I've eaten my way through most of the Indian, Korean, and now the Chinese selections at Trader Joes. Just about all of them were excellent. If you enjoy Chinese food and don't mind messing a sheet of parchment and a mixing bowl Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken might be for you. For the price difference I would be hard to justify not to. Where else can you get a serving of Chinese food for about $1.25? You'll still have to add something to this dish to make it a meal. It needs either rice or some stir fried veggies to complete it.
The pros: Â Tasty chicken dish. On par with your local Chinese fast food place. At $4.99 the price here is reasonable for 5 servings. The Vegan Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels are $2.99 but only contain 2 servings so they are pretty close in price per serving.
The Cons: Â If you eat this whole bag it is a days worth of calories. There are 5 servings in the bag so portion control if you care. There are also some "chicken pieces" in the bag that are just fried batter and no chicken so quality control might be an issue with this. See my picture on the tray.
The verdict:
This is as good as Trader Joe’s Vegan Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels. (**Update, I prefer this over the new Trader Joe's Chicken-less Mandarin Orange Morsels. They changed the recipe and I would rather reach for this any day over the updated recipe.) Either is a great buy at Trader Joe's. My review continues below the product pictures below:
The bag in the freezer section:
The ingredients:
The nutritional information:
How to prepare:
What comes out of the bag is chicken pieces and 2 packets of sauce. I only prepared half of the bag so I could use just 1 packet of sauce. Here are the chicken pieces before going into the toaster oven:
After the toaster oven for 18 minutes and coated with sauce:
Served with rice or you can also serve this with stir fry veggies if you are looking to lighten up this meal.
Is this a buy again? Yes, I really enjoyed Trader Joe's Mandarin Orange Chicken.
Want to see more items I’ve reviewed from Trader Joe’s? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.
What does yellow rice taste like?
Rice with turmeric for coloring and a bit of extra salt.