9 Birds Eye Frozen Meals, Ranked Worst To Best

Clarence Birdseye was a visionary. As the founder of Birds Eye Frosted Foods he revolutionized the frozen foods industry when he patented a quick-freezing machine that froze foods without damaging cell walls, ensuring the flavor, texture, and nutrition remained intact. Although Birdseye developed the patent, it was actually fish that changed the frozen foods industry forever. 

On a trip to the Arctic, Birdseye had seen Native Americans flash-freeze fresh fish using ice, wind, and temperature. After his return, he applied the knowledge he had gained to fish and other foods, patenting freezing machines throughout the 1920s before securing a 1930 patent for a machine that quickly froze foods under high pressure. In 1930, Birds Eye began selling its first frozen foods, including fish, steaks, and vegetables in Springfield, Massachusetts. 

Today, Birds Eye is widely recognized for its frozen vegetable products. In the 1990s, Birds Eye released its Voila! Frozen meals in bags, providing a quick, convenient, complete meal, ready in under 20 minutes by sautéing in a skillet on the stovetop or by baking in the oven. Over the years, the selections and recipes have changed, which led us to ask which of these Birds Eye frozen meals is the best? To decide, I taste-tested nine readily available Birds Eye meals, ranking them from worst to best based primarily on overall flavor and texture, while keeping the nutrition of each in mind. Here are the results.

The thought of a buttery, garlicky, spicy shrimp scampi dinner makes my mouth water. Plump, juicy, sweet shrimp sautéed in a savory, aromatic garlic, lemon, and butter sauce served atop a bed of fresh pasta, is one of the most classic Italian-American dishes. Birds Eye Voila! Garlic Shrimp Skillet Meal looks on the package like what you would expect to find in a hearty scampi meal, with an abundant mix of sweet shrimp, tender pasta, and a few vegetables. However, instead, the frozen entrée brings together a mix of vegetables commonly found in many Birds Eye recipes: carrots, corn, a generous amount of broccoli stems, and a few florets. The brand combines these ingredients with a few small, pre-cooked shrimp and cooked pasta. The combination creates a meal with 220 calories, 7 fat grams, and 620 milligrams sodium. 

Birds Eye recommends sautéing the contents of the bag in a skillet for 15-18 minutes, until the vegetables and pasta are tender. However, in doing so, the few, pre-cooked, popcorn-sized shrimp became severely overcooked, tough, and inedible. The brand adds the garlic sauce to the package, so there is no separate sauce pack. When you combine the contents of the package with the recommended ⅔ cup of water, it should create an unctuous sauce. However, there was little garlic flavor and zero creamy, richness. Instead, a bitter frozen broccoli flavor was dominant, which combines to makes this a meal to skip from Birds Eye.

I was looking forward to trying Birds Eye's Voila! Chicken Stir-Fry Skillet Meal. I love a well-made chicken stir-fry. And the fat and calories of the frozen meal was moderate with 250 calories and 3 fat grams per serving. However, Birds Eye's dish contains a lot of sodium. Each 1 cup serving has 950 milligrams of sodium, over 40% of the daily recommended amount. While the sodium content is high, the meal did not have an overly salty taste. Instead, it was on the sweeter side, tasting as if the mix of pasta, carrots, broccoli, bell peppers, and white meat chicken was in a sweet-and-sour sauce rather than the indicated earthy, garlicky sesame sauce. Aside from sweetness, the taste was rather bland. I needed soy sauce and sriracha to enhance the taste, adding additional sodium to the dish. 

However, the bland taste wasn't the dish's central issue. The issue was the recommended preparation instructions, which resulted in a completely textureless meal. The brand instructs you to add the sauce packet included in the bag to a skillet. Top with the frozen meal, cover, and cook for 14 minutes on medium-high heat, without adding additional water, oil, or other liquid. However, in doing so, the pasta became a gummy, gloppy mess. The chicken's consistency was watery and mushy, further adding to the dish's lack of texture, and giving it one more reason to have a low rank compared to other Birds Eye entrées.

When I think of chicken fettuccini Alfredo, I picture a rich, comforting, indulgent meal with tender pasta and chicken in a cheesy, creamy, buttery sauce. The package of Birds Eye Voila! Chicken Alfredo Skillet Meal looked appetizing enough to possibly swap for a homemade option, with large chunks of white meat chicken, penne pasta, and vegetables. Opening the bag, I was saddened to see primarily pasta, followed by Birds Eye's mix of frozen carrots, peas, and mainly broccoli stems. The bag also contained a few minute pieces of chicken.

