11 Banquet Frozen Meals, Ranked Worst To Best

Most of us prefer our meals to be made from scratch. Food just tends to taste fresher this way, and you have a better idea of what you're putting into your body. But I admit that there are times when I just can't be bothered to make dinner. At times like these, takeout might seem like a great idea, but going this route a few times a month can seriously start to impact your budget. These are the times when frozen meals can seem like a really solid option. Sure, they're not always the most delicious food you can find in the grocery store, but they tend to be relatively affordable. Plus, all you need to do is pop them in the microwave and let them cool before digging in.

One of the most affordable frozen meal brands on the market is Banquet, which serves up a wide range of different dishes to appeal to different palates. I wanted to see which of Banquet's meals were worth trying and which weren't, so I taste-tested 11 different meals from the brand. The truth? I found them to be pretty solidly bad across the board. That being said, some of them definitely have better flavors and textures. The best-ranked of these meals actually provide pronounced flavors and aren't too watery and rubbery. And the worst of the bunch? They tend to be rather flavorless or otherwise have a not-ideal texture.

Prices are as of the date of publication and may vary based on region.

Let me preface this by saying that I generally don't like Southwestern-inspired food — at least in the highly processed form you get from a frozen meal. (Of course, the cuisine that's actually served in the region is delicious.) But it's not just the combo of ingredients and flavors that earns Banquet's Mega Bowls Chicken Fajita Bowl the last spot on this list — the texture also plays a huge role in why it ranks as low as it does. This bowl is downright soupy. Somehow, though, the texture of the rice is still somewhat hard, indicating that it's not soaking up the liquid very well. Though there's some cheese, I think even more of it would make for a better bite, texture-wise.

The chicken is bland and unimpressive, and there's not much of it, although there are some (limited) veggies included in the mix. The ranchero sauce, however, just tastes ... off, with an artificial flavor that actively makes the other ingredients taste worse. Honestly, I think you'd just be better off buying a can of soup, since that's how liquid-y this frozen meal is. I found Banquet's Mega Bowls Chicken Fajita Bowl at Star Market for $3.99.

There are few frozen meals out there as sad as Banquet's Sweet and Sour Chicken, which sells at my local Star Market for $2.49. Is that a great deal on a whole meal? Sure. But you're paying for it with how deeply unappetizing it is. This is another instance in which the rice doesn't seem totally properly cooked, even though I followed the package cooking instructions to a T. Unfortunately, that rice seems both watery and undercooked, which is a recipe for disaster.

To make matters worse, it seems like Banquet really skimped on the veggies. The photo of the product shows plenty of peppers in the mix, but I only found three tiny pieces of pepper in the whole meal. When you add in the basically completely flavorless and honestly kind of watery breaded chicken bits, you have a recipe for a meal that's bound to disappoint. And although some people like a super-sweet sauce, I certainly don't. Even though the sauce in this dish is the only element that seems to offer much flavor at all, I still couldn't stand it because it was so cloying.

You don't have to fire up your grill to get a taste of ribs ... or at least an exceptionally cheap imitation of them. That's what you're getting when you buy Banquet's Backyard BBQ Meal, which sells for $2.49 at Star Market. The rib-shaped patty is made with both pork and chicken, and it has an undeniably strange texture. That texture isn't really unpleasant, per se, but it feels cheap and rubbery, totally unlike real well-cooked ribs. The accompanying sauce has a nice touch of smokiness, which gives the sad meat patty some much-needed flavor. Ultimately, though, the main course still falls flat, in my opinion.

Then there are the side dishes, which are just completely sad. The sweet corn is about as flavorless as you can get — it's not even as flavorful as basic canned corn. There's also a side of mashed potatoes, but they're also flavorless, with a watery consistency that makes it feel like Banquet is cutting corners. Spooning some of the extra sauce from the "ribs" on top of the mashed potatoes improves them, but not by much.

Spaghetti and meatballs is a pretty basic recipe to pull off. It tastes best when it's made fresh, but you can also use jarred pasta sauce and frozen meatballs to make the process easier when you don't want to go all out and make meatballs from scratch. Therefore, the idea of a frozen version of spaghetti and meatballs doesn't sound very appealing to me, although I can understand the appeal if you have limited cooking options. However, this stuff is pretty unimpressive. First of all, I barely got any pasta at all. Secondly, the sauce is watery and doesn't pack the sweet, savory, and umami flavor profile a decent sauce provides.

The one good thing I can say about this meal is the fact that the meatballs aren't terrible. Are they flavorful? Not really — they have the same watery quality you find in many Banquet offerings. However, their texture is good, and you're getting at least a reasonable portion in this frozen meal. Still, though, this isn't a frozen meal I would recommend if you have another way to make this classic dish. This is another Banquet meal that I found at Star Market for $2.49.

The picture on this box of Banquet Mega Bowls Dynamite Penne with Meatballs, which sells for $3.99 at Star Market, looked so good, I actually thought I might be in for at least an okay frozen meal with this product. Once I actually tasted it, though, I was immediately disappointed. The sauce is shockingly bland, despite it looking flavorful. That doesn't mean it tastes bad — it just means that it barely tastes like anything at all. The pasta itself ends up being soggy and far from al dente perfection, but that's sort of expected from a frozen meal. When those two elements come together, though, you're left with a criminal lack of flavor.

There are two factors that landed this meal as high as it is on this list, though. The first one is the meatballs. They seem to be the same ones you find in the brand's Banquet Mega Bowls Dynamite Penne with Meatballs, so they're not amazing, but their texture is enough of a selling point. Additionally, I actually get a reasonable amount of pasta in this meal. In the end, though, there are better frozen pasta meals at your local grocery store.

