The Grocery Chain To Visit For The Absolute Best Frozen Chicken Entree

Sometimes, for whatever reason, you have to rethink your ambitious plans for making dinner from scratch. Nights like those are when frozen dinners shine. Frozen chicken entrees, in particular, bring an unmatched level of comfort to the table, offering a range of iconic options — from Marie Callender's chicken teriyaki bowl to Trader Joe's butter chicken with basmati rice. We tried 11 frozen chicken entrees to determine which grocery chain has the best one. The results revealed that Trader Joe's topped the list with its Trader Ming's Mandarin orange chicken and, truth be told, we weren't too surprised, given that it's the Trader Joe's Asian-inspired meal we always add to our cart first!

The 22-ounce bag contains chicken dark meat that turns out delightfully crispy in 10 to 20 minutes, depending on whether you heat it on the stovetop or in the oven. We love the addictive chicken texture without the hassle of dipping it in egg or buttermilk and then breading it, but the star of the show is the sweet and tangy sauce. It's incredibly flavorful, and its light consistency allows it to cling to each chicken piece. Each bite delivers sugary and citrus notes true to the mandarin orange theme of Trader Joe's frozen entree. You may not need to use all the sauce, especially if you prefer your chicken less sweet, meaning you'll have extras for a batch of your own homemade chicken pieces.

As we mentioned before, Trader Joe's Trader Ming's Mandarin orange chicken is an easy choice for us for its succulent secret sauce, but also because of its time-tested consistency. During its 21 years on the market, this frozen chicken entree has nabbed various Customer Choice Awards and has achieved the status of being in Trader Joe's Product Hall of Fame alongside the grocery chain's chili & lime flavored rolled corn tortilla chips (Trader Joe's best snack) and dark chocolate peanut butter cups. So perhaps the success of this frozen chicken entree is partially owed to its nostalgic quality, which transports you back 20 years to cherished memories with every whiff and bite.

Many who have tried Trader Ming's Mandarin orange chicken agree that, served with a side of fluffy rice, this dish can outperform Chinese takeout any night of the week. It makes sense to serve it with rice since one package suggests it's sufficient for about five servings. This translates to a budget-friendly cost of just $4.99 throughout one week. We doubt it gets cheaper than that! As a result, Trader Joe's Trader Ming's Mandarin orange chicken excels in all areas including taste, convenience, consistency, and cost, which may explain why it has once again secured our No. 1 spot out of 17 frozen Asian-inspired foods from Trader Joe's.