Results tagged “chicken”

Lean Cuisine Chicken Pecan

By: Delia L | Oct 30, 2008

Lean Cuisine describes this Spa Cuisine Classic meal as "roasted chicken tenderloins in a savory pecan sauce, with sanp peas & brown rice." From the picture on the box, this Lean Cuisine Chicken Pecan entree appears only moderately enticing. Don't let that fool you though, I thought it was actually quite satisfying.

The chicken was cut into pieces that were a bit larger than bite size and had a decent texture. The brown sauce seemed potentially bland at first glance, but it brought a lot of flavor to the chicken and to the rice. The brown rice had a good texture, and I liked the vegetables mixed in, especially the fresh-tasting snow peas. The small pecan pieces mixed with the food were an excellent addition to the meal. This was like a standout blockbuster meal, but more like a quiet, familiar, good tasting standby that will never let you down.

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Lean Cuisine Lemongrass Chicken

By: Delia L | Oct 26, 2008

Lean Cuisine's Lemongrass Chicken has "roasted chicken tenderloins in a lemongrass coconut sauce served over brown rice with broccoli,carrots,baby corn and yellow carrots." It certainly sounds tempting, and so I picked up a box.

The lemongrass-coconut sauce was delicious and made the whole entree come together. I could really taste that coconut milk flavor which not only worked well with the chicken, but also brought an especially wonderful extra dimension to the brown rice. That rice had a reliable, nutty texture. The vegetables also turned out well, and I was excited to see baby corn in the mix. I wouldn't necessarily call this entree authentic Thai cuisine, but it does incorporate some of the best Thai flavors into the healthy style of Lean Cuisine.

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Kashi Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza

By: Tanya Patrice | Jun 11, 2008

Kashi has a line of frozen pizzas where the crust is made with their signature blend of whole grains & sesame plus flax seed. In addition, the pizza is "stone-fired to bring out the natural flavors". Having already had success with the Five Cheese Tomato Pizza and the Mediterranean Pizza, I hope to hit the trifecta with Kashi's Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza.

Alas, like Big Brown, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but finished in last place at the Belmont Stakes, Kashi scored with the first 2 pizzas, but failed miserably with this Roasted Garlic Chicken pizza (a little horse racing reference for those like myself who couldn't resist the drama on the tele). As soon as you take a bite you will probably say the same thing I did, "Good Garlic - what is going on!" Well, you might not utter the same exact words, but the pungent taste of garlic will surely fill your mouth because the creamy garlic sauce is intense! I cannot describe anything else - not the taste of the roasted vegetables nor the crispiness of the crust - because the garlic was so overwhelming, it was all that caught and kept my attention. I would have to say this pizza was a flop, and so would our good friends over at HeatEatReview.

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Perdue Perfect Portions Chicken Breasts

By: Tanya Patrice | Feb 8, 2008

Perdue Perfect Portions are boneless, skinless chicken breasts that are sold in a package with 6 individually wrapped 4.8 ounce portions. All the single and 2 family households thank you Perdue for making our lives a little easier. The chicken breasts are clearly lean, and the nutrition facts are provided for each portion. That's the real beauty of this product, because of course you could buy a pack of chicken and individually portion it into ziplock bags yourself, but then you would also have to weigh each piece and then calculate the nutrition facts yourself.

Another thing I loved about Perdue Perfect Portions is that they have some pre-seasoned options available, like Tomato Basil, Teriyaki, Roasted Garlic with White Wine, Italian Style and Herb and Pepper, plus you can also buy it sans seasoning. Check out Epicurious for some recipes. I see they have attempted to replicate my World famous baked herb-crusted chicken breasts (well maybe mine isn't "World" famous - but it's famous in my house), and this is a simple easy recipe to try if you're just statrting to cook (or want to impress your girlfriend/ boyfriend with a beautifully cooked and tasty meal for Valentines Day).

