Gordon Ramsay's Best Frozen Dinner Is A Classic

In August 2023, chef Gordon Ramsay released a line of eight frozen dinners to be sold exclusively at Walmart. This move was a shock considering how, previously, Ramsay said he couldn't stand frozen meals. Maybe he had a change of heart, or maybe you don't need to like frozen meals to sell them. Mashed sat down with high expectations (this is chef Ramsay, after all) and a tentative appetite to rank Ramsay's frozen dinners, known as the By Chef Ramsay collection. Spoiler alert: Let this ranking save you the bother, because the chicken pot pie is the one worth trying. The rest? You can live without them.

Mashed ranked the frozen dinners according to flavor, texture, and quality (aka, how eager we were to take a second bite). If Ramsay gets to apply his notoriously high standards to every "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Hell's Kitchen" episode out there, then it's only fair that we applied the same standards to By Chef Ramsay. At the same time, frozen food has never been a go-to for those in search of fresh ingredients and vibrant flavors. So, the chicken pot pie defied expectations in a way. It consists of white chicken meat, carrots, peas, and mushrooms floating in a creamy sauce that's encased in puff pastry. It was filling, comforting, and worth a coveted spot in your freezer.

Read more: The Untold Truth Of Kitchen Nightmares

Customers Like Baking The Pie In The Oven

For a frozen dish, the chicken pot pie was full of warmth. The interior featured a maximally savory, gravy-like sauce that lusciously coated a balanced medley of chicken and veggies. The puff pastry crust on top was a pleasant surprise. It retained its crispiness through cooking and provided essential textural contrast to the creamy mixture beneath.

According to the cooking instructions, this pie can be cooked for 5 to 6 minutes in the microwave or 40 to 45 minutes in the oven. Gordon Ramsay can't stand microwaves, because they're for "lazy cooks," as he told Insider, but lazy meals and frozen food go hand in hand. So, is the microwave or oven a better option?

The chicken pot pie has garnered over 600 reviews from Walmart customers (over 200 of whom awarded the pie 5 stars). Reviews reporting on success in the microwave varied, with some claiming the microwave led to a chewy consistency and others praising its flaky crust. Even though oven-using reviewers reported overall flakiness, the biggest complaint was how long the oven took. "Yes it takes awhile, but, [the oven] definitely was worth it," one reviewer wrote. Even if it means sacrificing flaky crust, those running low on time can still get flavorful results and tender chicken with the microwave.

Read the original article on Mashed.