I haven’t had frozen dinner for what seems like ages because while they are extremely convenient to have in the freezer, nine times out of ten they are overpriced. Cheap Eats doesn’t place as much emphasis on convenience or portability. However, a friend had mentioned that he always got Banquet Frozen Dinners at the market at the price of TEN for $10.00. I’d been interested in trying it out, but was reluctant to test out TEN dinners. After all if they were really terrible, there went ten bucks!

But then last week I saw that they were selling the Banquet Frozen Dinners for $1 each, with no maximum (nor minimum) number needed. So I went ahead and got three of them to run through the Cheap Eats ringer. This is a three part series of reviews, and might even run more if the dinners are any good!

Part 1 : Banquet Chicken Nugget Meal
Boy, the picture on the package of this chicken nugget meal sure looks good. I was extremely skeptical that the cooked product would look anything like it, and doubtful that it would be any good in taste. One of the biggest problems with these cheap frozen dinners is that there isn’t enough to fill you up - whether or not it’s any good. I guess if it’s a DOLLAR only then like my friend said, you could just eat two per meal. Might even be good variety if you have two different types.

Anyhow, here’s a shot of what the meal looks like when it’s cooked (the color is slightly off, it was actually much more orange in color). One tip with any dinner that is so-called “fried” or is supposed to be crunchy. They will usually give instructions for Microwaving and Conventional Oven. Always use the Conventional Oven if you can spare the time! The results are amazingly different with the dry heat of the oven even though it takes more than twice the time.

The taste of this meal was surprisingly excellent. I mean, you can’t even say that you can just get your McDonald’s Chicken Nuggets for cheaper since those are 2 for $3 nowadays, which works out to $1.50 each for six. That doesn’t include the corn or french fries, so if the nuggets are comprable then this wins in all ways. The nuggets were crunchy and the breading was not bad. The meat is processed “dark meat”, like the old McNuggeets before they switched to white meat, which I actually like better. They were actually quite good with a bit of ketchup.

The fries were actually pretty crisp as well, tasted pretty much like normal crinkle cut fries but just slightly soggier. I wish there was more of them, but what do you expect. The corn was … well, corn. A little on the dry side, but at least you’re getting a vegetable here. Edible, but not great.

On the whole, I was damn impressed with this Chicken Nugget Banquet meal. At the price of a buck, you’re not going to beat it by eating in the drive through. I could see a bigger person eating two of these for lunch, but still, that’s only two bucks.

Cheap Eats Score: 9/10

(You might also want to read Part II: Banquet Salisbury Steak Meal and Part III: Banquet Fried Chicken Meal)