11 Frozen Hashbrown Brands Ranked, Worst To Best

Whether featured as a breakfast favorite, heated up for a dinner dish, or used as a base in a savory bake, frozen hash browns are supremely versatile and helpful to have on hand. When creating even an easy hash brown recipe from scratch means taking on more work than you're willing to put in, having a bag of frozen potatoes that are already shredded or diced and ready to go can save your meal. And though you may hold the opinion that hash browns taste better in restaurants, cooking up frozen hash browns at home is often far easier than heading out to a nearby eatery, especially when time is tight and hunger is high.

Luckily for shoppers with cravings and a tender spot in their hearts for hash browns, there are plenty of freezer-friendly packages that put the magic of cook-and-eat goodness at their frosty fingertips. But it's unlikely they'll find the same quality across the spectrum. Consider the fact that there are pricier name brands like Ore-Ida and McCain vying with house labels like Great Value and Kroger for the lion's share of the cold storage aisle. 

To help make the experience more satisfying, we tested and ranked a variety of store-bought frozen hash browns, gauging them by shape and form while testing for cookability, taste, texture, and overall enjoyment. Pull up a seat and see what our sizzling hash brown hullabaloo reveals about the best and worst takes on these tempting taters.

Anyone thinking there's only one acceptable way to slice potatoes into hash browns should keep an open mind about cubed potatoes like the Great Value Southern Style Hash Browns that Walmart keeps on hand. We found a two-pound bag for less than $4.00 in our area, though prices may vary by locale. Though cubed potatoes feel more like a distant cousin of real hash browns, the name on the bag said that these were hash browns, indeed. Far be it from us to decide otherwise. So we brought them onboard for a taste and a chance to see what they had to offer.

What a misstep on our part. These diced taters are tiny and super pale out of the bag, and they didn't achieve the golden glow as shown in the photo on the package, even after time in the oven. So much for truth in advertising. There's an underlying sweetness in these diced potatoes that made us uncomfortable, too. Granted, different potatoes produce different flavors, even in the world of frozen hash browns. But our version of proper hash browns is earthy and subtle, without the dubious distinction of the sugary aftertaste that Great Value's potatoes had. We put these very low on the list because we expect better from our hash brown experiences. Plus, now we have a space-hogging bag of sadness in our freezer that isn't going to eat itself.

The visual impact of Kroger Southern Style Diced Hash Browns gives a more homemade image to these time-tested tubers, coming across as something that was prepared with more care than potatoes simply pushed through a grater en masse and dropped into a frying pan. A two-pound bag for the solid price of $4.00 (a price that is possibly different in your location) makes a premium purchase that lets you feed a crowd all at once or dole out a few hash browns here and there over a few weeks. So are they worth the expense, even at the stellar price point?

If there's a more culinary-specific description possible than "nothing special," we'd love to know what it is. It would help us better qualify these utterly bland hash browns. They lacked personality from the time they left the bag, gaining nothing from being cooked. The surface is too small to pick up proper crisping without getting burned, for one. If you're cautious enough to prevent turning them to ash, all you get is a forkful of soft squares staring back at you. We swear we could hear the pan yawn out of boredom. Since we consider those to be bad signs in the world of frozen hash browns, that put Kroger Southern Style pretty far south on the list.

McCain is a bulk food provider that offers smaller quantities of its hash brown patties in grocery stores for potato fans to sink their teeth into. The company offers McCain Quick Cook Hashbrowns Patties in a 12-patty bag, sold at Albertsons for about $5.00. We suspect we've eaten McCain hash browns at restaurants, many of which likely carry this brand without calling out the name on the menu. Maybe that familiarity is a good thing.

Then again, maybe not. While McCain didn't dazzle us with its hash browns, we still found these patties relatively enjoyable. The bag boasts that these patties cook up in nine quick minutes and don't require flipping, making it even easier to get them heated and served when your schedule is nipping at your heels. But the taste and texture remind us of tater tots, and not exactly in a good way: a little greasy, a bit mushy. This may make them a great option for younger eaters with palates that aren't as discerning. The quick-cook and non-flip convenience helps this hash brown levitate to the center point of our round-up, but you may still be disappointed by the taste and texture.

A lesser-known brand that showed up next to the bigger names in the freezer case, Glacier Gold Hash Brown Patties was a hash brown revelation we weren't expecting. This 10-count pack hadn't been on our original shopping list, but once we found these patties in the Albertsons frozen potato section, we knew we had to find out what they were all about. The unassuming box was hiding behind bigger bags like a wallflower. Perhaps this was unintentional, and the heavier options ended up sliding the smaller fries to the back of the case. Even in the world of frozen hash browns, it could be that survival is achieved by the pushiest of specimens.

When we tasted what was waiting in the package, however, we were glad we spotted this unassuming spud. There's a richness in Glacier Gold patties that we didn't find in the others, a more restaurant-ready element that nudged them higher on the list. The texture was delicate and even, something that could be tested if we were willing to fry them longer to achieve a bolder shell. But we loved what this patty offered, and though it isn't the best of the bunch, it's such a pleasant surprise that we had to give it a prominent place in the top four. Take that, Albertson's freezer case.

You can always count on Walmart to wedge its way into the premade food section with its own Great Value versions of better-known brands. And so it is with Great Value Shredded Hash Browns, the sensible shopper's affordable option for including proper potato hash in their quest for frugal home dining possibilities. While there are definitely some Great Value items you should avoid, shredded hash browns are one option you can happily add to your shopping list. But does this 26-ounce bag hold its own against other brands you could pick up instead? Does Great Value defy its price hovering just below $4.00 to prove itself a quality player in the freezer-friendly potato game?

This bag is one of the best hash brown choices you can make — way to go, Great Value! The super-shredded pieces cook up loose, which lets more of the shreds become crispy, almost like shoestring potatoes. Pressed together in the pan, they also clung to one another in semi-patty form, which means you can easily customize your finished browns. We were happy to have a bit of both crisp and tender so we could confirm that Great Value gets it darn near perfect. It's just that one bag was able to do it a little bit better.

We started with the bigger names in the hash brown game, favorites like Ore-Ida and McCain, then sought out store label options from grocery biggies Walmart, Kroger, and Albertsons. Some brands offer only shredded, while others provide patties, cubes, and O'Brien style, cubes with a blend of onions and peppers added for flavor. Once we had our picks, we noted which cooked quickest and best before sampling each package for taste, texture, and overall enjoyment using factors like how well the hash held up under heat and whether patty, shredded, or cubed form fared better than others.