The Best Marinated Meat At Trader Joe's Will Become A Weekly Must-Buy

Trader Joe's is the perfect place to stock up on high quality snacks and prepared foods. But it also carries an array of time-saving marinated meats that can turn a drab dinner into a dramatic dish. We taste-tested a selection of the store's offerings to find out which one beats the others when it comes to flavor, texture, and seasonings. And our number one choice was so good that we reckon it'll become a weekly must-buy due to its balanced taste and versatility: the Santa Maria tri-tip roast.

The winner in our list of 8 Trader Joe's marinated meats, ranked, the Santa Maria style roast is flavored with garlic, pepper, and woody herbs, such as thyme and rosemary. This combination of minimal seasonings allowed the natural flavor of the beef to come to the fore. 

Surpassing the shawarma chicken thighs, Bool Kogi, and balsamic rosemary beef steak tips, this boneless beef roast also has a layer of fat on one side, which makes it perfect for crisping up and searing in a hot skillet. The fat provides additional flavor and keeps the meat succulent and moist if you want to serve it simply with a side salad and a classic Béarnaise sauce. Having said that, its versatility means you could just as easily slow-cook it pot-roast style, turn it into the base of an aromatic birria, or slice it up and stuff it into a hoagie slathered with spicy horseradish saucy.

The packaging mentions two traditional methods of cooking a Santa Maria tri-tip roast (searing in a skillet or oven roasting), however, you can also air fry or barbeque your boneless beef. We chose to air fry our roast until medium rare, which more than halved the cooking time. Just bear in mind that it will take longer if you prefer your meat to be well done. While we devoured our beef without additions, the umami flavor of tri tip makes it a superb pairing with tangy blackberry sauce. Simply prepare your boneless hunk of beef as desired, carve it into tender slices, and drizzle over your fruity sauce to cut through its rich, buttery character.

The Trader Joe's marinated meat that we placed at the bottom of our ranking was the Polla Asado Autentico. While these thinly sliced marinated chicken breasts had a spicy kick and citrusy vibe, they were overpowered by the paprika-heavy seasoning. Instead of lending the chicken a balanced brightness and zing, the lime and lemon juice powders featured in the marinade were overly acidic and the flavor of the herbs was lost somewhere in the shuffle. We'd recommend that you shred up the chicken and use it as a filling for tacos to lend it more flavor instead of eating them as they are.