Now that fall is here, it's back to the weeknight dinner scramble. While we have plenty of absurdly easy dinner recipes, sometimes you just can't deal with cooking. Enter the king of convenience cooking: the frozen dinner. In the name of your sanity and tastebuds, we ate more than 50—you're welcome—to find the very best of the freezer aisle.
Trader Joe's: Chicken Tikka Masala
This is the meal that convinced us we needed to round up the best of frozen food for you all. This Indian favorite tastes as good (some will say better) than a restaurant's take on the same dish. The chicken tastes REAL—no pressed-meat here—and it's fresh, juicy and tender. That with the combination of spice and sauce = WIN. To quote the great Devon Sawa as Casper the Friendly Ghost: "Can I keep you?"
Amy's: Broccoli & Cauliflower In Cheese Sauce
Even after eating 50 frozen dinners, we still went out of our way to buy this dish. While this will require you to dirty a skillet, it's so, so worth it. The broccoli stays pretty crisp, and there's enough of it that you feel good about your choices...even though this is actually a glorified mac and cheese.
Devour: Buffalo Mac & Cheese
Whoa. This is loaded with rich, cheesy flavor. It has a slightly spicy kick from the buffalo chicken and tangy bleu cheese crumbles. The chicken was nice and tender and didn't taste at all like it came from a frozen dinner. Great for an impromptu game day party, this is basically drunk food on crack.
Find where to buy here.
Trader Joe's: Mandarin Orange Chicken
This tastes JUST LIKE takeout. There's no need to go to PF Chang's when you have this crispy, breaded chicken and sweet sauce. It's a little annoying to prepare—you have to heat up the chicken and sauce separately—but overall the extra work seems to be worth it. This is a really great option for those who are scared to cook Asian food on their own.
Trader Joe's: Trader Giotto's Mushroom Ravioli
Holy truffles! This is the perfect date-night meal for those evenings when you're too busy to cook from scratch but want to keep things feeling fancy. Nobody needs to know it's from a bag (and nobody will be able to tell, either). Loaded with mushrooms and an unami-bomb of a sauce, this is a nice change of pace from the usual tomato sauce or mac and cheese pastas you usually get in the frozen food aisle.
Trader Joe's: Joe's Diner Mac & Cheese
While classic Stouffer's mac and cheese recalls your past, TJ's mac and cheese should be your future. This amazingly creamy pasta basically tastes homemade—and beat out six other wannabes to become the Mac Daddy of them all.
Amy's: 3-Cheese & Kale Bake
We know, we know—microwaved kale is about as appealing as, well, kale anytime, served any way—but this is a surprise hit. It has a strong cheese flavor that makes it taste like a restaurant's mac, and the superfood makes us feel like we're basically eating salad. A cheesy, carb-y salad, but still.
Trader Jose: Black Bean & Corn Enchiladas
Daaamn, Jose! This enchilada beats many of the ones we've had in restaurants. A firm—not mushy or gritty—tortilla that's loaded with black beans and corn make this feel like a substantial meal. The red sauce is flavorful but not too spicy, and there's a lot of it. It definitely deserves a spot on your frozen food repertoire.
Bertolli: Italian Sausage Rigatoni
This pasta will convince you to cook with sausage more often. Or, at the very least, heat up a frozen dinner with sausage in it more often. (Let's be real here.) It adds a little spice to an otherwise rustic pasta, and like the label suggests, it pairs nicely with a glass of red wine—because you keep things classy like that.
Amy's: Chile Relleno Casserole Bowls
This dish has all the Mexican flavors you want (spice! sauce! cheese!). If you put it in a regular bowl and served it, no one would ever guess it was nuked in a microwave.
Find where to buy here.
Bertolli: Chicken Florentine & Farfalle
A big thing we learned in our epic frozen food feast is that meals designed to be cooked in a skillet—rather than the microwave—are clutch. The pasta stays al dente, the spinach wilts without getting slimy, and nothing gets congealed (an unfortunate side effect of zapping things in the micro).
BUY NOW: $8
Stouffer's: Stuffed Peppers
With 16 minutes of cook time, everyone at your office will hate you for hogging the microwave for so long. However, this meal is worth the side-eye. The sauce is light—not too acidic—and the meat and rice mixture tastes homemade.
BUY NOW: $3
Devour: Chicken Enchiladas Suiza
The name is a bit deceiving in that it's not like any enchilada suiza we've ever had, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The sauce is more like a zesty Alfredo than typical enchiladas—creamier than you'd expect. The black beans and corn add crunch and great flavor.
Find where to buy here.
Lemon Grass Kitchen: Beef & Broccoli Noodles
This new Asian-inspired brand offers wide, udon-like noodles that we were big fans of, though some thought they were a little too chewy. The sweet, teriyaki-like sauce is a great match for the substantial amount of broccoli and tender beef. Another win for the skillet vs. microwave debate.
Find where to buy here.
Devour: Pesto Ravioli With Spicy Sausage
The sauce doesn't have a strong pesto flavor, but it's still herb-y and pleasant. At 670 calories, it's the heaviest of the Devour meals we tried, but you kind of expect that when you're eating gobs of ricotta-stuffed ravioli. The sausage doesn't have an overwhelming kick, but it's definitely an added bonus.
Buy online here.
Trader Joe's: Trader Jose's Chicken & Cheese Tamales
Often, tamales are low on filling; these are not. Fully loaded with shredded chicken and cheese, these have the perfect blend of salt and spice, which is nicely tamed by the corn breading. I'd have liked a little more sauce, but that might just be a personal preference. My co-taster said this was one of her favorites of the bunch.
Stouffer's: Lasagna With Meat & Sauce
We tried a few different lasagnas during our taste test, and this one was by far the winner. We weren't surprised; Stouffer's has been around a long time, so the brand must be doing something right. Though it comes out molten hot, if you can resist the urge to take a huge bite straight away, you'll be rewarded with a pleasantly sweet sauce that makes you want to keep eating more. Our only complaint—we wouldn't have been mad with more cheese, but that's true of most dishes we eat.
BUY NOW: $3
Amy's: Cheese Enchiladas
This classic combo has corn tortillas that hold up reasonably well, despite being slathered in sauce and microwaved. However, the real star here is the cheese filling: It's gooey, a little salty and complements the spicy red sauce perfectly.
BUY NOW: $5
Stouffer's: Macaroni & Cheese
This is pure elementary school cafeteria mac and cheese, and we mean that in the best way. It really takes you back to third grade with its safety-cone-orange hue (less appealing, but true) and super-cheesy flavor. While not for the more refined palates, we just couldn't resist the nostalgia this baby is dishing out.
BUY NOW: $4
Lean Cuisine: Ricotta Cheese and Spinach Ravioli
Nothing fancy, but pretty decent, the tomato sauce in this dish has a lot more spinach than you'd expect from a frozen dinner (greens, whaaat?!). It's made using real ricotta—enough that you can actually taste it, too, unlike others we'd sampled. If you're really craving pasta but want a meal that's less than 350 calories, this is the way to go.
It's definitely not the prettiest dish on the list, but that just proves looks aren't everything.
BUY NOW: $3
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