Shiitake Mushroom Chicken

I would like to clarify that I believe there is a typo on the packaging of this product.  I think it should be called Shit-Ake Chicken.

Ok, now for the review.  (Can you guess what we thought of it even before reading further??!  :) )

Looks tasty enough on the bag, no?  

I have BUYER’S REMORSE on this one.  Sigh.  It is my own fault, I should have read the bag more clearly before buying it, but I got excited!  It looked really good in the photo!!  And it looked like it would be so easy to prepare!  But if only I had taken time to read the ingredients list I would have seen that not the first ingredient, but the first TWO INGREDIENTS listed are dark meat chicken chunks.  Putting aside my preference for white meat chicken a moment, why did they list it TWICE??  And again, ignoring that if I have my choice I choose white meat chicken, why didn’t they use better QUALITY dark meat chicken in this meal? 

Dark Meat Chicken Chunks - the ingredient so "nice" they listed it twice...

OK, backing up; this is a frozen meal that comes in a bag.  It consists of dark meat chicken, more dark meat chicken, shiitake mushrooms, edamame, and green beans.  I was right about one thing with this product, it is easy to cook and make a meal out of.  But it does not make a TASTY meal, which is something we like…  I followed the instructions and cooked it in a wok and served it over jasmine rice. 

Lots of chicken...  Lots of bad quality chicken...

The two ingredients that made this product taste bad were the bad quality chicken and the very bland, poorly textured green beans.  The very best part of the dinner was the rice (cooked separately and not included in this packaged meal…).  But the best part of this PACKAGE was the edamame and the shitake mushrooms – those bits were good.  But those things can’t carry the weight of the whole meal.  I think something that would jazz it up would be GARLIC.  Give it a bit of flavor.

This does not taste like a dish you would get at a restaurant AT ALL.    Well, I take that back.  It DOES taste like something you would get at a restaurant, but the restaurant would be an all-day Chinese Buffet in Daytona Beach, Florida.  It would be in a pan that had been left out all day on the buffet line, and senior citizens who paid $4.99 for all-you-can-eat “Chinese” would be plopping it on their plate for their 4:00 PM dinner.  THAT is what it tastes like!  (And I do not mean any offense to Seniors, we are AARP members ourselves!)

Orrrr, it might also be found in a junior high school cafeteria. 

I couldn’t finish my serving.  I ended up eating more rice and heating up some Trader Joe’s edamame (which I love) to finish out my dinner.  As for the Shitake Mushroom Chicken dish, I give it a 2.0. 

David's take on Shiitake Mushroom Chicken BEFORE eating it...

Here is what David thought: “I agree, this is not as delightful as one might have liked.  In general, I do not have a problem with dark meat chicken, but this one...  The beans in this dish taste like canned green beans.  It would be much improved by the addition of green peppers, onions, maybe carrots…  For me the best part about this is the SAUCE.  So instead of getting this again I should just learn how to make a sauce like this – it is nice and savory but slightly sweet so it is a tasty sauce.  I would give this a 2.75.”

And David AFTER eating it...
Even DAVID didn't want second helpings, and David alllllways wants a second helping!

We won’t be buying this one again.  In fact, instead of putting the leftovers in a Fupperware (fake Tupperware) container we threw them out, which never happens at our house.  David will (hopefully) be figuring out how to make the sauce included with this package and we will put it with tastier stuff! 

Price – $4.99

Rating – 2.5

Day 261 - Brown Jasmine Rice

As mentioned previously in this blog, we eat A LOT of rice in our house.  We love rice.  Usually we buy Jasmine or Basmati (reviewed on days 198 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-199-jasmine-rice.html and 191 http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/07/day-191-basmati-rice.html of this blog). 

This time we decided to SHAKE THINGS UP.  We saw this Brown Jasmine Rice at the Trader Joe’s in Cincinnati and decided to pick up a bag. 

Big bag, small price

I used to be in charge of cooking rice in our kitchen.  When it was my duty, I threw it in a rice cooker, turned it on, and called it a day.  J  Then David decided we should follow the instructions and RINSE it before cooking.  So he took over rice duty.  Then he came up with an elaborate method of frying the rice in olive oil BEFORE cooking it….  Let’s just say, rice cooking is now his assignment and not mine. 

He cooked this Brown Basmati Rice using his “fry in a bit of EVOO oil first” technique.  He then cooked it in water for 35 to 40 minutes (following the package).   So that is the first thing to point out – this rice takes longer than your average rice to cook, so make sure you prepare your meal accordingly. 

We normally don’t dig brown rice as much as white.  But we really trust Trader Joe’s so we gave this a shot.  Luckily for us, it is not as “brown rice-y” as other brown rices.  It is more like white rice but, as David noted, it has a “Little bit more of skin and texture to it.  Though I prefer white rice, I know that brown rice is healthier for me.  So if I have to eat brown rice, I would definitely suggest this.  In fact, now that I am eating the leftovers of it on the second day I am enjoying the taste of it with a little butter on it.”

