The pros: Trader Joe's Chile Relleno makes for a tasty meal. It's located in the freezer section. It's loaded with melted cheese once prepared. High in Vitamin C.
The cons: Still not as good as your local Mexican Restaurant, but probably as good as your are going to get in the freezer aisle. High in both sodium and saturated fat.
The verdict: For $2.99, I found this dish strangely addicting. It's absolutely tastier that any of the enchiladas available in the freezer section, but not as tasty as Trader Joe’s Shrimp Tacos. It's cheesy and most importantly well done for a frozen entree.
Now, anything that comes out of the microwave will never compete with your local restaurant, but as a quick and easy entree it is worth a try.
Here is the quick visual rundown before I give you my final thoughts on this product:
The box of Trader Joe's Chile Relleno:
The nutritional information:
The ingredients:
How to prepare:
Out of the package you get this:
After being cooked in the microwave you get something that looks like this:
Would I buy this again? Yes, and I have since trying it for the first time. There is something magical about melted cheese that keeps drawing me to this dish. The salsa is good but not very spicy. There was the smallest bit of crunch on this, but much of it was lost to the sauce here.
Traditional chile relleno is usually a deep fried pepper. This had only the mildest sense of being fried here. Overall it made for a tasty and quick lunch. Trader Joe's Chile Relleno is worth a try at least once if you haven't gotten to it already.
Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.
I, frequently have chile relleno at the local Mexican restaurants here so I thought I'd try these.. While I didn't dislike the chile relleno, it didn't move me to make it a staple in my list of TJ's Mexican food offerings..
For the price and ease of fixing, I rate these as 'OK'..
That's how I felt about them too. Thanks for sharing!
I think TJ's chili relleno is one of their better ready meal mexican dishes. Also, I like TJ's cheese enchiladas. Why, you ask? Well, I feel microwaves destroy flavors, textures and quality of most ready meals, therefore, these dishes and other TJ's frozen items, such as their Indian entrees, produce a better product using a conventional oven. Although I have only read a few of your TJ 's frozen product reviews, I didn't see a micro vs conv. oven taste comparison. Lastly, I am a working chef and can produce a better product, yet, most average Joe or Jane America do not consider prepare an extra uncooked homemade entree or 2 to freeze for later, which I recommend, when making meals you often crave.
Hey Tim! Valid points well taken. I say how I made it to trouble shoot it. And because I actually eat it, I tend to not make 2 at the same time. If they look like they can go to work, I lean on the microwave because as much as I would love to take 20-40 minutes to bake a meal, I don't have access at work (and I have a short lunch break). However, this is the beauty of the comments section where people are free to say which way they prefer. This is actually one of my older reviews, so it is probably time I revisit this review. Your points as well taken and over the summer I'm going to revisit some of these other reviews. Thanks so much for sharing your honest thoughts on this and your thoughts and experiences are welcome here 🙂