7 Frozen Hash Browns, Ranked Worst To Best

Hash browns, like other greasy potato products, are hard to resist. If you're getting breakfast out at a fast food joint, why wouldn't you add a hash brown to your order to either eat as a side dish or stuff it between your English muffin to upgrade your breakfast sandwich? Luckily, you don't have to travel to your local McDonald's (though even I will admit that it's probably the best item on the chain's menu) to get your hash brown fix. You can take a trip down to your local grocery store and scan through the frozen food aisles to find a package of hash brown patties. Take it home, pop one in the air fryer or the oven, and in about 15 minutes, you'll have a crisp, greasy, and delightful hash brown waiting for you. As Ina Garten would say, "How easy is that?" 

But, not all hash brown brands are created equal. I have eaten my way through several tater tot brands over my career, so I know all too well that some frozen potato product brands are crispier, saltier, and more satisfying than others. I took a trip to a few local grocery stores to pick up different frozen hash browns to test. Then, I baked them in my oven, snacked through them, and ranked them from worst to best based on their taste, texture, and overall enjoyability. 

I will be the first person to admit that I have beef with cauliflower-based food. Cauliflower pizza crusts are perhaps the last thing I would buy from a grocery store, and starchy sides made with it, like mashed or riced cauliflower, just don't taste the same as the "real thing." Anything cauliflower will always taste cruciferous; no amount of processing can hide it. Despite being the only non-potato hash brown on this list, Strong Roots knows how to make an entrance — and not in a good way. 

These patties tasted like a greasy version of cauliflower, greasier than any other I tasted for this review. When I bit into it, I was immediately met with the repulsive, sulfuric flavor I've come to despise. All I could think was that it was just a fried version of mashed cauliflower. The vegetable wasn't fresh-tasting and instead turned into a mealy filling that coated my taste buds and stuck around for far too long. The worst part about it, though, was the outside coated in a fake breading to make it more hash brown-like. It came off as dusty and dry, though the inside was like cauliflower that had been microwaved for about three minutes too long. 

These are not hash browns — and that's a hill I will die on. I get wanting to eat more vegetables (though potatoes are still technically vegetables), but hash browns are just not a place where you want to cut corners and try to sneak in more greens. Anyone with functioning (not even well-honed) taste buds will be able to tell that something is amiss here. 

Lamb Weston's product was one of the most affordable options on my list. These "home brown" patties come in a 20-pack and are priced even cheaper than Aldi's hash browns — which is not something that I come across in many of my food reviews. But, it's relatively low cost is suggestive of its low quality. 

These Lamb Weston patties were definitely not the best ones of the lot — by a long shot. I immediately noticed that the outside of the patties had a beautiful golden color to them and resembled the mass-produced hash browns served at chains like McDonald's. What I wasn't prepared for here, though, was the mushiness on the inside of the hash browns. It was almost like biting into a watery bowl of mashed potatoes. The consistency melted on my tongue like butter and quickly departed my taste buds, leaving only an oily wake to remind me that I had, in fact, eaten it. Oh, and they also smelled like fryolater grease that had been left to sit for several days. 

Normally, I would say that buttery is a desirable texture to have in a hash brown, but these are just too mushy and insubstantial to be effective. If you tossed one in a sandwich, you could hide some of that interior texture — seeing as how the crunch on the outside is nice — but it would be an awful choice to eat solo. While it was better-salted than some of the other brands, the mushy texture really turned me off. I guess there was a reason why they were so cheap ...

I drew many parallels between the Stop & Shop hash browns and the Lamb Weston home browns. Both have the deceptively well-done exterior that pulls you in before you're hit with a mushy, watery filling that doesn't stick around long enough.

I had to taste the two of them side-by-side to try and decipher small differences that would rank one above the other. After I had taken a few bites back and forth between the two, I realized that the Stop & Shop one is still soft, but it's not as mushy as the Lamb Weston brand potato patties. Although Lamb Weston had a better and prettier golden color to it, it came with a ton of oil, whereas the Stop & Shop product was slightly less oily. I also thought the salt content on the Stop & Shop patties was slightly more balanced than the lower-ranked brand, which made it a little more pleasurable to eat — but not by much. 

Stop & Shop hash browns are the brand you pick up at the store when you need to have something to serve with your breakfast spread. But, it's one product that will give you buyers regret, so I recommend not adding it to your cart in the first place. 

Great Value has offered good products in the past, and also some that are a little worse for wear. Its hash browns come in several different shapes and sizes, including patties (which I tried for this taste test), shreds, and cubes. There is seemingly a potato shape for every occasion, but based on my experience with its hash browns, I would suggest skipping all variations of this brand. 