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Kashi All Natural Chicken Pasta Pomodoro

By: Tanya Patrice | Nov 27, 2007

Kashi has a line of "All Natural" frozen entrees which combine ingredients like whole grains, vegetables and natural chicken or shrimp. I love the natural concept applied to frozen dinners, but the price of the Kashi meals tend to be close to $5.00 which is almost 2x the price of similar products. Plus you could probably buy a whole chicken for that amount of money! But as luck would have it - these meals go on sale occasionally, and I quickly snapped some up when I had a chance, including the Kashi Chicken Pasta Pomodoro. This consists of "chicken and roasted vegetables over whole grain pasta and topped with fresh tomato garlic basil sauce, parmesan cheese and Kashi 7 Whole Grain Flakes."

This is one of my favorite Kashi meals. The chicken and pasta were very flavorful - that sauce is "smack your lips good" and not too garlicy (like the Kashi Roasted Garlic Chicken Pizza). I scraped out the sauce/ veggie sauce even after everything else was gone, but that was because it was good - not because I was left unsatisfied or hungry. This was money well spent.

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Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers: General Tso Chicken

By: Tanya Patrice | Aug 22, 2007

I totally love the concept for Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers line, with the sauce being in a separate bowl, which helps steams the other ingredients, while the meal being microwaved. But before I talk about the taste, let me mention that when this meal came out of the microwave, it looked absolutely fabulous - the picture on the box doesn't do it nearly enough justice. It seriously looked picture perfect with the rice dotted with different color vegetables, and the meat on one side, just looking like perfect pieces of tempura battered chicken. Kudos to the folks at Healthy Choice for not only coming up with this innovative concept, but making this meal look so great. I actually couldn't wait to dig in.

I poured everything in the bowl with the sauce, mixed it around a little and dug in. I took up a big forkful of veggie rice with sauce and I experienced nirvana. The sauce is sweet and has a little spicy kick at the end. Perfect and an improvement over the original HC General Tso Chicken, which had soggy rice. I could even taste the sweetness of the sweet peas - the taste of veggies are often lost on microwaving. I was all set to give this 5 stars for taste when I remembered that I hadn't even eaten any of the chicken yet. And therein lies my disappointment with HC.

HC, did you all forget to flavor the meat? I'm just going to assume that you guys were so busy making the sauce and the rice perfect that the meat kind of just slipped by, because it is tasteless - needs salt or some other flavor - or something! I suppose you might have meant for us to drench it in sauce so that we wouldn't realize how lackluster it is on it's own - and since my sauce was half finished, I couldn't. This definitely needs some improvement, and was a big letdown after enjoying the wonderful sauce and rice.

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Healthy Choice Chicken Basil Panini

By: Tanya Patrice | Aug 10, 2007

Healthy Choice has finally upgraded their meals after trailing far behind Lean Cuisine, and is now producing Paninis. I decided to check out the Healthy Chicken Basil Panini. It has "diced white chicken, three cheeses, diced tomatoes, spinach and roasted onions with creamy basil sauce on Italian bread." I have to say that I was a little disappointed in the taste of this meal. It is ... okay - not fantastic, but not really terrible either. The flavors were a little bland, and the bread is not crispy enough.

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Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Roasted Chicken Chardonnay

By: Tanya Patrice | Jul 16, 2007

Healthy Choice didn't just come out with a new meal, they came out with a whole new microwaveable meal concept with their Cafe Steamers line - Steams Fresh in Your Microwave. The sauce is in a special compartment on the bottom which acts as a steaming agent for the rest of the meal in a separate compartment above. I'm probably making it sound more complicated than it really is - all you have to do is remove the meal from the box and put it in the microwave (no need to remove the plastic wrap). When it's done, take out the inner steamer tray and slide the food into the bottom tray which will have the sauce. This technology also cuts cooking time from four minutes to three.

I tried the Roasted Chicken Chardonnay which is chicken breast with pasta and vegetables in a creamy chardonnay wine sauce. The flavors were subtle and delicate, and I enjoyed this meal. I did think it could have used more salt (how ironic it is that there is 23% of the recommended daily amount of sodium in this - and here I am wishing it had even more)! I liked the inovation in technology, and while I did notice the reduced cooking time, I don't know if there was any improvement in quality - if anybody else has tried the Cafe Steamers, we would love to know if you think it tastes better than the regular microwaveable meals.