Oh the sign tells us it is LUXURIOUS!

I thought this was a little crunchier than our regular rice but that wasn’t a bad thing.  I liked it.  The “kernels” were all very separate and there was not gloppiness.  It went well with chicken.  This is a good alternative to our normal rice when you want something a little bit different.  Like the other rices at TJ’s, it is a large bag for a remarkably good price.  This rice, from Thailand, was only $3.29 for a 3 lbs bag – that is only a little over a buck per pound! 

BONUS PHOTO!  I cannot for the life of me find the picture I took of this rice on a plate with a nice omelet we made,
so instead I present ARTWORK FROM THE CINCINNATI TRADER JOE'S!
Here is a piece that is in their foyer - it is the Tyler Davidson Fountain.  Nice, huh??

Price – $3.29

Rating - 4

Day 221 - Vegetable Panang Curry

When I was a kid, sometimes we got lucky and were served a TV dinner for supper.  Now that I am an adult, I realize those nights were probably times my mom was exhausted and not in the mood to cook meat loaf or cheesey chicken (which was her specialty).  But at the time, it felt a bit like hitting the jack pot to get that metal tray, piping hot, placed in front of me.  Oh that metal tray…  With the separate areas for the turkey with gravy and piping hot mashed “potatoes”.  Ahhhh…  Fancy!

Now I am an adult.  At least age-wise I am an adult.  And I do not find instant potatoes with a thin layer of crust on the top appealing anymore. 

BUT I HAVE FOUND A TV DINNER REPLACEMENT.  Trader Joe’s has an amazing assortment of frozen foods.  You could spend an hour just strolling down the frozen section, filling your cart with boxes and bags.  And one box you should put in that cart is VEGETABLE PANANG CURRY with Jasmine Rice.  It’s great!

Put this box in your shopping cart, stat!

It takes a total of 4 minutes in the microwave to cook (as opposed to God knows how long my mom had to leave our TV dinners in the oven way back in prehistoric before microwave times…).  The box has one serving so it was perfect when I gobbled it up just now for a very late 5:15 PM lunch. 

The Jasmine Rice is wonderful.  It is steamy, fluffy, with just the right amount of “stick”.  Veggies include zucchini, onion, asparagus, kale, green beans, snow peas, baby corn, and spinach.  See – it’s a far cry from the watery fake potatoes in the TV dinners of my youth!  And the curry sauce is fantastic.  The only bit of negativity is that the asparagus in this dish is sometimes “woody”. 

Here it is on a plate - I was a bit messy when I dumped it out cuz I was starving

Overall this is a terrific saucy, ricey dish and should be eaten by YOU (unless you are not a fan of slightly spicy stuff, then skip this and eat something boring).

Note – this is VEGAN, so if that’s your thing they gotcha covered.

Price – $2.69 (I think…)

Rating – 4.75

Day 198 - Jasmine Rice

Like the Basmati Rice recently reviewed on this blog (Day 191), this Jasmine Rice also comes in a weirdly designed bag.  You do not open it at the TOP, as one would normally do with a bag of rice, but a bit down the front.  Once you do the delicate opening trick, the bag makes a good pouring and storage system.

Here is our almost empty bag of Jasmine Rice

This rice is from Thailand.  It comes in a 3 pound bag and is only $3.29 (so like a buck a pound), which is much cheaper than you will find Jasmine Rice priced in other stores.  For some reason Americans seem to think anything that is not MINUTE RICE is fancy, therefore they should pay a lot of money for.  I am glad TJ’s doesn’t subscribe to that philosophy! 

The rice in the pan after being cooked, with 2 pats of butter.  We should have put something in there to make a smile, too!

Jasmine rice is nice (a little poem!).  Trader Joe’s guide to rice says it has a “delicate floral aroma”, but the idea of rice smelling or tasting like flowers is not appealing to me, so let’s not go there.  (I once ordered a LAVENDAR CUPCAKE at a fancy ass cupcake store in Seattle.  It was the prettiest darn cupcake you ever saw.  But BLECKO – cupcakes (or other foods) really should not taste like flowers.  But I digress…)

Another meal with Jasmine Rice

Dinner: Jasmine Rice, corn, squash, chicken, and Brussels sprouts

We eat Jasmine Rice a lot.  Like, a whole lot.  This is just as good as other brands of Jasmine Rice you get.  If you want to spend more money for it, by all means buy it all Whole Foods.  But if you want a good rice at a good price, pick up a bag of this the next time you are at Trader Joe’s. 

Price – $3.29

Rating – 4.5