Chicken Nuggets, French Toast Sticks, and 7 Other Frozen Foods You Should Never Cook in the Microwave

Microwaves are one of the most convenient kitchen appliances you can own. But there are plenty of things you should never even put in them, from certain foods to aluminum foil. (If you don’t know why you should avoid foil, Google it instead of testing the theory yourself.) Even frozen foods, which many of us believe are made for the microwave, have limitations. Here are nine frozen foods you shouldn’t cook in the microwave.

1. Pizza

Unless you’re into soggy bottomed, overly doughy pizza with absolutely no crisp to it, stick to the oven when cooking frozen pizza. These pies are not meant for the microwave unless you’ve already cooked them in the oven once and are merely reheating a leftover slice (even then, that’s not our favorite way to reheat pizza). 

2. Raw Meat

It says right on the package of products like frozen stuffed chicken breasts that you’re not supposed to heat them in the microwave. That would be because they’re raw, folks. Please don’t attempt to cook any form of raw meat in the microwave. The appliance heats foods unevenly, and is therefore unreliable when it comes to ensuring meat is cooked thoroughly to temperature. 

3. French Toast Sticks

Frozen french toast sticks are a cheap and easy breakfast go-to, and although the package says you can reheat them in the microwave, they’re ten times better in the oven — plus, they only take a few minutes to cook. In the microwave, you’ll wind up with a soggy, limp french toast stick that doesn’t hold up as well during syrup dunking.

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4. Waffles

The term “frozen waffles” is interchangeable with “toaster waffles,” and that’s because the only way you should be heating these bad boys up is in some sort of toaster or toaster oven. Otherwise, you’ll be met with a sad, soggy breakfast. Microwaving a frozen waffle should be illegal. 

Related: Best Frozen Waffles: We Tried 8 — These Are the Best

5. Chicken Nuggets

In a pinch, it’s easy and acceptable to pop some frozen nuggies into the microwave for a couple minutes, but the texture you’d achieve in an air fryer or oven is blatantly superior. For optimal dipping, we like our chicken nuggets to have a bit of crisp and crunch to them, which is impossible to achieve in the microwave.

Related: Forget McDonald’s: These Are the Best (and Worst) Frozen Chicken Nuggets

6. Lasagna

This is a great way to ruin a lasagna, and ruining a lasagna is not something we stand for here at Cheapism. An unevenly heated microwaved lasagna is practically inedible, guys. Don’t do this.

7. French Fries

What kind of maniac would throw some frozen french fries into the microwave? Are they boiling their burgers, too? The microwave will activate the water molecules in the french fries and create a soggy stick of tater that can’t even be saved with ketchup.

8. Quiche

Again, because microwaves don’t evenly distribute heat, if you try and microwave an entire frozen quiche, you’re living on a prayer. The center will undoubtedly still be cold, and the texture of the pie crust will most definitely disappoint. 

9. Fish Sticks

Microwaving frozen fish sticks is like throwing them back into the body of water they came from. They’ll be wet, soppy, slimy, soggy, and the tarter sauce will slide right off of them. No thanks.