The Best Andrew Zimmern Frozen Dinner Casts Turkey As The Main Character
It seems like anyone who's anyone in the celebrity chef world is getting in on the frozen meal game; chef, restaurateur, and "Family Dinner" host Andrew Zimmern is no different, with his offerings serving, well, family dinner! We ranked Andrew Zimmern's frozen dinners and found that the one with roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and green beans was the best among the four. The other offerings included meatloaf with mashed potatoes and peas, caramelized onion pulled pork mac and cheese, and Swedish style meatballs with noodles and gravy.
While none of Zimmern's meals broke the top five in our ranking of celebrity chef frozen meals overall, the turkey dinner earns its title as the best of Zimmern's meals thanks primarily to the fluffy and buttery mashed potatoes (much better in the turkey dinner than in the meatloaf offering). The other components in the turkey dinner were also decent for a frozen meal; the turkey was moist and the gravy was comparable to jarred versions you'd buy in the store.
The star of a lackluster cast
In an exclusive interview with Mashed about his frozen dinner line, Andrew Zimmern told us that he narrowed down the offerings based on the driving forces of taste, affordability, and convenience. Unfortunately, the meals fall short. Sold exclusively at Walmart, Zimmern's frozen meals retail for $5.94 each, the same price as the other Walmart-exclusive, chef-inspired meals by Guy Fieri, Gordon Ramsay, and Kardea Brown. While $6 isn't a bad price for dinner, it's still significantly pricier than other frozen meals at Walmart, including Marie Callender's, Stouffer's, Hungry-Man, and Banquet varieties.
While affordability is in the eye of the wallet-holder, one of the biggest issues we had with the Zimmern frozen meal offerings was the amount of food. Despite 21 grams of protein in the turkey dinner, the whole dish is only 300 calories — far from what we picture when we think of a turkey dinner, which conjures images of all the best Thanksgiving sides. And instead of the sliced turkey breast with sides of mashed potatoes and green beans like shown on the box, the meal has all the components mixed in a bowl. Not exactly appetizing or filling. Zimmern told Mashed that he hopes to expand the offerings beyond the four current varieties in the future. We can only hope the flavor, portion sizes, and packaging are improved, too.