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Lean Cuisine Chicken alOrange

By: Tanya Patrice | Jun 22, 2007

Okay, I butchered the name in the title. It's Lean Cuisine Chicken a'l'orange. This LC meal has chicken tenderloins in an orange glaze with wild rice and vegetables and it is goo-oo-ood! The chicken pieces are tender, the sauce is sweet and savory and goes well with the rice pilaf and vegetable medley, which includes carrots and broccoli.

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Lean Pockets Chicken Fajita

By: Tanya Patrice | Apr 3, 2007

This new Chicken Fajita offering from Lean Pockets features the cheesy tortilla style crust. The crust is crispy even when done in the microwave - it really only took the 2 minutes as suggested on the box. It's thick, cheesey and yummy! There is also plenty of cheese on the inside. I was able to get a few bites of chicken too, but I don't think there was as much as the picture on the box suggests. I'm not sure what makes this a chicken "fajita" as there was not much else other than chicken and cheese in there. I could tell that this Pocket had some flavor and spices added to it, but I didn't taste (nor see in the ingredients) any of the other traditional fajita ingredients like green peppers, tomatoes or onions. Actually, after eating the 2nd pocket, I bit into a long thick piece of onion, so I suppose there is some in there after all. I really liked the Pocket anyway - loved the new crust!

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Banquet Fried Rice with Chicken and Egg Roll Meal

By: Tanya Patrice | Feb 3, 2007

A frozen dinner that is a healthy option doesn't have to have to be Lean Cuisine, Healthy Choice or Weight Watchers. Sometimes, a quick look at the nutrition panel of other brands will reveal a surprising find. Case in point: this Banquet Fried Rice with Chicken and Egg Roll Meal. After having seen the dietTrash that was the Banquet Corn Dog Meal, I didn't think that anything that there would be anything in the Banquet line that wouldn't be a heart attack waiting to happen - but I was wrong.

The good: Banquet Fried Rice with Chicken and Egg Roll Meal is cheap at only $1.00, tasty and only 200 calories. It was just what I expected it to be, fried rice with chopped up veggies - celery, carrots and broccoli - as well as lots of small pieces of chicken chunks. The egg roll, although not very big, was also enjoyable.

The bad:
1. The very VERY salty taste of everything. It's been 30 minutes and a few gulps of water and I still feel the salty taste in my mouth!

2. In my own defense, when I started writing this review, I was actually eating the meal and I hadn't looked at the ingredients list. Now that I have, I am thinking this may perhaps belong in the dietTrash category. The ingredients list reads like a food chemistry text book. I get the sense that this meal is very VERY processed. I was initially very happy to find a cheap, simple meal that could make a light lunch, but as I'm sitting here - feeling the salt make it's way to my tummy, I am now thinking that I don't want to eat a meal that is going to remind me of the chemicals in my food lab at work.

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Healthy Choice Cajun Chicken and Shrimp

By: Tanya Patrice | Jan 31, 2007

Healthy Choice Cajun Chicken and Shrimp is one of the Cafe Selections line of meals at Healthy Choice. They are supposed to be "exciting, restaurant-inspired recipes with creative combinations of crisp, colorful vegetables, seasoned meats, and flavorful spices." The Healthy Choice Cajun Chicken and Shrimp is a mix of "chicken tenderloin medallions and shrimp in a spicy tomato Cajun-style sauce tossed with white rice, red and green bell peppers and celery."

All the statements you see in bold are the ones that I totally disagree with. Lets start with the use of the word "Cajun" in the name of the meal, and the description of "flavorful and spicy." Nothing could be further from the truth! This meal is very bland and flavorless. Even the sauce, which is supposed to be tomato based, is weak at best. There was chicken in there somewhere, but I couldn't distinguish it since I think it's 'flavor' was totally gone. I think they said it best over at Heat Eat Review, "the people of Louisiana would laugh in your face" (for calling this Cajun)! [link].

