8 Gluten-Free Frozen Dinners, Ranked

Frozen meals are the perfect fall-back option for the days when you don't want to succumb to eating the random assortment of snacks in your pantry or when you don't have time to cook a full meal. Plus, they're easy to keep on hand for last-minute emergencies. But, not all frozen dinner brands are created equal, especially if you choose to avoid gluten due to health restrictions or personal preferences. Unfortunately, the portion size may be too small, the texture too odd, or the flavor too boring — despite what the information on the package may suggest. 

I've been gluten-free for nearly a decade and have tried my fair share of gluten-free frozen dinners over the years. Between work and the hustle of daily life, I've found myself reaching for frozen dinners more often than I'd like to admit. In order to find which ones were the best, I rounded up some of the most popular gluten-free frozen dinners (some I've tried before and some I haven't). Then, I ranked the dinners based on overall flavor, how well each one compares to its freshly made counterpart, texture, and portion size.

This meal was the one that shocked me the most. It seems like shepherd's pie should be an easy dish to make gluten-free. Typically, most simple shepherd's pie recipes include a gluten flour-based gravy mixed in with the meat and vegetables. I was excited to potentially have an easily-accessible shepherd's pie that didn't require making anything from scratch. However, once I tasted Blake's shepherd's pie, I knew my pie-making days weren't over quite yet.

To start, the consistency was unlike most shepherd's pies I've ever eaten. It was almost as if there wasn't any gravy at all. It also barely had any of the vegetables commonly found in Shepherd's pie, like peas and carrots. Instead, it just had ground beef and corn. Between the lack of vegetables and absence of moisture from the gravy, I was essentially just eating dry ground beef. The consistency made a little more sense once I looked at the ingredients list and saw that the meal was essentially only potatoes, corn, ground beef, milk, butter, and cream. While it gets a few points for being made with organic ingredients and without preservatives, this meal gets the lowest spot in the ranking due to its lack of flavor, poor consistency, and its failure to be an adequate gluten-free substitute for its gluten-containing counterpart.

The folks who grew up in the '90s and early 2000s probably remember the popularity of Lean Cuisine meals. This brand is still going strong and has expanded its frozen dinner offerings to meet its customers' dietary needs. I was happy to discover that Lean Cuisine has four different gluten-free meal options including Buffalo-style chicken, chicken in sweet barbecue sauce, Korean-style beef and vegetables, and the herb-roasted chicken, which I chose for this review. The poultry is covered in a herb sauce and served with a side of roasted potatoes and broccoli.

If you are looking for a lighter option, you really can't go wrong with this choice. At only 180 calories per meal (which is significantly less than most of the other options on this list) and 18 grams of protein, you'll get a lot of nutritional value with this choice. This particular meal is also certified by the American Heart Association as meeting its criteria for heart-healthy food. 

But with all this said, I couldn't give this meal a higher ranking due to the chicken's odd texture. It felt like I was chewing a piece of cooked rubber. Since the main component of this dish was hard to swallow, I found little enjoyment in the meal as a whole. Plus, the packaging didn't explicitly state it was gluten-free, which meant I had to go to the website to make sure of it. Unfortunately, this also makes me question if it is gluten-free certified and what that means for those with severe gluten allergies or Celiac disease.

Lasagna is one of my favorite meals, so I was sad that Udi's lasagna with meat sauce ranked so low on this list. Rather than cooking it in the microwave, I decided to cook it in the oven to mimic a homemade lasagna recipe. That wasn't the outcome, though. Instead, I was left waiting over an hour for it to finish cooking — and the results were mediocre. To start off with a compliment, the flavor of the sauce wasn't bad at all and resembled that of other good lasagnas I've eaten in the past.

Otherwise, I was left craving more. Since the package contains two to four servings, I split up the portions and put them on a plate to eat. Normally, lasagna holds together relatively well — but this lasagna, as a whole, had a rather soupy consistency. Getting it from the package to the plate was difficult; I had to go back multiple times to scoop up everything that was left in the package. The lasagna itself also spread out over the entire plate, which made for a pretty messy eating experience. I also felt that Udi's skimped out on the amount of meat in its meat sauce and the noodles it used were a bit chewy. If it wasn't for the overall flavor being on-par with traditional lasagnas, everything else would have pushed Udi's lasagna even further down in the ranking.

Although I was excited to try this meal from Saffron Road, I was immediately disappointed once I took it out of the package. It barely had three, full-sized meatballs (it was more like two and a half) and each one was smaller than half a golf ball. It did come with a decent amount of rice though, so I went into it with a little hope.

Once I started eating it, my concerns about portion size were validated. I am a slow eater, but I finished the meatballs in just a couple bites. The cabbage wasn't a side, like the box suggested it would be; it was instead mixed with the sauce as an accoutrement. 

The texture of the meatballs was also very interesting. They weren't as firm as other meatballs, and they were honestly kind of mushy. The only reason the Saffron Road's Korean BBQ-inspired chicken meatballs ranked as high as it did is because of the sauce. It was extremely flavorful and had a hint of spice to it. To be honest, if the sauce was sold separately, it would probably do very well. But, the meal wasn't filling enough to justify purchasing it again. 

