So you are craving Chinese, but for some reason you aren't going out or ordering in. This is a good, but not a great answer to not getting it at your local Chinese food establishment. Why isn't it great?
Well, the answer is simple: if it's chicken fried rice, I expect there to be chicken with a healthy dose of veggies in there. Trader Joe's Chicken Fried Rice was mostly brown colored rice with chucks of scrambled egg.
So let's go through a quick visual rundown of this product before diving deeper into this product:
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The ingredients and nutritional information:
The directions:
Even though the front of the bag says 5 minutes, cooking 1 portion (1 and ⅓ cups) takes 2 minutes in the microwave. The directions were spot on. For 2 minutes in the microwave this is what it looked like:
Realizing that chicken was not terribly noticeable, I decided to add my own chicken to it, in the form of a fried egg. Will it scratch the itch of fried rice? Yes. Is it as good as your local Chinese establishment? Probably not. Will you need to add a protein to this? Yes. Beef, chicken, shrimp, pork, tofu or a fried egg are needed to make this go from a side to an actual meal.
Is it meant as a side? Probably. If you are like me and fried rice an be a main meal be prepared to add to this. But for $2.29 I'm not going to complain too much. You'll spend far more at your local Chinese eatery.
Would I buy this again? Sorry, only a maybe. I was really hoping for more here. While the directions were perfect, the finished product was just ok.
However, I think Trader Joe's Japanese Fried Rice is way better in terms of flavor. But was there a huge difference between this and Trader Joe's Vegetable Fried Rice? Honestly, not really.
The rice was fine, the veggies were cooked through. The bits of scrambled egg I could take or leave, but my hangup was the lack of chicken. Because it is called chicken fried rice.
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The Bottom Line
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Trader Joe's Chicken Fried Rice
Product Name: Trader Joe's Chicken Fried Rice
Product Description: Trader Joe's Chicken Fried Rice is a quick meal ready in about 5 minutes.
Price: $2.29
Summary
Trader Joe's Chicken Fried Rice is a long standing favorite in the freezer section.
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Taste
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Value
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Worthy of Repurchasing
Pros
- Makes for a quick meal
- Ready in 5 minutes
Cons
- Not much chicken in this at all
You should try their Japanese style fried rice. No chicken, but there's so much more flavor.
I'll add that to my list. Thanks for the suggestion!
I agree. I tried the Japanese first. Just loved it. But then this was disappointing.
It screams that you would need to supply your own chicken. BYOC in the product.
I'm a big fan of the vegetable fried rice, but I always doctor it up. I usually add a little extra soy sauce, a little sesame oil, and mirin. And I add a scrambled egg. I think I'll stick with the veggie rice if this one has very little chicken!