The Once-Popular Fried Chicken TV Dinner No One Talks About Anymore

In the 1950s, C.A. Swanson & Son came out with the first at-home frozen TV dinners. For years, Gerry Thomas, a salesman for Swanson, was credited with the invention, but recently, a former employee threw a spanner in the works by suggesting that company owners, Gilbert and Clarke Swanson, brought the TV dinner concept to the table. Either way, the first complete frozen meals marketed as TV dinners were made and advertised by Swanson, and a year after launching the first dinner in the line (featuring turkey), Swanson's fried chicken dinners exploded onto the market. For a while, TV dinners went from strength to strength; whether you grew up in the '60s or the early 2000s, there's a good chance you remember the frozen meal era. In 2004, the market was still worth $1.4 billion annually. We might not be talking about them much these days, but many of us were brought up by TV dinners! 

The once-famous Swanson Fried Chicken TV dinner featured three pieces of "preferred" chicken, whipped potatoes, and vegetables. The dessert was often a seasonal fruit pie or cobbler. A microwaved fried chicken dinner might sound a little suspect; keeping things crispy and golden would be difficult. Luckily, early TV dinners were made for the oven. They came in foil trays and needed 40 minutes cooking before they were ready to eat. According to Reddit, there was an additional step. A foil covering over the chicken had to be removed after 15 minutes for perfect crispiness. Apparently, this worked, justifying the '60s slogan that claimed Swanson, "Know[s] the special secret of crispy fried chicken." At around $1 per dinner at launch, Swanson's Fried Chicken TV dinners would probably give Uber Eats and KFC a run for their money if they were still in the U.S. today.

Probably due to the company's TV dinner success, Campbell's snatched up Swanson in 1955. The company kept its name, but the term "TV dinner" was dropped by the mid-'60s, when eating in front of the TV started to seem like laziness rather than luxury. Still, the concept remained, and sales were strong. Swanson continued to release new and exciting meal options, all available in the frozen aisle, including something called a "Polynesian Style Dinner". Their Fried Chicken Dinner was a fighter, remaining part of the line through the microwave revolution of the 1980s and far beyond (although Redditors insist it was still better in the oven). 

Swanson frozen meals were discontinued in 2009, eight years after its parent company filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Pinnacle Brands. But apparently, you can't keep a good chicken dinner down. Conagra Foods bought Pinnacle in 2018 and relaunched Swanson's frozen meals in Canada. Interestingly, Darren Sarrao, who was part of Conagra's c-suite at the time, also worked on Swanson when he was at Campbell's. Perhaps his nostalgia for the fried chicken dinner of his youth impacted the relaunch? Either way, you'll find Swanson's Fried Chicken Dinners if you head north. And, if you're in the U.S., then Swanson Fried Chicken TV dinner's cousin, Hungry Man Boneless Fried Chicken, might just scratch the same itch.