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There is no shortage of fresh and healthy articles here that we like to talk about, but there are those times when you just want to enjoy something fast and easy for dinner. And even though you could just as easily call for some Uber Pizza delivery, frozen pizza can be an alternative idea that appeals to most of us. Not too long ago, we tried an interesting idea to test out some of the popular brands of frozen pizza to see which one was best for any occasion.
Some of these brands, you might even have stashed away in your freezer and are wondering if they’re any good. Well, here’s what we found that makes them great and suggestions later to help make them even better. Just as a little spoiler alert, some of these pizzas weren’t exactly a good choice, but I’ll help guide you through the better qualities of what you can expect with these 8 brands of frozen pizza.
What most of the Baby Boomers’ remember is that frozen dinners were at-best good, if you put them in the oven. Most of the modern so-called frozen dinners are prepared in the microwave and aren’t very appealing. If not for the innovation of the frozen pizza that was first developed as early as the 1950s, it was all thanks to a flash-frozen dough that baked into some delicious crust when cooked n the oven.
Well, here we are in the 21st century and microwave pizza still isn’t reality so far. So that leaves us with frozen pizza options that might as well be considered part of our culture if not for new pizza cooking appliances. As you’ll agree, there is a right way and a wrong way to cook pizza in an oven or from new technology. But if you’re still new to plopping a frozen pizza down into your oven, not every brand is going to give you the desired result.
I would like to point out that not all of our frozen pizza candidates were upstanding citizens in the premade pizza category. Just as Blockbuster Video suffered a big loss to the innovation of discount DVDs and slashed Blue Ray prices, your average store-bought pizza might as well be used as a doorstop wedge. Good frozen pizza needs to have the flavor you expect from any pizzeria which always goes hand-in-hand with watching old videos on VHS…
That’s a hard act to follow since anything frozen under conventional methods does seem to lose something while under that cryogenic curse. But we weren’t swayed by opinion and stuck with our quest to see if there are actual flavors that stand out more than others. What doesn’t hold up can potentially be salvaged, if you’re looking to dine on a dime. But, we were looking to see the results of the most commonly found frozen pizzas you already know.
You’ll find a lot of the pizzas here are labeled supreme, but you might be misled from hearing about this title. Just because it’s called supreme doesn’t always mean it’s going to be filled with extra toppings. What you see is what you get unless you actually get the Freschetta Supreme, which is surprisingly supreme for most frozen pizza brands. Not only that, the rising crust actually does what everyone loves about real fresh dough pizzas.
The dough bakes into a tasty crust that still has a distinct fresh-baked flavor with a satisfying crunch. Although we found the center was a bit mushy, it would have been a good idea to use a pizza stone to get the best results. The sauce is just as tangy with a slight amount of spice and does have an original tomato taste. On top of that, the meats including the sausage and pepperoni were exceptionally pleasing.
Even though the veggie toppings were a bit bland, the cheese made this pizza into a medley of magic that pulls everything together. It goes without saying that this pizza hits the number 1 spot on our list.
Paul Newman might be the ultimate Butch Cassidy for one generation and a healthy food guru for another. It’s called harvest vegetable for a good reason but we have to say the multi-grain crust didn’t live up to its name. It tasted like every other pizza crust and bakes into a nice and chewy crust aside from a few charred edges. Perhaps it was our oven that caused the warping that reminds me of LP records that start getting wonky.
I have to say that the tomato sauce is really a highlight and genuinely full of flavor. You’ll also be clapping for that academy award-style appreciation when it comes to the toppings that are obviously as tasty as they appear on the box. The cheese is also pretty good but not like the gooey kind you might find at pizzerias and is a tad bit crumbly. If you’re a fan of mushrooms, this pizza topping favorite should be on your shopping list.
This isn’t exactly the same kind of crust as your average Prison Pizza, but I have to say it’s pretty thin and cracker-like and isn’t off-putting at all. What it does have is the adequate crunch that at times would be pretty bland if the pizza sauce didn’t come to the rescue. It’s rich in flavor and isn’t hard to taste the balsamic vinegar either. This pizza is nothing short of organic goodies with impressive cherry tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, and zucchini adding plenty of appeals.
The cheese was a bit bland even though it says two types of cheese are advertised. But, for the overall frozen pizza experience, you can get, better than most. We did find the crust seems to be pretty warpy and helps make the rest of the crust just as crispy. If you like crispy, this is a good deal for the price we paid.