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Healthy Choice Fiesta Chicken

By: Tanya Patrice | Jan 12, 2007

Healthy Choice Fiesta Chicken consists of "tender white meat chicken in a fiesta sauce spiced with olive oil, paprika, lime juice, crushed garlic, and red chili and chipotle peppers, seasoned long grain rice with black beans, green peppers and scallions, a vegetable blend of crisp corn, red peppers and scallions, and topped off with sweet caramel apple crisp dessert." That is the description from the Healthy Choice website and trust me, it sounds better than it tastes.

I would rate this meal as average. The best thing about it was the chicken. There was quite a bit of chicken strips and they were smothered in a slightly sweet but otherwise unremarkable sauce. I thought they should have mixed the mixed corn with the rice, because the veggies by themselves were very bland and swimming in water. The worse thing about the meal was the "caramel apple crisp dessert" which is basically lots of syrup and oats, and a little bit of apple chunks. Am I the only one that thinks HC should do away with this in their meals, and instead add more food?

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South Beach Diet Caprese Style Chicken with Broccoli

By: Tanya Patrice | Nov 30, 2006

South Beach Diet foods has a winner on their hands with the Caprese Style Chicken with Broccoli which has "chicken breast strips in a marinara sauce with ricotta and mozzarella cheese served with broccoli." This is one of my favorite South Beach Diet frozen meals - but I have only tried that South Beach Diet Cashew Chicken with Sugar Snap Peas and the South Beach Diet Chicken Penne. Since South Beach Diet foods tend to cost around $3.50, which is more than the other brands, I found that the other two were ordinary and not worth the extra price. The Caprese Style Chicken however is well worth it.

The sauce is excellent. It doesn't have a very strong marinara /tomato based taste to it, in fact, if I hadn't read the description, I wouldn't have thought that it was - but it is definitely good! I was dipping the broccoli in it - is how good it was. And the broccoli came out tasting fresh, still firm and not too soft and squishy - which is the way I like it - well, not that I can say I really like broccoli, but I ate every last piece in this meal. I had the Caprese chicken for dinner and I was satisfied with the size. There is quite a bit of chicken and even more broccoli!

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South Beach Diet Caprese Style Chicken with Broccoli

By: Tanya Patrice | Nov 30, 2006

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Lean Cuisine Gilled Chicken and Penne Pasta

By: Tanya Patrice | Sep 18, 2006

Lean Cuisine Gilled Chicken and Penne Pasta has "grilled chicken tenderloins, penne pasta and vegetables in a garlic sauce, with a caramel apple dessert." I tried this based on a recommendation from a regular website visitor. She says her co-workers swear by it, but she's vegetarian and thinks it stinks when they heat it up. So the first thing I did was a "smell check." Fortunately, the smell wasn't overpowering to me, and I was looking forward to eating it, especially based on the picture on the front of the box which makes it look so yummy. And I wasn't disappointed. The chicken was tender, and there were quite a few big chunks. The vegetables, broccolli and carrots were crisp and tasted fresh even after microwaving. The lightly flavored garlic sauce ties everything together, and no need to worry about garlic breath if you are having this for lunch, because there is only a hintof garlic.

Lean Cuisine has also included a "caramel apple dessert" in this meal. I don't know why Lean Cuisine is following Healthy Choice by including some fruit pieces in syrup and calling it dessert. It just adds sugars (in this case 24 grams of it) and adds to the calories to the meal- almost 100 calories extra. It tastes okay - maybe even good - but I don't think this should be a part of a 'healthy' meal, and why does their dessert have to be something sugary and syrupy?! I might be alone on this one, but I am really against this.

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Healthy Choice Sweet and Sour Chicken

By: Tanya Patrice | Aug 30, 2006

Healthy Choice says, "In our Sweet and Sour Chicken, red and green peppers and pineapple mixed with rice complement chunks of moist, tempura battered chicken breast. Crisp broccoli florets and sweet peach crisp make the perfect side dishes to this healthy, satisfying meal." I say that Healthy Choice Sweet and Sour Chicken is nowhere near as good as Kashi Sweet and Sour Chicken or Lean Cuisine Sweet and Sour Chicken, or even Gardenburger Meatless Sweet & Sour Pork Rice.