I will say that these hash browns had a very nice crunchiness to them. The outside had a slightly brown exterior with chunks of potato that made it look like these patties were made with real spuds rather than some leftover mashed potatoes that someone mixed up and popped into the deep fryer (I'm looking at you, Stop & Shop). This chunky, rustic texture continues throughout the inside of the patty, which was soft and light, though still had discernible pieces of potato that made it appear less mushy. My first thought was that these hash browns reminded me of my father's potato pancakes that he makes every year on Christmas Eve. And, like those potato pancakes, this Walmart rendition is grossly under-salted — sorry, Dad.

Fried food should be salted to help counteract oiliness. Otherwise, you're just left with a cesspool of lukewarm oil, which was the case with this hash brown. I blame the excess oil for the softness on the inside of the patty, too. These hash browns are otherwise flavorless and uninspiring. If you coated them in hot sauce or ketchup, you could get away with it, but I wouldn't willingly eat them plain as a side dish. 

The Aldi Season's Choice hash browns look a little ... rustic. Okay, I'll rephrase that: a lot a bit rustic. Although you might think that I made a blunder by leaving them in the oven too long, this dark appearance was actually what they looked like going into the oven; they gained very little color as they baked. However, I didn't find that this color difference really altered the flavor profile all too much. There were still pleasant pieces of potato amid a fleshy interior. If anything, I think that Aldi hash browns tasted more potato-like than the other brands. There was less of an oily mouthfeel here, and I didn't even notice as much oil on the parchment paper that these patties were baked on as I did with the other lower-ranking brands. 

I wished that there was a little more crunchiness going on with these hash browns, as well as a more heavy-handed dose of salt. Though, their flavor was much better balanced than Great Value's spuds, which is why they ranked just a little bit higher. The salt would have just balanced out the flavor of the potato a little bit more and drawn me in for bite after bite. If you're after a really authentic potato flavor in your hash browns and want something less french fry-like, it would be a good brand to reach for. But, it's just not as indulgent as the higher ranked brands. 

McCain is another major player in the frozen potato industry. Not only does it carry these patties, but it also offers the cafeteria favorite smiley fries, types of fries in every shape and seasoning, and quick-cooking versions of fries, tater tots, and more. Although its label claims that these hash browns are "quick-cook," I found that they took about the same amount of time to bake as the other items on this list. I guess it's only really quick-cooking if you make them in an air fryer, as the brand recommends. Using this method can shorten the cooking time by a whopping two minutes. 

I think part of the reason why these patties cook a little faster than others on this list (or are at least supposed to) is because they're very thin and brittle. I prefer a lot of crunch in my hash browns, so I had no qualms with their design, but folks who like a little more robust and potato-y hash browns may have some choice words for them. The color on these hash browns was good, and when you get a little bit of the crunchy edge, you get the perfect hash brown texture.

I do think that the crunchy texture helped distract from their oiliness, though I did notice that these hash browns had almost an acidic mouthfeel to them, which I suspect was from the oil. The remedy for this — of course — is more salt. After I did the preliminary testing, I sprinkled a little crushed sea salt on my spuds and snacked away, finding that there was an instant improvement. 

The Ore-Ida patties were the first ones that I tasted in this ranking that I thought, "Man, these are good." While other brands were under-salted, I found that these hash browns toed the line of being too salty — which is not something that I say often when it comes to fried food. I would rather have a little extra sodium than not enough, and the Ore-Ida patties' success in this ranking was a testament to that. 

At first glance, these patties have a school-cafeteria vibe to them. They're not pretty, per se, but they also don't need to be perfectly golden brown to still taste great. The outside developed a slight crispiness as they baked, though not as brittle as the McCain's hash browns. The insides were still moist and flavorful, and there was just enough crunch for them to be passable. They're what you think about when you think of a hash brown.

I appreciate that you can see the specks of the potatoes in these patties, as it makes them seem all the more authentic and less like repurposed mashed potatoes. This would be one brand that I would recommend leaving in the oven for a little bit longer to help crisp them up more, or perhaps even try deep frying them to achieve perfectly cooked crispy hash browns. This was easily my top brand on this list because it had enough flavor to be enjoyable as a side dish and was tasty enough to eat solo. It shined just as bright as its golden-brown color in this ranking. 

I purchased these products from grocery stores in the southern Rhode Island area, though these brands are available at retailers nationwide. Then, I cooked each of them in the oven according to the package directions, though many of the brands could also be made in an air fryer. I taste tested the products as soon as they exited the oven (without any ketchup, no less), as I find that there is nothing worse than a greasy, lukewarm hash brown. 

Hash browns are a regular item in my household, so I would like to think I have a clear idea of what makes a good one versus a bad one. Greasiness is part of what makes a hash brown so satisfying, but it shouldn't be so overwhelmingly oily that I need to blot it with a napkin or it causes me to taste fryer grease the rest of the day. It should also be salty, crispy, and satisfying — perfect for eating as a side dish to eggs or sticking inside of a breakfast sandwich.