We continue the Trader Joe’s product review series with the Chicken Marsala with mashed potatoes pre-cooked meal. Trader Joe’s offers quite a few pre-made items on their shelves and I wanted to check the quality of such a product as compared to items such as this that you would find in your local grocer.
First of all just like the Beef Pho Soup, it makes about an extra 3 minutes in the microwave to heat up this entree to the proper temperature. As long as you are aware of the power of your microwave, you will be fine. The packaging does state that this meal serves two. The pieces of chicken are quite small and there is less mashed potatoes that it appears in the photo above. I found that I was still hungry after eating this.
How did the dish taste? Having breaded chicken for chicken Marsala did come off as odd to me To be honest. I expected nice texture and flavor from the bread crumbs but that really isn’t there. The chicken and the breadcrumbs come off as bland on their own. The breadcrumbs also did nothing for the chicken at all. The chicken was nicely tender though. The sauce however does have a decent touch of the Marsala flavor that I was looking for but it didn‘t really pop.
The mashed potatoes were the best part of this dish even though they do not look all that appetizing to the eye. They were creamy and there were some lumps of potato which was nice to have. I am typically not a fan of lumpy potatoes but it worked here. I always wished that Trader Joe’s offered a pre-made mashed potato like supermarkets have and these potatoes only reinforced that desire.
Overall the dish was very much what I expected it to be. It was a decent meal that I feel is far better than any supermarket pre-made meal. I suggest the Chicken Marsala if you are looking to not have to cook and don’t want to spend a ton of money on take out. Just do not expect this to be restaurant quality at all because it is no where near that. Enjoy!
