Trader Joe's Tempura Chicken

As much as I love cooking, there are some night when I just can’t muster up the energy for it. Also, I often find myself cooking for one, which can end up being surprisingly pricey if you don’t want to have leftovers for 3 days. When I stumbled into Trader Joe’s for the first time, over a year ago I was ecstatic. Not only do they have an amazing selection of cheeses and meats, but their frozen food is a step above at what you can find at any major grocery store. I’m trying to review as many of their frozen foods as possible, but I’ll start with my favorite: Trader's Joe's Tempura Chicken (5.99),which comes in a one pound bag of all white meat.

To start, I recommend pairing this with Trader Joe’s microwavable rice (3.99) if you’re looking to make a quick meal. There’s nothing worse than waiting 25 minutes for rice to cook when you’re starving-and this solves the problem. (cook time is just under 4 minutes)

I chose to deep fry the chicken, partially because I am from the South and have a weakness for all things deep fried, and partially because tempura is a traditionally fried dish. The sauce comes in a bag, which I recommend transferring to a small tuperware container if you are planning to make this dish multiple times ( each bag has about 4 large servings.) I microwaved the frozen sauce alongside the rice for the last 30seconds of cook time, and they both came out fully heated. I deep fried the chicken for 4 minutes. Honestly, I haven’t had better tempura chicken in any restaurant I have been to. The sauce was tangy and light, and the chicken was crispy and tender-it didn’t taste as though it had been frozen at all. At only about 4 minutes cooking time- Trader Joe’s Tempura Chicken is an easy and delicious choice for dinner or lunch.