There is a discussion going on right now on one of the food boards I read and it's all about why people like Trader Joe's. One thing that has come up in the conversation is the prepared frozen food. I've gotten a couple of frozen dishes there before, but there are a lot I haven't tried yet. In this week's shopping, I picked up one for lunch that I've been wanting to try for some time - the reduced guilt chicken breasts in poblano sauce with barley and sweet white corn risotto ($2.99).
The microwaved meal doesn't look quite as good as it does on the box, but I was willing to overlook that if it tasted good. Overall, I think it was just okay. The poblano sauce had a good flavor, and you could definitely taste the poblano peppers, which was good. There weren't many other vegetables in the dish - little bits of tomatoes, scallions, peppers. The barley and corn provided a good base. But the biggest problem was the chicken itself. I followed the box instructions exactly - heat 2 minutes in the microwave on the defrost function and then on high for 4-5 minutes (I did 4:30). But the chicken came out really overdone, too chewy and a little dry. It was still edible but it wasn't great. Covered in the sauce (even though the sauce somehow completely overflowed the container in the microwave), it shouldn't have been that dry.
Buy again? Undecided. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great. It was $2.99, which isn't that expensive for lunch, but you can definitely get some frozen meals at the grocery store that have about the same amount of calories and nutritional content for less money. I do like that in the TJ's products I can recognize most of the ingredients on the box, but I'm not sure if I like this enough to get it again.
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