Here is another prime example of a rising crust pizza that has gotten a lot of hype but we found it fell short of its purpose. It was certainly fluffy and puffs-up but doesn’t have any chew to it. Perhaps this was because we put ours into the oven while it was still frozen and didn’t develop any gluten as it rose. As for the sauce, it was way too sugary with not so much tomato flavor.
I wasn’t sure what these flavors were supposed to be, but they probably would appeal more to little kids than adults. When it comes to toppings, the pepperoni tasted faded and bland. The cheese was the only binding part that helped to make this pizza seem reasonable. DiGiorno is a pretty big name that is known for making decent frozen pizzas, but this rising curst version was just so-so for us.
This self-rising crust is another interesting point that this pizza has to offer. Had we let this thaw before putting it into the oven, it would have changed the outcome. We found that it baked very nicely but the center didn’t crisp as much as the outer edge did. I think it would have worked better to have a preheated pizza stone to fix this. As far as the sauce, it features a deep tomato flavor with just the right amount of spice added.
Where this pizza falls apart is the toppings that miss the whole point. There were peppers and onions, but honestly, you can’t tell them apart by taste if you had your eyes closed. I did like the cheese that does have a good chew, but it wasn’t covering the whole pizza as much as I would have liked. Aside from that, Kroger can’t be beaten if you make some adjustments.
We found that Red Baron does a very nice job at getting a crispy bottom crust with the rest being most chewy and a little bland. If you like sweet sauces, this one hits the mark. It seems the taste is just one level at best and could have been better. Thankfully, the topping makes up for that with meats that taste great. I wish I could say the same for the cheese and veggies which were tasteless and the cheese doesn’t melt as normal cheese should.
That wasn’t so much the problem since there isn’t much of that cheese on the pizza to start with, so you’re better off adding your own. You might as well add some fresh veggie toppings while you’re at it which would ultimately make this much better.
Tony’s is another interesting pizza brand that gives both a crunchy and chewy pizza crust, yet oddly this is a thin crust pizza! You don’t really feel the crust much and the taste is hardly much to praise. This goes hand in hand with the sauce too, which made me wonder why this pizza brand sells so well. Had it not been for the pepperoni that was making up for most of the flavor, you wouldn’t think the sausage was doing anything other than being texture.
The veggies were actually just as bland and acted like a grease magnet. It would be easier to find a needle in a haystack than it is to find a good pile of cheese on this pizza as well. I wouldn’t recommend this brand unless you want to fix it up with other extras. It’s probably not worth the waste in this case.
They should have called this pizza Yea Right’ instead of Real Good’ because this was the worst on our list. It’s one of those cauliflower crusts that is all the rage these days with so many folks. This is about as close to Prison Pizza crust as it gets with a distinct flavor that reminds me of Ritz crackers. The cheese was good by itself but just tastes bad with the pizza as a whole.
Our dog didn’t like the smell of pizza which is enough to tell you not to buy this brand. So at least you’ve been pre-warned.
We’ve talked about adding extra toppings and cheese to your pizza in addition to using a good pizza stone. But when it comes to pimping your pizza, there are some rules that you need to know. It might be the single time that you’re boring frozen pizza can become the king of the hill.
I know that your home oven isn’t going to be like the professional pizza ovens since it wasn’t made to reach past 500 degrees Fahrenheit. But what you should do is heat your oven to the highest setting with direct heat from above. Your pizza needs to go on the lowest rack so the heat will circulate mostly over the top and heats your pizza stone better while preheating.
I don’t have to tell you that cooking frozen food is a terrible idea. If you defrost chicken and meat before cooking it, then obviously defrosting a pizza is a good idea as well. This helps to get the self-rising dough to start activating when it reaches room temperature too. But the real reason is to have a thawed surface to pick away items that you might want to rearrange and add toppings on afterward.
Compound butter is pre-flavored butter that contains herbs and spices that you normally don’t find at the supermarket. It’s really easy to make and most people who make compound butter never go back to regular butter ever again. Compound butter is excellent for adding to pizza crust five minutes before you remove it from the oven. Just be careful when adding this to the edge of your pizza by rotating the pizza using your pizza peel.
There’s nothing wrong with adding spices and flavors to your pizza but one thing you don’t want to do is add salt. This isn’t advised since the flavors that bake in the oven will start to mingle. Added salt will not only start to seep into your pizza crust, it will end up tasting too salty for any sauce that’s added likewise. Besides this, it’s a general rule that pizza should never have salt added on top since it interferes with the toppings that are added.
