Banquet is really making a push to get noticed in freezer aisles, it would seem. They’ve put out several Mega lines, with huge letters that really draw your eye when you’re shopping. We’ve tried some of the Mega Meats, several of the Mega Bowls, and even one of their Mega Pizza options. But they also have a line called Mega Meals, which we haven’t had the chance to check out quite yet.
That changes today, folks, as we take a gander at the Banquet Country Fried Chicken Mega Meal. In fact, we’re going to take more than a gander; we’re going to take a big ol’ taste and see how this stacks up against other similar meals.
As it turns out, this used to be a Mega Bowl. We’re not sure if the Mega Bowl was phased out to make room for the Mega Meal version, or if the Mega Bowl is still available. We never tried the Mega Bowl, so if we end up seeing one somewhere, we’ll be sure to pick it up and give that a taste as well.
Anyway, cooking this is simple, but it takes a good amount of time. In the microwave, this takes seven to eight minutes, which means you might not want to bring it to work if you have long lines for the microwave in your breakroom. And if you really want to extend your cooking time, you could instead use a conventional oven, which will take 40+ minutes. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
This meal includes some breaded chicken doused in gravy, along with a side of bacon mac and cheese. What makes it so mega? Well, it has not one but two pieces of chicken.
Now, this chicken isn’t terrible, but it’s not amazing either. It’s just kind of alright. It has a halfway decent consistency, and the flavor ain’t bad. However, the breading turns into slime in the gravy, which we find to be kind of unappealing. No, it’s not a dealbreaker, but it’s also not ideal.
The gravy is just alright as well. There’s a weird black pepper flavor to it, and we’re not sure if this is the product of using too much actual black pepper or if it’s a side effect of some other flub on the part of Banquet. Either way, it’s a little bit off-putting.
There’s a fairly generous portion of mac and cheese here, but it’s not great — especially if you compare it against something like the Devour White Cheddar Mac & Cheese with Bacon, which is fantastic. The Banquet macaroni, unfortunately, doesn’t have a lot of flavor, and the bacon flavor tastes fake, like they just put a bunch of liquid smoke into the sauce to make you think you can taste the bacon when you actually can’t. Banquet did add some extra cheese to it, though, so there’s a nice, stretchy quality to it, so it at least has that going for it.
This is not a diet-friendly meal. When Banquet created the Mega line, they certainly went all in on the calorie content and sodium. This meal contains 620 calories and a whopping 2,830 mg of sodium. Yikes!
The Banquet Country Fried Chicken Mega Meal might be mega in terms of quantity, but that comes at the expense of quality. This meal isn’t bad; it’s just okay. And if you’re going to put 3,000 mg of sodium into your body, you probably want something that’s more than just okay.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen meal, check out our package scans below.