The sauce is a bit watery which dilutes the taste, and there is too much sauce for the small amount of rice that comes with the meal. The broccoli was still crispy after I nuked this dinner, and was one of the high points of the meal, and there was quite a bit of broccoli - more broccoli than rice it seemed to me - which is probably a good thing. The chicken also wasn't too bad. There were about 3 or 4 chunky, 'tempura' battered pieces which was very tasty, especially when the batter soaked up some of the sweet and sour sauce. Tempura batter is a Japanese way of making batter fried foods [see the Wikipedia entry for more info]. There was also a "peach crisp" dessert included in the meal. This was like syrup, small pieces of peach and some oats mixed together. It tastes okay if you must eat something sweet with your dinner. I skipped it - actually I ate the chicken and broccoli and that was it.

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Kashi Sweet and Sour Chicken

By: Tanya Patrice | Aug 22, 2006

Kashi frozen entrees are a little more expensive than some of the other frozen meals like Lean Cuisine or Health Choice, but the ingredients used are definitely all healthy - all natural. In this Sweet and Sour Chicken dinner, Kashi has "Sliced chicken with roasted green beans and yellow pepper, red pepper, crimini mushrooms, onions and edamame (soybeans), served over Kashi 7 Whole Grains Pilaf (similar to rice but better), and topped with a light, tangy sweet and sour sauce." Kashi has successully made a better tasting sweet and sour chicken frozen dinner with healthier ingredients.

I am totally in love with sweet and sour sauce and foods because it is usually hard to get it wrong (check out the 5 kiss rated Gardenburger Sweet and Sour Pork Rice (which is really soy and not 'pork'), and the 4 kiss rated Lean Cuisine Sweet and Sour Chicken. If I compared Kashi to the Lean Cuisine meal, I would say Kashi comes out on top. The whole grain rice pilaf that Kashi uses is like a crunchy rice - no more boring soft, mushy rice. The chicken is plentiful, soft and tender, and the vegetable meddley with the soft but crunchy edamame was very tasty as well (and this coming from someone who doesn't always eat their veggies). The sweet and sour sauce is a little more sweet than sour, but it totally ties the meal together. I previously reviewed Kashi Black Bean Mango Entree [here], and I have to say that I prefer the Sweet and Sour Chicken.

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Weight Watchers Smart Ones Chicken Parmesan

By: Tanya Patrice | Apr 25, 2006

WeightWatchers Chicken Parmesan consists of "roasted chicken breast and spaghetti with marinara sauce topped with cheese" and it turned out to be quite a tasty lunch for me. Once again, WW has learned the secret of making good spaghetti and pasta in general, and the marinara sauce never has too strong of a tomato paste taste. The chicken breast was one big piece of chicken, which looks like about 3-4 ounces which is one [recommended] serving of meat. It was tender and easy to bite into, but my only complaint about this meal would have to be that the chicken was way too salty - and I love my food salty!

This WW meal was 5 points, with 290 calories, 5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 630 mg sodium (23% of the recommended daily allowance), 40 mg cholesterol (14% of daily recommendations) and 26 grams of protein.

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Healthy Choice General Tso's Spicy Chicken

By: Tanya Patrice | Mar 15, 2006

Healthy Choice (HC) has a line of new Asian inspired meals, including the new General Tso's Spicy Chicken. From the HC website, General Tso Chicken is "tempura battered chicken breast chunks, covered with a spicy brown sauce and served with a rice medley." There were about 3 big chunks of chicken in this meal, covered with a sweet sauce. The white rice was a little disappointing - it came out soggy and a bit bland, but it took on a nice flavor when mixed with the sauce. I really didn't get a spicy taste from this meal, which was fine with me, since I don't like my food too spicy. Overall, the meal was flavorful, and the sauce was an excellent addition to it. It should probably be noted that this meal was Asian "inspired" and it's more like a less spicy version of regular General Tso chicken.