Matt claims that the Hungry-Man Beer Battered Chicken is the best chicken ever, while I disagree and say the Banquet Chicken Fingers (formally the Boneless Chicken) is the best chicken ever. Here I tried both and this is what I found out about the meals.

First up was the Hungry-Man Beer Battered Chicken & Cheese Fries. With a whole pound of food, it's definitely going to fill you up. The chicken and the fries were excellent.

Second I had the Banquet Chicken Fingers Meal. Of course I've had this many times before, but I wanted to eat another one for this experiment (actually it was just another excuse to eat one of these). Though this meal is smaller than the Hungry-Man dinner, it was still great. The meal comes with chicken strips, french fries, and a brownie, which were all excellent.

The first thing you'll notice when you pick up the boxes in the store is that the Banquet box is much smaller than the Hungry-Man box. They call it "Hungry-Man" for a reason, it's supposed to be bigger. The Hungry-Man dinner is 16oz., or 454g, while the Banquet meal is 7.1oz., or 201g. The Banquet dinner is less than half the size of the Hungry-Man dinner. If that's really a problem, just eat two of the Banquet meals.

Once you get the boxes home and start to cook them, you'll notice a big difference in the way they are cooked. The Banquet meal you put in for 2 to 3 1/2 minutes and then it's done. That's not the case for the Hungry-Man meal. For that one, you have to remove the chicken and and cook the cheese fries for 3min, then put the chicken back into the tray and cook for another 5 to 9 minutes. First of all, removing the chicken was a lot harder than it seemed. Because the Hungry-Man dinner does not have seperators on it's tray like the Banquet dinner has, the chicken and cheese fries got somewhat mixed together before it ever reached me. I got all the pieces of chicken out but one, because it was stuck hardcore in the frozen cheese. I had to cook the fries and everything for 1 min, so then the cheese would be a little warmer and easier to manage. Using a fork, I finally ripped the chicken piece out but it was covered in cheese. I scrapped the cheese back into the tray, and then cooked the food the rest of the way the box said. All this preporation is tedious and annoying when you are starving for food, but if it is really good, it doesn't really matter.

Obviously the main question everyone has for this battle is "which one tastes better?" so I'm going to try and describe the tastes of both now. The Hungry-Man Beer Battered Chicken tasted great. The white meat chicken was juicy and tender and the crust was crunchy and pretty tasty. The Cheese Fries that came with it were smothered in so much cheese, it was incredible. The Banquet Chicken Fingers were amazing. Each chicken finger was so juicy that it basically melts in your mouth as you bite down. A person with no teeth probably could eat this chicken with no troubles because it is so juicy. The breading is a thin layer of a very unique, delicious flavor. There's something in the breading that gives it an extra kick, and I'm not 100% sure but I think it is paprika. Anyway, the fries were pretty good, though there were so few of them and most of them were greasy and stuck together. The brownie was great (of course), and it tasted like most brownies taste. It was warm and chocolatey. It was very good.

One of the greatest things about TV dinners is that they are cheap. But, some TV dinners are cheaper than others. The Banquet meals you can find on sale all the time. We have seen them as low as $.79 a box. Whenever they are on sale, you stock up. Well, even if they aren't on sale, the price of the Hungry-Man dinner is much more than the price of the Banquet dinner.

Of course neither Matt nor I can be wrong or right on which is the better chicken, because it is a matter of opinion. However, I can still stay true with my opinion and tell you now that the Banquet Chicken Fingers tasted better than the Hungry-Man Beer Battered Chicken. But, the Hungry-Man Cheese Fries I would have prefered over Banquet's fries and brownie. My final decision is this, if you are looking for something to fill you up and tastes pretty good, and you aren't worried about the price, go for the Hungry-Man Beer Battered Chicken meal. If you are looking for the best tasting chicken ever (IMO), and you are not too worried about having to eat two or so, and/or on a limited budget, then get the Banquet Chicken Fingers.