The Best Marie Callender's Frozen Bowl Is A Cozy And Classic Southern Dish

When it's cold outside and it starts to get darker earlier, all you want is a warm, comforting, easy meal that tastes great and reminds you of home cooking, but without all the work involved. Enter: Marie Callender's. The frozen meals from Marie Callender's come in all sorts of varieties, each more homey and saucy than the next — though there is one Marie Callender's frozen meal we'll never buy again. According to our ranking of 16 Marie Callender's frozen meals, however, the best bowl-based option is the Creamy Chicken and Dumplings. 

Our reviewer said that while lots of brands don't get frozen chicken and dumplings right, Marie Callender's does, "with this cozy and creamy bowl hitting all the right flavor notes." As our reviewer explained, "My favorite part of this bowl was how balanced and cohesive it felt. There were the dumplings themselves, the chicken pieces, and the various vegetables, all perfectly coated in the creamy, rich sauce." 

While our reviewer did note that the dumplings lacked flavor, other components like the savory chicken, earthy vegetables, and especially, the decadent cream sauce made any blandness easy to overlook. When it comes to this Southern-inspired Marie Callender's meal, it seems that the saucier, the better; and many on the internet agree.

Plenty of people concur that Marie Callender's Creamy Chicken and Dumplings bowl is worth your money. One food reviewer enjoyed all the elements of the dish, writing on Brand Eating, "The broth had a mild herby note to go with a pretty robust, savory base. It was definitely more complex than your typical frozen food sauce/gravy. It tied together all the other components very well." On Marie Callender's website, another reviewer wrote, "The vegetables aren't soggy, chicken is all white meat, the dumplings are plenty and the sauce is amazing! Please don't ever stop making these!"

Many customers even had ideas for how to step the bowl up a notch. On Reddit, one commenter suggested adding "lots of black pepper" to boost flavor, whereas another suggested drizzling in hot sauce. One Redditor also shared, "It's like twice as good in the oven, rather than the microwave." Sure, the oven takes longer than the microwave, but if you have the time to spare, it may be worth it. 

No matter how you choose to cook this dish (or what you decide to introduce), you should stir it halfway through cooking to ensure that the everything cooks evenly. That will result in better flavors and give every morsel of chicken and every dumpling the softest, sauciest texture — qualities that make this bowl one of the best frozen Marie Callender's meals out there.