Frozen meals are great to have on hand when I don’t have time to cook. That’s why I love to stock up on them when I go grocery shopping.
On a recent trip to Walmart, I decided to try some items from the store’s two house brands, Great Value and Bettergoods, to see if they’d be worth picking up.
The Great Value brand has been around since 1993, but Walmart launched its new Bettergoods line in April, which aims to deliver premium products at a low price point.
After picking up 10 items and tasting them, I ranked them from worst to best. Here’s how they stacked up.
Prices may vary by location.
The Great Value chicken fried rice was my least-favorite item.
My nearby Chinese takeout spot sets my standards for chicken fried rice, so I hoped Walmart’s Great Value version would at least match that.
The meal was easy to prepare and came in a microwavable bag that was ready in five minutes.
I’d opt for takeout over Walmart’s fried rice every time.
When I dug in, I had to search for the chicken, and the scrambled egg appeared in unappealing hunks. The only saving grace was the edamame, which maintained a nice snappy texture out of the microwave.
At just under $7 for a 20-ounce bag, the price was only slightly better than the fresher version available at my local Chinese restaurant.
The portion size of the Great Value Italian-style three-meat lasagna looked promising.
The Great Value Italian-style three-meat lasagna cost me about $7.50 for a 35-ounce portion. The instructions suggested baking it for 50 to 60 minutes or microwaving it for 13 minutes.
Since I was short on time, I opted for the microwave option and then used the bake setting on my air fryer to brown the cheese on top.
The lasagna was OK, but I wouldn’t buy it again.
Although the lasagna came out looking tasty, it was a mess to serve. The portion was also much smaller than I expected, as a lot of the weight was just frozen sauce.
The sauce was a bit sweet for my liking, and the lasagna noodles were a touch too sticky. It wasn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t buy it again.
Walmart’s Great Value chicken Parmesan and penne didn’t look appetizing.
I picked the single-portion Great Value chicken Parmesan and penne because it looked like a good option for a quick hot lunch.
It only needed five minutes in the microwave, but the goopy mess of chicken pieces floating in sauce and grease looked quite unappetizing.
The chicken Parmesan and penne ended up tasting better than I expected.
Luckily, the $3 chicken-and-pasta dish tasted better than it looked. There was a generous amount of chicken, especially considering the price tag, and it stayed nice and tender even after cooking in the microwave. But again, the sauce was a little sweet for my liking.
I’m not sure I’d buy this exact meal again, but I’d like to try one of the similarly priced Great Value pasta dishes.
The Great Value sausage, egg, and cheese croissant sandwiches seemed like a good deal.
I’m usually pretty picky about egg sandwiches, but I gave the Great Value sausage, egg, and cheese croissant sandwiches a try.
They cost about $5.80 for a package of four and came individually wrapped in microwavable plastic sleeves.
Walmart’s croissant sandwiches are a great option for those who buy frozen breakfast foods.
Although the croissants didn’t look great coming out of the microwave, they tasted better than I expected. The sausage had a nice peppery flavor and was fairly juicy.
Although the croissant was a bit moist and squishy, it’d be silly to complain about a detail like that at this price point. I don’t typically buy frozen breakfast sandwiches, but I’d recommend these to someone who does.
I wasn’t a big fan of the sauce that came with Walmart’s Great Value orange chicken.
It seems like every grocery store offers a similar frozen orange-chicken dish, which is a meal my family almost always enjoys.
My kids aren’t fans of chicken with any sort of sauce, so I typically separate their pieces before putting sauce on the grown-up portion.
As soon as I opened the sauce for Walmart’s Great Value orange chicken, I noticed it had a sharp, concentrated citrus scent that was overpowering.
My kids still enjoyed the chicken without the sauce.
The orange-chicken sauce seemed more like zest than juice — and my first bite confirmed just that. The orange flavor was overpowering.
