Review: Dolly Parton's Frozen Meal Line Offers A Tepid Take On Southern Comfort Classics

Dolly Parton is known for many things — being a musician, philanthropist, businesswoman, and all-around country legend, to name a few. Now, she can officially add a frozen meal line to her list of accomplishments. Yes, amid all of the frozen meals that you'll come across at the grocery store, you might also run into a handful of pink boxes with Dolly Parton's name, boasting a small assortment of Southern comfort classics: Chicken & Dumplings, Country Fried Steak, Shrimp & Grits, and Beef Pot Roast.

Well, if you're curious about Dolly Parton's frozen meal line but aren't quite sold on buying them yourself just yet, that's where I come into play. I have sampled and ranked several frozen meal brands before, including Stouffer's frozen entrees, Healthy Choice frozen meals, Lean Cuisine frozen meals, and even Gordon Ramsay's frozen meal line. Needless to say, my microwave has seen its fair share of frozen fare, so I knew I was up to the task of reviewing Dolly Parton's new line to see if it's any good.

When tasting any frozen meal, I pay attention to the quality of ingredients, how well the elements of the meal heat up, how good the meal tastes, and how cohesive it is as an entree. I took these same factors into consideration as I taste-tested all four of Dolly Parton's frozen meals, all in an effort to see which ones are worth trying, which ones are just okay, and which ones should be avoided at all costs.

Though Dolly Parton's line of frozen meals may be considerably smaller than other big brands out there — boasting only four meals total at the moment — it does manage to cover the bases of Southern comfort classics quite nicely. The four frozen meals in Dolly Parton's lineup are Beef Pot Roast, Chicken & Dumplings, Shrimp & Grits, and Country Fried Steak. These frozen meals join an assortment of other Dolly Parton-themed store-bought goods, including frozen desserts, cookie mixes, cake and brownie mixes, and pancake mixes.

While none of these meals are exactly revolutionary to the world of frozen entrees, they do at least touch on different flavor points to cater to a wide variety of dietary preferences. Beef Pot Roast (obviously) features chunks of beef, as well as vegetables like carrots, celery, onions, and potatoes, all in a gravy-like savory sauce. The other beef entree on the list, Country Fried Steak, features the breaded beef patty itself amid mashed potatoes, gravy, and a side of green beans with bacon chunks. Then there's Chicken & Dumplings, which comes with chicken, dumplings, assorted veggies, and a creamy sauce. Finally, Shrimp & Grits comes with toppings like scallions, cherry tomatoes, and a spicy sauce.

Unlike some other frozen meal brands out there that you can find at practically any grocery store, Dolly Parton's frozen meals aren't quite so widespread (at least, not yet). I purchased all four meals from a Target location, which seems to be your best bet in finding the meals, should you choose to do so. You can use the store locator on Dolly Parton's website and toggle the specific meal you're looking for along with your location. Based on the store locator, both Target and Walmart are major retailers that carry the meals, but actual availability will vary depending on where you live.

As for the price of the meals, that will likely also vary depending on your location. I paid $4.99 per meal at a Target in Chicago, but if you can find them at Walmart, they may come at a slightly cheaper price. Overall, though, you can expect to pay around $4 to $5 for one of these meals, or about $20 for all four. 

When trying Dolly Parton's Chicken & Dumplings, it was certainly not my first rodeo when it comes to chicken and dumpling frozen meals. Generally speaking, I've found that chicken and dumplings are a safe bet in frozen format — perhaps a bit boring and a bit chewy, but the flavor typically works. For the most part, I found this sentiment to remain true with the Dolly Parton version of chicken and dumplings, but ultimately, this meal was pretty weak all around.

My biggest issue is that it was incredibly bland. The sauce had absolutely no dimension to it, and, in fact, it didn't even really taste creamy. The chicken, dumplings, and vegetables all tasted fine, but again, there was such a lack of seasoning and flavor that I started to wonder if something was wrong with my taste buds. Nothing wrong there, as it turns out; this was just a really bland frozen meal. I didn't find anything exceptionally wrong with this meal, but I can't see myself purchasing it again, because there are simply better iterations of frozen chicken and dumplings out there. As for the nutritional breakdown, one full meal contains 390 calories, 13 grams of fat, 1,280 milligrams of sodium, 43 grams of carbs, and 25 grams of protein.