Birds Eye recommends adding the included sauce packet and the bag's contents to a skillet, then sautéing for 15 minutes. Unfortunately, once the dish was ready, the sauce did not cling to the pasta. It lacked the creamy, mouth-coating texture one craves when having the dish. The sauce was void of the cheesy, buttery flavor that makes alfredo delicious. The bland taste was surprising given the dish's high sodium content. While the meal has a moderate 210 calories and 7 fat grams per serving, the sodium content is high, 830 milligrams per 1-cup serving, 36% of the daily recommendation.

Although I love vegetables of all kinds, I would prefer my chicken Alfredo with a side of vegetables rather than Birds Eye's mix of carrots, peas, and broccoli. Even with the cream sauce, the frozen vegetable taste dominated the flavor, particularly the cooked carrots and broccoli stems, giving the meal a weird, bitter, earthy taste.

A comforting buttery garlic chicken meal wraps you in a warm hug of savory, juicy, roasted flavors. The garlic mellows as it cooks, transforming the allium's pungent taste to a sweeter, more savory flavor. These flavors wrap chicken in a crave-worthy sauce. Sadly, Birds Eye Voila! Garlic Chicken lacked the inviting flavor of an unctuous garlic sauce. Likewise, the slow-roasted chicken flavor was also missing. 

Unlike other Birds Eye meals, this one does not include a separate sauce packet for mixing with the meal's components. Instead, Birds Eye instructs that by adding ½ cup of water to the pan with the frozen ingredients and cooking on medium-high for 10-12 minutes, the sauce should come together. However, the resulting meal was dry with an unbalanced taste.  

The dish includes pasta with garlic sauce, carrots, corn, a bit of chicken, and a handful of broccoli florets. Cooked white meat chicken makes up less than 2% of the entire meal. Overall the dish contains mostly carrots, providing a vegetal-forward flavor that dominates this garlic chicken meal. Aside from the frozen vegetables taste, the meal was bland. Its garlic powder flavoring adds to the somewhat processed, underwhelming taste. 

Although the meal comes together quickly. And the nutrition is comparable to others, with 220 calories, 7 fat grams, and 610 milligrams of sodium per 1-cup serving, the carrot-forward taste leaves much to be desired. The meal lacks a rich, creamy garlic sauce or juicy, meaty chicken flavor, ranking it below others.

Popping open the bag for Birds Eye Voila! Fajita Chicken, I quickly became worried as a strong aroma of green bell peppers drifted out of the bag. Bell peppers are a common ingredient in fajitas, grilled with onions and the meat of choice. Still, some consumers have a love/hate relationship with green bell peppers. Although they can add flavor, in the green form, the pepper is not fully ripened, and has a bitterness. The acrid taste makes the vegetable off-putting to some consumers who are sensitive to its taste, including me. 

Birds Eye mixes green and red bell peppers with rice, onions, white meat chicken, and a fajita sauce that includes tomato paste, green poblano peppers, mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, onion, and garlic powder. The sauce was flavorful, reminding me of the tomato-forward base of a Mexican rice. It was actually one of the more flavorful sauces I tasted in all the Birds Eye meals, which keeps the entrée from ranking any lower. And the nutrition was one of the healthiest among all the frozen meals, with 200 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, and 560 milligrams of sodium per 1-cup serving. Still, even with a flavorful sauce, I found it difficult to overcome the dominant green bell pepper taste ranking the meal in the middle. Still, if you are a green bell pepper lover, this may be a top choice.

If I hadn't known the Voila! Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac and Cheese was a Birds Eye meal, I would never have guessed. It is the least likely Birds Eye product I've tried. The product combines Gemelli pasta with white meat chicken and broccoli in a ranch-style processed cheese sauce with bacon. It comes to life by adding one ½ cup of water to the sauce pouch before quickly sautéing. The white meat chicken chunks were tender, and I was happy to see a few broccoli florets. However, both of these were of a tiny proportion compared to the noodles. And the bacon was completely absent. 

Instead, I would classify this dish as a mac and cheese, with a bit of protein and vegetables. To that extent, Birds Eye lists cooked chicken and broccoli among the last ingredients. To see such a scarcity of vegetables was surprising from the typically veggie-heavy brand. As a frozen mac and cheese meal, Birds Eye is a solid selection. The pasta had a nice chew. And, while the sauce seized up rather quickly, it still coated the noodles well.  

Overall, I would have liked a more robust taste, fitting the meal's name. The sauce lacked smoky meat or herbaceous ranch flavor. And, the caloric content was the highest of the meals I tried, 300 calories, 7 fat grams, and 780 milligrams of sodium per serving. However, comparing the overall taste to other Birds Eye meals ranks the entrée mid-point.