Have you ever eaten KFC's Famous Bowl before? Because it seems like that's exactly what Banquet Mega Bowls Country Fried Chicken, which sells at my local Star Market for $3.99, is going for. It comes with a base of mashed potatoes, followed by corn, gravy, cheese, and breaded chicken nuggets. Although this is arguably one of the best-looking meals in the lineup, I'm sad to say that the flavor just isn't very good. The chicken tenders are strangely watery, and in all my times eating frozen chicken nuggets, I've never had any that are quite so flavorless.

The rest of the bowl isn't that bad, but it's not particularly enjoyable either. The mashed potatoes are a little more liquidy than I would prefer, and the corn doesn't pack much flavor either. The gravy does add some richness and a touch of flavor to the equation, but not enough to truly turn the dish around. It's certainly not the worst frozen meal I tried from Banquet, but it's certainly not the KFC dupe I'd hoped it would be.

Frozen mac and cheese can be pretty hit or miss, and Banquet's Mega Bowls Buffalo-Style Chicken Mac 'n Cheese isn't exactly the best variety out there that I've tried. That being said, this was my favorite of all the pasta dishes in the lineup, so you can certainly do worse with a Banquet meal. You actually get a reasonable portion of pasta here, which I found sufficiently cheesy, even though the cheese doesn't taste particularly high quality. It's sort of thin on chicken, but the seasoned chunks don't taste terrible. They don't actually deliver a bold Buffalo flavor; I could barely taste the Buffalo at all. However, they were a bit less bland than I expected, which is something.

For a relatively inexpensive frozen meal (this product, like the other Mega Bowls in the Banquet lineup, sells for $3.99 at my local Star Market), it's edible, but I can't give it higher praise than that. This stuff might be passable if you're desperate for some frozen mac that comes with meat, your options are limited, or you can't make the meal from scratch yourself. But you may want to explore other those first.

You see plenty of frozen chicken pot pies out there, but it's not quite as common to encounter a frozen turkey pot pie. Therefore, I was excited to give this Banquet option a try. At just $1.79, it's one of the cheapest Banquet meals in the lineup, along with the other pot pies, making it a solid (but small) budget option for those who are really trying to watch their pennies while shopping for a frozen meal. The crust and the gravy inside were actually quite pleasant. They don't taste amazing or anything, but I would say that they're on par with other, more expensive frozen pot pie brands out there.

Admittedly, there wasn't much turkey in the mix, and the meat that was there was almost entirely flavorless. Banquet seems to skimp on the veggies too. There are some there, but this pot pie isn't packed with vegetables as I would expect from a homemade version of the dish. I wouldn't buy this product again, but there are worse meals out there for a last-minute budget option.

To be honest, I didn't notice a major difference between Banquet's Turkey Pot Pie and the brand's Chicken and Broccoli Pot Pie, which also sells for $1.79 at Star Market. The crust seems to be the same, as does the gravy inside. Yes, broccoli is added to the mix, but I didn't find much in the pie. Maybe it was just broken down so small that it wasn't very noticeable, and there was very little of the veg. If you're interested in this pot pie specifically because of the broccoli, then you may want to skip it entirely.

So, why does the chicken version of the dish rank higher than the turkey take on it? It really all comes down to the flavor of the meat. I found the chicken to be slightly more flavorful and moist than the turkey. That being said, I find the difference between the two is pretty negligible, so if you can only find the turkey version, you won't be missing out too much.

I love actual, freshly made Salisbury steak, but honestly, I thought this frozen version of the dish was going to taste downright terrible. I was surprised to learn, though, that it's actually one of the best meals in the entire lineup. Now, let's get this clear: I'm not saying that this frozen meal is actually good. Like all of the other Banquet meals I tried, this one also seems to be made with low-quality ingredients and doesn't pack the level of flavor I'd expect from the real thing. In fact, the "steak" is made with chicken, pork, and beef all mixed together, which is a sign that something is amiss.

However, compared to other Banquet meals, the brand's $2.49 Salisbury Steak is decent. The meat itself is sort of bland, but it at least has a savory saltiness that adds more interest to the dish. And the gravy is actually pretty tasty, even if it's still sort of thin. The side of sweet corn is a flop — again, it doesn't even reach canned corn territory — but the apple dessert could be worse. To be clear, I'm not recommending this meal. But if you have to eat Banquet frozen meals for whatever reason, it's not the worst option.

There aren't a lot of frozen beef pot pies in grocery store frozen sections (at least at the grocery stores I frequent), so I was excited to try Banquet's Beef Pot Pie, available for $1.79 at Star Market. Let's start with the cons: This pot pie features very little actual meat or vegetables. Yes, there are some scattered in the interior of the pie, but they feel few and far between. This pot pie is probably going to be a letdown when you want a substantial meal that's packed with fillings.

However, this is still the tastiest of all the Banquet frozen meals I tried. The crust, like with the other pot pies, is solid. But what really shines in this product is the gravy. It's rich, meaty, and decadent-tasting, with a bold flavor that I didn't expect after trying so many other bland Banquet options. It's not a very big pie, so you may need to supplement it with a side salad to make it a whole meal. But for someone who doesn't eat beef pot pie very often, I thought it was the most pleasant dish on this list.

I purchased all of the Banquet frozen meals I could find at my local Star Market for this ranking. I cooked each meal according to the package instructions, using the microwave instead of the oven. Then I tried each dish while it was still hot to get a sense of how it performs in the way it's most likely to be eaten. 

I ranked these frozen meals from Banquet based on both texture and flavor. The main criterion was flavor pronunciation, since so many of these meals taste quite bland. The highest-ranked varieties pack at least a decent amount of flavor and don't have an egregiously bad texture. However, bland flavors and rubbery or watery textures landed meals toward the bottom of the list.