But it tastes less gamey. Also, the sauce in this meal tastes different from the sauce in the Backyard Barbeque meal, and it’s much more delicious. It tastes like a hybrid of mustardy Carolina-style BBQ sauce and sweet K.C.-style BBQ sauce. Hey Hungry Man, ditch the spongy pork patty and start bottling this BBQ sauce!

Rating:

4/10

Sporks

hungry man grilled beef patty review

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Grilled Beef Patty

Like many Hungry Man meals, the gravy is the star here. They describe it as a beer gravy. It’s pretty tasty and there’s a lot of it, which is a good thing, because the beef patty isn’t going to win any awards on its own. Out of the microwave, the meat is very gray. It’s not disgusting, but it doesn’t taste good, either. Also, this is one of the Hungry Man meals with flavorless vegetables. I can’t explain it, but the vegetables in some Hungry Man meals are crisp and very nicely seasoned—they almost taste like they were cooked in butter. But these mixed vegetables—corn, carrots, and green beans—are blah.

Rating:

4.5/10

Sporks

hungry man boneless fried chicken review

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Boneless Fried Chicken

Okay, I know I said we were impressed with the breaded chicken in some of these Hungry Man meals, but this wasn’t one of them. The whole meal falls flat. The chicken is very soft. The mashed potatoes are in the same compartment as the chicken, so it all forms a sad, flavorless amalgam. Even the corn is a letdown. If you want something in this vein but you want it to, you know, taste good, see #1 on this list.

Rating:

6.5/10

Sporks

hungry man salisbury steak

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Salisbury Steak

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.

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

hungry man turkey dinner review

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Roasted Carved White Meat Turkey

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.

Rating:

7/10

Sporks

hungry man chicken parmesan review

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Chicken Parmesan

This was the first Hungry Man dinner we tried in our 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.

Rating:

8/10

Sporks

hungry man beer battered chicken review

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Beer Battered Chicken

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 liked. 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!

Rating:

8.5/10

Sporks

hungry man country fried chicken review

Hungry Man!

Hungry Man Country Fried Chicken

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.

Rating:

9/10

Sporks


About the Author

Gwynedd Stuart

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.