We Style-Examined 17 Frozen Pizzas—Right here Are the Winners

I’ll cook dinner and write about meals for a residing, however there are lots of evenings when I’m just too exhausted to organize a meal from scratch. Typically dinner is a snacking affair of greens and dip or cheese and crackers, and generally dinner is…a frozen cheese pizza stashed away in my freezer for a wet day. It’s a handy and inexpensive meal, and relying on the pizza you purchase, it may be adequate to scratch that pizza itch in a pinch.

With many manufacturers out there within the freezer aisle, it may be laborious to know that are value stocking in your freezer. Given the much more dizzying variety of topping choices on frozen pies, we restricted this take a look at to traditional tomato-and-cheese pizzas (or “margherita” pies as they’re generally marketed), pulling collectively 17 completely different frozen pies you’re prone to discover in your native grocery store and placing them to the take a look at.

After slicing and tasting our method by the contenders, we discovered an total winner we’d be completely happy to pop into the oven a few times every week. We’ve additionally compiled an inventory of another very strong pies we heartily suggest, together with pies for lovers of cheese, sauce, and extra.

The Standards

As with contemporary pizzeria pies, the factors for what makes an awesome pizza is deeply private. Some folks love a skinny crust, some love New York-style pies, and a few desire Neapolitan pizzas. Some need a good coating of cheese, whereas others are proud of islands of gooey melted mozzarella floating in a skinny slick of tomato sauce.

Although our editors all have completely different opinions on what makes a wonderful pizza, all of us agree that pizza crust shouldn’t be soggy or limp, nor robust or overly chewy, and there must be an acceptable ratio of sauce and cheese to pizza. There’s no ideally suited ratio, however it’s clear when some pies lack sauce, cheese, or each. The sauce, in the meantime, must be tomato-forward, well-seasoned, and have a delicate sweetness and tang.

Total Winner: Kirkland Signature Cheese Pizza

Costco’s Kirkland Signature Cheese Pizza ticked all of the bins: It had sufficient sauce, plentiful cheese, and a crust with good spring. Of the 17 pizzas we tasted, it was the one one which glad virtually all of our choosy editors who all had very particular pizza preferences. Virtually everybody commented on how thick and bready the pizza dough was: Each Amanda Suarez, our affiliate visuals director, and Sabrina Tan, our artwork director, thought it was the proper mixture of crisp and doughy. Others, nonetheless, thought it was a contact too bready and verged on the dry facet. Nonetheless, this pizza was appropriately tacky and had a sauce that reminded our editorial director Daniel Gritzer of a “traditional” New York slice, which is one of the best type of praise.

A four-pack of this pizza price us simply $14.42 from Costco; at simply $3.60 per pie, our winner additionally occurs to be essentially the most inexpensive of all of the pizzas we tried.

Runners Up: Our Favourite Frozen Pizzas

The Finest Pizza for Cheese Lovers: Newman’s Personal Skinny & Crispy 4 Cheese Pizza

“Very tacky,” “fairly tacky,” and “a lot cheese” are simply a number of the evaluations Newman’s Personal Skinny & Crispy 4 Cheese Pizza acquired from our editors. Whereas there was loads of good cheese protection right here, some tasters thought it was a contact too salty, and Daniel thought the cheese tasted a bit of aged…which doesn’t should be a nasty factor, if you’d like a bit of funk in your pizza.

The Finest Pizza for Sauce Aficionados: Screamin’ Sicilian Skinny & Crispy Cheese Pizza

This pizza reminded our govt editorial director Tess Koman of Chuck-E Cheese pizza in one of the simplest ways attainable: It was saucy and had sufficient cheese to make her go “heck yeah” within the feedback (the remainder of us aren’t positive we have ever mentioned “heck yeah” about one thing that reminds us of Chuck-E Cheese pizza, however we get what she meant). Our social media editor Kelli Solomon thought the sauce was “plentiful,” and Sabrina thought this had an awesome sauce to cheese ratio. Whereas this pizza didn’t skimp on the sauce, it was a bit of missing within the dough division, and a few of our editors complained that the dough was “barely current” and barely chalky in texture.

