The Absolute Best Gluten-Free Frozen Dinner At Your Grocery Store

Finding a frozen dinner that fills that sweet spot between quick and easy and tastes great is hard. It's even harder if you're gluten-free. As anyone with dietary restrictions knows, finding convenience foods that fit the bill and make your life easier is fairly challenging. Much of the time you find yourself settling for pretty good instead of super yummy. It's either that or break out your sheet pan again. And while there are plenty of quick and easy sheet pan recipes to make gluten-free weeknight cooking a cinch, sometimes you just want the kind of convenience everyone else gets, without having to settle for a meh meal. Enter Beecher's "World's Best" Mac & Cheese.

Not only is it the absolute best gluten-free frozen dinner you can pick up in your grocer's freezer (the company also makes the best (gluten-ful) mac and cheese you'll find in any supermarket aisle), it may well be the very best frozen dinner on the market (gluten-free or otherwise). And that's not overselling it. What makes Beecher's a standout frozen dinner is the same thing that makes it a winning mac — its homemade taste. It's not like the fan favorites of the past (Stouffer's, Kraft, Velveeta) with powdered cheese packets, squeezable tubes, or bright orange pasta convenience, this is that good stuff that grandma used to make, the stuff holidays and cookouts are an excuse for. It's that rich, creamy, tangy, cheesy, yumminess that keeps you coming back for more.

Not familiar with the Beecher's brand? Kurt Beecher Dammeier opened his first store in Seattle's Pike Place Market over 20 years ago, becoming the only artisan handmade cheesemaker on the scene. He and his team have been serving up award-winning cheeses, alongside favorites like Tomato Cheddar soup with grilled cheese and their famous "World's Best" Mac & Cheese, since they first opened their doors in 2003. While the frozen line of cheese-laden dishes never skimps on flavor, it's the gluten-free option that really deserves your attention. That's because the pasta is so toothsome and delicious, you'd never suspect it's gluten-free. That is, if you cook it in the oven.

The one caveat for this absolute winner of a gluten-free frozen dinner is that, even though you can prepare it in a microwave (it still tastes delish!), microwaves don't bring out the best in pasta. No, if you want to taste Beecher's mac and cheese as it was intended, in all its golden-hued glory with its crispy-browned flecks and bubbly melted cheese sitting atop the creamiest melange of cheesy sauce, thickly coating its penne noodles with the headiest of flavors, made from Beecher's buttery, nutty, and tangy Flagship cheese and its smooth, cream-laden Just Jack — you'll need to bake it. It's the baking (and a very light kick of chipotle, paprika, garlic, and chili powder) that really clinches the win.