At about $8 for a 26-ounce bag, it didn’t seem like an especially good deal, especially since my local Trader Joe’s charges $5 for a 22-ounce bag of its mandarin-orange chicken. Still, my kids fought over the last piece of plain chicken.
The Italian wood-fired prosciutto-and-arugula pizza was my first experience with a Bettergoods product.
The Italian wood-fired prosciutto-and-arugula pizza was the first Bettergoods product I tried.
After I baked the pizza, I topped it with the prosciutto and balsamic sauce, which were packaged separately.
I’d like to try other Bettergoods pizza options.
When I took a bite, the prosciutto wasn’t especially flavorful and tasted like regular ham. The familiar bitterness of arugula was also absent.
The garlic and cheese flavors dominated the pizza, which wasn’t a bad thing at all. Plus, the crust was nicely chewy, and the balsamic sauce had a pleasant vinegary bite.
At $7, I’d buy this again, but not before trying other Bettergoods pizza options.
I was immediately intrigued by the Bettergoods beef-bulgogi empanadas.
I’m a huge fan of savory pastries, so naturally, I was intrigued by the Bettergoods $6 beef-bulgogi empanadas.
I plan on buying the Bettergoods beef-bulgogi empanadas again.
The pastry portion of the beef-bulgogi empanada was flaky, crusty, tasty, and hearty enough to keep the filling from oozing out.
The flavoring was a touch sweet for my liking, but the warm ginger-garlic taste of bulgogi shined through.
I ate the empanadas with green hot sauce and gochujang mayonnaise, and the latter complimented the pastries way better.
I’d buy these again and pick up some of the Bettergoods apple-cinnamon empanadas as well.
I was skeptical of Walmart’s Great Value creamy chicken and pasta at first.
The Great Value creamy chicken-and-pasta meal was the biggest surprise of the bunch. The dish was nearly colorless in its packaging, except for a smattering of red peppers, and I worried it’d taste bland and greasy.
As with the lasagna, I heated the chicken and pasta in the microwave and finished the dish using my air fryer’s bake mode.
My wife and I were both fans of this chicken-and-pasta dish.
The chicken-and-pasta dish came out golden brown on top.
The béchamel was rich and creamy without being too greasy or salty, the pasta held a nice texture, and the chicken was tender and moist.
My wife liked this one, too. At a price of $7.50 for what amounted to two large adult-sized meals, I’d buy this again.
The Bettergoods chicken wings with Louisiana-style dry rub were easy to prepare.
Wings are one of my go-to meals when I’m cooking for myself. They’re inexpensive and easy to prepare in the air fryer, so I didn’t expect to find much of an advantage to buying precooked, frozen wings.
However, the Bettergoods version had a light breading, which isn’t something I’d usually add at home. Plus, I didn’t have to thaw out and handle raw chicken.
Instead, I just put the wings right into the air fryer, and they were ready in 10 minutes.
The chicken wings are a great option for when I’m craving an easy, inexpensive lunch.
The wings came out piping hot and extremely juicy, with spicy, salty, peppery, and garlicky flavors oozing from them.
One $8.85 bag contained 16 wings, which is enough for two lunches for me. I definitely plan to buy a pack of these again.
I’m not usually a fan of pot pies, but I was intrigued by the Bettergoods turkey-and-stuffing option.
I don’t especially love traditional Thanksgiving food or pot pies. However, I picked up the Bettergoods turkey-and-stuffing version because it seemed interesting.
This pie took an incredibly long time to cook. Although the box said it needed 50-60 minutes in the oven, mine needed about 75 minutes to get fully hot in the center.
The pot pie was my favorite of Walmart’s frozen dishes.
The combination of dried cranberries and stuffing on top, plus the herbaceous notes of thyme, reminded me of a Thanksgiving leftover sandwich.
I’ve found many pot pies too soupy for my liking, but this one was lighter on the cream sauce. Additionally, the turkey, corn, and string beans inside all maintained their distinct flavors.
One pot pie was enough for four total meals, making it a good deal for $9. I’ll definitely buy this again.
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