The views expressed in this Opinion article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.
With the weather getting increasingly frigid outside, I like to make sure I have a variety of frozen meals like lasagna and chicken dishes in my freezer just in case I get trapped or snowed into my apartment and don't have access to the grocery store.
During a recent trip to Walmart, No Frills and Loblaws in the West End of Toronto, I decided to compare various brands of frozen chicken Alfredo's as it's the perfect creamy, comforting dish to pop in the microwave or oven while there's freezing rain outside or after you've come in from a frosty commute after work and just need something warm and hearty.
I ended up with Healthy Choice Grilled Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo, Swanson Alfredo Chicken Skillet Meal, Boston Market Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, Michelina's Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken & Broccoli and Marie Callender's Creamy Chicken Alfredo.
I'll be rating each dish out of 5 in terms of how much I enjoyed it and how likely I am to buy it again, and one of the frozen meals will be getting a permanent spot in my freezer because it tastes like delicious, restaurant-quality fettuccine Alfredo.
Michelina's Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken & Broccoli
Michelina's Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken & Broccoli, $2.28 for 227 grams.
Michelina's Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken & Broccoli is by far the cheapest dish I tried out of all of them, and while I very much appreciate that times are tough and saving money is very important right now, I cannot in good conscience recommend this dish.
The portion size of this is very, very small — like, I'm not a very big eater and I'd say this falls more into the snack category than meal category as there's maybe five full bites of food here and one floret of broccoli.
The flavour is just alright, but overall it's somewhat watery and reminds me more of the kind of noodles with butter that you serve to kids rather than an elevated and yummy rich dish.
Rating: 1/5
Price: $2.28 for 227 grams
Price per 100 grams: $1.00
Marie Callender's Creamy Chicken Alfredo
Marie Callender's Creamy Chicken Alfredo, $10.99 for 680 grams.
I'd never tried anything from Marie Callender before and I'm sad to say that I wasn't impressed by their Creamy Chicken Alfredo, although it looked very delicious.
While there was a good portion of broccoli and chicken in the dish, it was overall quite watery despite my attempts to stir it up and get everything to incorporate. The flavour is somewhat better than Michelina but the breadcrumbs really did a disservice to this meal - they were weirdly sweet and failed to add any texture to the noodles and I found myself avoiding them.
Rating: 1.5/5
Price: $10.99 for 680 grams
Price per 100 grams: $1.62
Healthy Choice Grilled Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo
Healthy Choice Grilled Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo, $5.32 for 259 grams.
When I bought the Healthy Choice Grilled Chicken & Broccoli Alfredo, I totally thought there were noodles included, but that is entirely my own fault for not reading the package properly.
That being said, I was more impressed with this dish than I thought I would be given that it's a "healthy" option and didn't have pasta in it.
Although it's only a little bit bigger than the Michelina version, it felt much heartier and seemed like something that might fill me up, unlike the earlier dish. The broccoli also held up surprisingly well in the microwave and didn't turn into total mush, which is also a plus.
That being said, the sauce was pretty "meh" and didn't do much to flavour either the veg or protein, so it really just felt like three separate ingredients thrown together, none of which did anything for each other and therefore it isn't getting a passing grade from me.
Rating: 2/5
Price: $5.32 for 259 grams
Price per 100 grams: $2.05
Swanson Alfredo Chicken Skillet Meal Family Size
Swanson Alfredo Chicken Skillet Meal Family Size, $12.28 for 1.19 kilograms.
If you're shopping based on value, I'd say the Swanson Alfredo Chicken Skillet Meal Family Size is the winner given that it works out to a pretty good price per 100 grams and comes in a very large format.
Unlike the other dishes, this meal is cooked on the stove and I think that helped get rid of some of the excess wateriness that I found unappealing in the other dishes and helped the sauce to cling to the other ingredients.
I really enjoyed the flavour of this sauce; it had a nice pronounced garlic flavour and almost a smokey, bacon taste that I found intriguing.
There was a really substantial amount of vegetables and the addition of the carrot added some fun sweetness, and the chicken was plentiful and came in big chunks.
I'm very into this dish, but it personally might not be the one I'd buy again as you do have to cook the entire thing all at once and that's simply too much of the same food for me to have in my fridge all week.
But if I was feeding a crowd? This is definitely the dish I'm grabbing.
Rating: 4/5
Price: $12.28 for 1.19 kilograms
Price per 100 grams: $1.21
Boston Market Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo
Boston Market Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo, $5.86 for 369g.
And first place goes to another brand I'd never tried before: Boston Market's Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo.
As soon as my partner and I tasted it, we looked at each other and knew this was the one.
This sauce is delicious, rich, and velvety and, unlike most of the others, it was fully incorporated and didn't break apart when it was heated.
This meal genuinely tastes like something you can get at a restaurant, and for $5.86, you bet it's getting a permanent spot in my freezer.
Rating: 5/5
Price: $5.86
Price per 100 grams: $1.59
These prices are confirmed at the time of publishing, but they can change at any time. Taxes and fees may not be included.