Day 281 - Chicken Marsala with Mashed Potatoes

We recently had (and really liked, though I have not finished the review yet) Trader Joe’s Chicken Picatta.  Since that went over so well at our dinner table, we decided to grab this Chicken Marsala.  Both products are pre-cooked and ready to eat – they just need to be quickly heated.  They are found in the refrigerated (not frozen) food section.

The label on this chicken marsala says it contains 2 servings.  However, when you open it up, it is one big chicken breast/cutlet.  While that is 2 servings for US (we are rather small humans), I think for many people they would not consider it big enough for 2 people.  We just cut the chicken in half and plopped it on plates. 

Here is the package - it looks better on here than it did on our plates

I think the mashed potatoes in this dish are better than the chicken.  The breading on the chicken has a lot of what tasted to me like rosemary and the strength of that overpowered the other flavors.  The sauce was good but not what I expected as “marsala”.  To be honest, my favorite thing on my plate was the left-over spinach from going out for dim sum at a Chinese restaurant earlier in the day…

David liked this product better than me.  He thought the chicken was good, the breading nice and soft.  He liked the rosemary.  He said the sauce was, “Lovely with a lot of mushroom taste in it, and the mashed potatoes that go with it are a perfect compliment, particularly with the sauce poured over the top.”

We had a discussion about the marsala sauce.  We both expected it to be more “wine-ish” and less “chicken gravy-ish”.  When I look at photos online of chicken marsala it all looks darker than the sauce that comes with this dish.  Something just didn’t taste right…

See how the sauce is sort of tan/gray and dull looking?  No marsala excitement.
And this is "one serving" - so half a chicken breast (this was before I ate any)

All of that being said, this is a very easy, convenient meal in that you just bung it in the microwave.  But Trader Joe’s sells many other quick to prepare meals that are much tastier than this one.  I would go with a different one if I were you.  

The packaging for this chicken marsala boasts that this dish “replicates a restaurant experience at a fraction of the price”.  I would concur with the “fraction of the price” part but not the “replicates a restaurant experience” part.  This doesn’t taste like something from a restaurant, not a restaurant I would return to anyway.  The box even says, “Who needs a restaurant when dining in tastes this good?”.   Well if all Trader Joe’s food tasted “this good” (which is middle of the road and sort of boring) then I WOULD need a restaurant.

David liked it better than me, so this won’t get a horrible rating.  But it won’t be in our fridge again if I do the shopping.

Price – $6.49

Rating – 3.25

Day 211 - Shepherd's Pie

The box for this Shepherd’s Pie says that serving size is 2 – I believe that is accurate.  HOWEVER, the photo on the box also implies that this is going to be a delightful, hearty meal.  Thaaaat, in my humble opinion, is a stretch… 

Here is what one would EXPECT the final product to look like....

We cooked this in the oven as opposed to microwave and here is what I think –the mashed potatoes on top are way too runny.  They taste ok, but the texture is almost like instant potatoes.  They have no “form” to them, nothing to give them substance.  Because of this, the whole pie just doesn’t hold up at all.  It is a soupy mess.  And do not believe the photo on the box – there is way more potato than anything else in this dish.  In fact, this was totally reverse of the photo on the box, which had a thin layer of potato and a THICK hunk of meat and veggies.  This was POTATO and meat/veggies, not MEAT/VEGGIES and potato like the box would have you believe.

This is after cooking it but before splitting it onto plates...

See?  Runny mess with a piece of corn...  Not a lot of substance.  Far from hearty.

We used to live near a Cheesecake Factory (the one on the Plaza in Kansas City, MO).  To exercise, we would ride our bikes to the restaurant.  Then we would share one of their huge Shepherd’s Pies, then ride our bikes back home.  Let’s just say we probably burned about 1/1000^th of the calories we consumed.  But this Trader Joe’s pie doesn’t hold a candle (even a birthday candle…) to the Cheesecake Factory’s version of this dish (and I am not implying that the Cheesecake Factory makes the world’s best Shepherd’s Pie, either).  

Also, the TJ’s pie has way too few veggies – would it kill them to throw a few more vegetables in there?     

Here is David’s opinion (given before he heard any of mine, so not influenced by my negativity):  “This is not very appealing visually.  The potato is a little bit too runny.  The taste is “okay”.  I would give it a 3.5.”

Granted, pairing it with a Guinness on a cold night like the sign suggests would have been better, but still...

Overall, I think this would be better in winter, but still wouldn’t be great.  I am not going to waste room in the freezer with this again.  This dish is dull and needs a lot of pepper to jazz it up.  I would give it a 2.75.  But I will average my rating with David’s to give this one the benefit of the doubt and pull the score up a bit. 

Price – $4.49

Rating – 3 (I could have rounded up, but really, that is tooooo high for this item)