When it comes to frozen Mexican dishes, there's not many options besides a handful of frozen burritos. Unfortunately, most brands use flour tortillas — which leaves gluten-free folks out of the picture. That's where Evol's fire-grilled steak comes in. This deconstructed burrito puts everything you typically would put in a burrito into a bowl, which removes the need for a tortilla at all.

This meal had all of the components of a great meal. The steak, beans, and rice provided just enough protein and carbohydrates to leave me feeling full and satisfied until my next meal. However, the taste of everything was just so-so. I never doubted the freshness of each ingredient, but the entire dish lacked flavor. The box advertised that everything was combined in a cilantro lime sauce, but it was difficult for me to pinpoint the sauce in each bite. The steak was also just okay; it wasn't super tender and was a little on the chewier side. But with this said, this frozen dinner is one I'd still go back to. The freshness, portion size, and quality can't be beat, but the lackluster flavor keeps it from securing one of the top three spots. It's nothing a little hot sauce can't fix, though!

If you love Asian-inspired dishes, especially orange chicken, Realgood Foods Co. orange chicken bowl is for you. Traditionally, orange chicken is coated in a crispy breading, but Realgood Foods Co. coats its chicken in a blend of chickpea flour, making it both gluten and grain-free. The brand also swaps out soy sauce for tamari (a type of Japanese soy sauce made without wheat) to retain the gluten-free designation while still keeping the flavor you know and love. The other unique thing this brand does is use alternative, low-calorie sweeteners like monk fruit and erythritol instead of sugar. Because of these intentional swaps, this entree is a low-sugar, low-calorie option with 25 grams of protein, 30 grams of carbs, and only 1 gram of sugar.

What I loved most about this entrée was the overall flavor and quality of the chicken. I enjoyed the familiar flavors of takeout orange chicken. Plus, the meat itself tasted fresh — not rubbery (as frozen chicken tends to taste like). My only complaint? It didn't feel like a "complete" meal. It was essentially just a bunch of chicken pieces covered in sauce. The diced peppers felt more like an addition to the sauce rather than a substantial side. While I understand that adding rice would have added even more carbs, it would have been nice to have to make this dish seem more like a meal. Other dishes I sampled offered rice as a side, so why couldn't this one? 

Amy's has been around for quite a while — since 1987, to be exact. As one of the OG ready-made, frozen food brands, Amy's has had many years to perfect its recipes and expand its offerings. Now, it has one of the most extensive frozen food lineups on the market. From pizza and enchiladas to pad Thai, chances are you can find a frozen entrée to fit your palate and dietary needs.

Amy's broccoli cheddar bake is unique in that it takes a classic comfort dish that you would traditionally see served as a casserole, and transforms it into something gluten-free. Amy's even took it to the next level and topped the dish with a gluten-free alternative for breadcrumbs to give it that nostalgic crunch that you'd expect from the homemade version. But what I love most about this dish is that it actually tastes less like a frozen meal and more like what you'd make yourself. The noodles were perfectly al dente and didn't fall apart and the cheese wasn't overpowering. It also comes in a family-size portion, which makes it a great choice (and more economical) if you are buying it for more than just yourself.

The only thing holding this dish back from the number one spot was its flavor. Although it was one of the best tasting gluten-free frozen dinners on the list, when comparing cheesy pastas side-by-side, Amy's broccoli cheddar bake bowl lacked the depth and complex flavor profile of my favorite frozen entrée. 

As a Seattle native, I am no stranger to Beecher's. Its cheeses, soups, and entrées are made in the heart of Pike Place Market and are loved by many. Beecher's mac and cheese has become so notorious among locals and tourists alike that there is always a line spilling out into the street. But for those who don't eat gluten (or live outside of the Pacific Northwest), Beecher's has you covered with its frozen gluten-free mac and cheese entrée.

Instead of microwaving the entrée, I opted to take the extra time to cook it in the oven — and I am so glad that I did. Not only did it heat it through better, to the point where the cheese started to bubble, but it had a perfectly crispy top — just like it would have if it were made at Beecher's. It's made with the company's signature flagship and Jack cheeses, which clearly gives the entire dish the tanginess and flavor you'd expect from artisanal cheese. Definitely no Velveeta here!

The noodles were also noteworthy because they didn't taste different than "normal" pasta, nor did they have that grainy texture often synonymous with gluten-free pasta brands. It's already a struggle to find gluten-free pasta that resembles the gluten-based variety, but freezing gluten-free pasta adds a whole other challenge to the mix. Beecher's was hands-down the best frozen gluten-free dinner because it was filling, tasted gourmet, and made me second-guess if I was actually eating a frozen meal. 

I've tried many gluten-free dishes over my 10 years of adhering to the diet — some of which were excellent, while others were far from it. To determine the best gluten-free frozen dinner, I decided to rank each product based on a few factors: taste (particularly how it compares to its conventional gluten counterpart), texture (since frozen food often tastes different than the fresh stuff), and portion size (meaning, did it fill me up or did I walk away hungry?). In the end, the dishes that ranked highest tasted the best, had a texture that made me think I was eating something fresh, and satisfied my hunger.