In trying several of Birds Eye's options, I found the entrées with cheese sauces kept the strong, somewhat off-putting, taste of frozen vegetables found in many of Birds Eye's other meals in check, as was evident with the enjoyable Voila! Cheesy Chicken meal. Although Birds Eye includes pasta and chicken with its common mix of broccoli, corn, and carrots, the processed and powdered cheese sauce coats the palate, subduing the frozen vegetable taste. Processed cheese is not the most nutritious ingredient, as it has artificial flavorings, high fat, and high sodium. The inclusion of the cheese sauce results in a meal that is higher in calories and sodium than others, 270 calories, 940 milligrams of sodium, and 7 grams of fat.

The sauce lacks an authentic aged cheese flavor. However, it does make for a creamy sauce with a comforting, velvety texture. It is essentially mac and cheese with a bonus of added chicken and veggies. And, like many store-bought mac and cheese dinners, the meal benefits from a few dashes of black pepper or hot sauce to enhance the overall taste, adding a bit of spice. 

Like other Birds Eye entrées, the meal was quick and easy to put together in less than 20 minutes with an easy sauté in a skillet. Or, you can microwave it even faster. While it is not the best or most nutritious frozen meal I have ever had, it is flavorsome enough to rank the dish top three.

The combination of tangy vinegar, spicy hot sauce, and creamy, unctuous butter creates an intoxicating flavor in Buffalo wing sauce. The sauce drenches anything from chicken wings and tenders to fried cauliflower, potato wedges, pizza, and more with mouth-coasting, fiery flavor that awakens the palate. The heat is often cooled with blue cheese or ranch dip, adding a creamy element. 

Birds Eye brings a tamer combination of flavors together in its Voila! Cheesy Buffalo Chicken. The meal combines pasta, white meat chicken, red bell peppers, celery, and green onions with a cayenne pepper Buffalo sauce and cheese seasoning. Tasting the dish, the foremost flavor is of a creamy cheese sauce instead of a spicy Buffalo sauce. While there is a bit of heat on the back palate, it is nothing overly zesty or lively. Instead, it has a soft zing amid a creamy, cheesy base. The taste will likely appease palates that are averse to overly spicy foods. 

While I would have preferred more kick than subtle heat, the Buffalo sauce gives the dish a little something extra taste-wise that other Birds Eye dishes lacked. Additionally, unlike some Birds Eye dishes that have an extremely vegetable-forward flavor, the vegetable taste was well balanced in the meal, helping to rank the meal high. Nutritionally, the sodium content is a high 810 milligrams per serving. Still, the fat and calories are moderate with 230 calories and 4 grams of fat per serving.

For all the Birds Eye frozen meals I tried, without question, the Voila! Chicken Fried Rice was one of the best. It is a frozen chicken fried rice meal that actually tastes homemade. The preparation was simple and similar to other meals. I added a few tablespoons of oil to a skillet with the sauce packet and other ingredients, then sautéed for 19 minutes, until thoroughly cooked. 

The meal combines classic fried rice ingredients, including rice, white meat chicken, eggs, and an ample mix of peas, carrots, and broccoli in a savory and sweet sauce with sesame oil, garlic powder, ground ginger, sugar, soy sauce, and more. Although the vegetables are plentiful, there are also plenty of chunks of tender chicken to help create a balanced meal. Additionally, the flavorful sauce coats the dish in umami-rich flavors, enhanced by the nutty sesame oil, aromatic spices, and briny soy sauce. 

The sodium content of the meal is much lower than that of other Birds Eye meals, only 530 milligrams of sodium per serving, with 230 calories, and 3 fat grams. While I would have preferred a few less vegetables, as there was an abundant selection, the overall meal's taste was balanced. And unlike the Asian stir-fry meal in this ranking, I did not need additional soy or sriracha sauce to enhance the flavor. The flavor was satisfying on its own, elevating the meal to the top spot.

To decide which Birds Eye meal is best, I visited a few local grocery stores with locations nationwide, including Target and Walmart. I gathered nine readily available options and started sautéing. To create the ranking, I considered the overall taste and balance of flavors as the key deciding factor. However, I also evaluated the texture of each meal, whether it delivered the expected flavor profile, and how well the sauce enhanced each of these aspects. All of the meals have high sodium. While I noted the nutrition of each entrée, I considered sodium content in how well the amount of sodium matched the overall flavor. If a high-sodium content meal needed additional seasoning and salt to enhance the flavor, I made a mental note for the ranking order. All Birds Eye's family meals are priced comparably, around $8-$10, eliminating price as a ranking consideration.