Another very popular type of frozen meal is a beef pot roast, which I'm happy to report was a more successful iteration from the Dolly Parton line. I've often found that pot roast-style frozen meals tend to be pretty strong (or at the very least, hard to completely mess up), and Dolly's version further confirmed this belief. Featuring chunks of beef, veggies, and a savory sauce, this meal definitely struck me as the simplest and most bare-bones in the lineup, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

While the meal certainly didn't taste like a homemade pot roast, it did hit on some nice, savory flavor notes that kept me going back for more bites. The texture of the beef wasn't my favorite, as it was a little chewy, but it wasn't anything too offensive. The other elements, like the potatoes and carrots, had pretty run-of-the-mill textures as far as frozen meals are concerned. The meal really shined thanks to that savory gravy, which coated every element in the bowl and really amped up the flavor. 

Simple as it was, I appreciated the no-frills nature of Dolly Parton's Beef Pot Roast, and I consider it to be perhaps the strongest entry in her frozen meal lineup. One full Beef Pot Roast entree contains 290 calories, 11 grams of fat, 830 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of carbs, and 18 grams of protein. 

I love a good homemade country-fried steak, but the entree in frozen meal form? It can be extremely hit or miss. And, alas, when it comes to Dolly Parton's Country Fried Steak, it's a big miss. As in, there was virtually nothing redeemable about this meal when I tried it, and I'm someone who is generally pretty forgiving when it comes to frozen fare.

The issues started to arise before the meal was done heating up. The instructions called for heating the meal for a couple of minutes, flipping the steak, and then heating it some more. When I reached that steak-flipping step, all of the breading on the underside of the steak completely sloughed off into the watery mashed potatoes. Ultimately, that's not so unexpected, but it didn't exactly bode well for how the meal might taste. 

Needless to say, none of the elements of this meal tasted good. Any breading left on the steak was completely mushy, the mashed potatoes never really stopped being watery, and the steak itself was incredibly tough. The green beans were also completely forgettable, just incredibly bland and dry veggies that weren't benefiting at all from being paired with bacon. This meal was just a huge mess, not necessarily because it heated up so poorly, but because it simply didn't taste good and was an absolute textural nightmare. As for the nutritional breakdown, one Country Fried Steak meal contains 500 calories, 30 grams of fat, 1,200 milligrams of sodium, 41 grams of carbs, and 17 grams of protein.

Rounding out Dolly Parton's frozen meal line is none other than shrimp and grits, a Southern staple that I went into feeling no particular way about. I love shrimp and grits, and I could see it translating successfully into frozen meal format, but after sampling some of the other meals on this list, I didn't want to get my hopes to high. As it turns out, Dolly's Shrimp & Grits was pretty good overall, with just a few disappointing hiccups.

First and foremost, I have to highlight the fact that the cheesy grits base was pretty tasty, and it heated up really well from frozen. The texture was perfectly gritty (in a good way), and the flavor was deeply savory, so I have no complaints when it comes to the grits themselves. The other elements of the bowl, like the shrimp and toppings, are where things got a bit disappointing. The shrimp didn't look anything like they did on the box — they were incredibly small and quite bland, not really taking on any of that savory flavor from the grits. There were also only a mere two slivers of cherry tomato as garnish, and there really weren't too many scallions scattered across the top, either. There was quite a bit of oil on top of the meal once it was heated up, and while I can't necessarily fault the meal itself for it, certain bites were a bit too oily for my taste. 

So, ultimately, the flavor here was mostly pretty good, but some lackluster toppings and a sheen of oil sort of took away from the appeal, at least a little bit. Nutrition-wise, one full Shrimp & Grits meal comes down to 270 calories, 13 grams of fat, 1,000 milligrams of sodium, 26 grams of carbs, and 11 grams of protein.

After trying each of the four meals in Dolly Parton's frozen lineup, I feel pretty confident in saying that this is one brand you can safely skip over. Though I didn't hate these meals (except for Country Fried Steak), none of these really stuck out to me in any way. Even the most successful of the meals — like Beef Pot Roast or Shrimp & Grits — weren't exactly life-changing or particularly memorable in any way. There were some decent flavors to be found, like in the savory pot roast gravy or in the grits part of Shrimp & Grits. But as a whole, this lineup of frozen meals just isn't one I'd return to, especially when there are so many better options out there.

If you're absolutely determined to try at least one meal in Dolly Parton's lineup, then I'd recommend going with Beef Pot Roast or Shrimp & Grits. Skip Country Fried Steak entirely, and unless you especially want something super bland, don't go for Chicken & Dumplings, either.