The Finest Pizza for Dough Lovers: DiGiorno’s 4 Cheese Pizza

DiGiorno, it appears to be like like you’ve got followers: Our editors all thought this pizza had sufficient sauce and cheese, and Tess thought this was “FAR AND AWAY essentially the most substantive and satisfying” crust. Primarily based on our editors’ evaluations, this pizza tasted the best way we thought a frozen pizza ought to: “That is what I anticipate from a frozen pizza conceptually,” Amanda wrote, and Sabrina raved that it had an “iconic frozen pizza taste” and “scrumptious” crust.

The Finest Margherita Pizza: Roberta’s Margherita

“This cheese is the actual deal!” Kelli exclaimed. “Not homogeneously distributed, however that provides it a Neapolitan-style vibe.” A number of folks complimented the pizza on its nice chewiness and delicate tang, and our affiliate editorial director Megan O. Steintrager appreciated that the sauce was “tomato ahead” with a “good tart edge.”

The Finest Pizza If You Need Heaps and Plenty of Herbs: Dr. Oetker 4 Cheese Pizza

Our editors loved the flavour of this pizza, although everybody thought Dr. Oetker was a bit of heavy handed with the herbs. Tess thought it tasted “extra herb than anything,” whereas Daniel discovered it “oregano-y.” Whereas this wasn’t the proper pie for all of our editors, it is perhaps for you—particularly should you respect an herbaceous kick.

The Contenders

• Amy’s Kitchen Margherita Pizza
• California Pizza Kitchen Skinny Crust 4 Cheese Pizza
• DiGiorno Conventional Crust 4 Cheese Pizza
• Dr. Oetker 4 Cheese Pizza
• Ellio’s Cheese Pizza
• Kirkland Signature Cheese Pizza
• La Rossi Margherita Pizza
• Lean Delicacies Protein Kick 4 Cheese Pizza
• Newman’s Personal Skinny & Crispy 4 Cheese Pizza
• Porta Margherita Pizza
• Rao’s Brick Oven Crust 5 Cheese Pizza
• Purple Baron Traditional Crust 4 Cheese Pizza
• Roberta’s Margherita Wooden Fired Pizza
• Screamin’ Sicilian Skinny & Crispy Cheese Pizza
• Goal’s Good & Collect Signature Wooden-Fired Margherita Pizza
• Dealer Joe’s Natural Three Cheese Pizza
• City Pie Pizza Co. Frozen Eight Cheeses Skinny Artisan Crust Pizza

In Conclusion

Going by the style take a look at outcomes, it was very apparent that everybody had very completely different pizza preferences. Some tasters sought out pronounced herbs of their sauce, whereas others didn’t get pleasure from that in any respect. Some liked a nostalgic tasting slice that reminded them of the pizza bagels they loved as youngsters, whereas others detested something that might have handed for a center schooler’s lunch.

Total, nonetheless, our editors most popular pies with easy, tomato-forward sauces that weren’t too candy and had been gentle on basil and oregano. Aside from Roberta’s margherita pizza, our favorites had been all “4 cheese” pizzas. Whereas the sorts of cheeses included assorted, all of them contained mozzarella—some full-fat, some skim.

In the end, all the highest frozen pizzas are ones most of us could be completely happy to maintain within the freezer for a fast, straightforward meal, able to reheat at a second’s discover.

Our Testing Methodology

All style exams are carried out with manufacturers fully hidden and with out dialogue. Tasters style samples in random order. For instance, taster A could style pattern 1 first, whereas taster B will style pattern 6 first. That is to stop palate fatigue from unfairly giving anybody pattern a bonus. Tasters are requested to fill out tasting sheets rating the samples for numerous standards. All knowledge is tabulated and outcomes are calculated with no editorial enter to be able to give us essentially the most neutral illustration of precise outcomes attainable.