Frozen Friday: Hungry-Man - Roasted Carved Turkey Dinner

The turkey frozen dinner has been around for as long as I can remember and Hungry-Man's Roasted Carved White Meat Turkey dinner stays true to the classic formula with slices of turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet corn, and an apple cranberry dessert. Retail price on this one is $3.69.

While the classic turkey frozen dinner often had a slice or two of dark meat thrown in with the white, Hungry-Man follows the modern trend of the food industry towards healthier white meat and has done away with the dark slices.

I've always been disturbed by the fact that the turkey slices resemble nothing more than uncured slices of turkey ham; it just felt like I could pop open a package of round turkey ham, halve the slices, throw them in some gravy and get the same result. While other brands have gone with less processed looking turkey, Hungry-Man stays with the slices of old and leaves me with the same disturbed feeling.

The turkey and stuffing can easily dry out in cooking depending on gravy coverage leading to wildly inconsistent bits of both with some pieces being dry and others being outright soggy. Taste-wise, the turkey retains enough flavor to satisfy but the texture is a bit lacking.

The corn and mashed potatoes turned out quite well though. Corn seems to be the best vegetable for microwave cooking; it doesn't appear to suffer the sogginess and over-doneness of other vegetables like carrots and broccoli.

The exposed, non-gravy pieces can get dry and harden a bit.

The apple cranberry dessert was pretty decent; I wouldn't fight anyone over it but the apples adds a crunch and good counterbalance to the more sour and slightly bitter cranberries.

With better tasting and more advanced frozen foods available nowadays, the Hungry-Man Roasted Carved Turkey dinner seems more like an outdated relic, good only if you're really fiending for some frozen nostalgia or turkey.

Nutritional Info - Hungry-Man Roasted Carved Turkey Dinner (17-ounces)
Calories - 540 (from Fat - 140)
Fat - 15g (Saturated Fat - 4.5g)
Sodium - 1600mg
Carbs - 79g (Sugar - 23g)
Protein - 21g