The Smart Made line by Smart Ones has a lot of smarts in it. The idea, you see, is to be smart about what ingredients to include in order to keep these meals tasting great without jamming them full of calories. At just 190 calories, then, the White Wine Chicken & Couscous succeeds at the latter of those two goals. So how about the first one — the taste?
Well, it certainly smells fresh. It comes out of the microwave just potent with the scent of fresh veggies. But it only smells that way for a minute or two. Once it’s stirred and it begins to cool, it starts to take on an odor that’s a bit like used fishing tackle. We’re not sure what that it, but it’s not pleasant.
The chicken certainly doesn’t look as appetizing as the chicken on the package, light brown and striped with grill marks. No, this is some seriously white meat, though we did find one pleasantly striped edge. Still, it doesn’t taste half bad. It has a nice flavor, and it’s pretty juicy. There’s a hint of seasoning on some of these pieces too, though we didn’t taste it on all of them.
The vegetable blend contains zucchini, though we only found one big chunk of it, with a few tiny chunks spread around in the dish. The fire-roasted tomatoes make up the vast majority of the veggies, and they lend a sort of vegetable soup quality to the meal.
The couscous is essentially acting as a replacement for rice here. While it’s good on its own, the rice is definitely missed. The tomatoes tend to overpower the flavor, and rice would have done a better job at offsetting that.
The White Wine Chicken and Couscous by Smart Made isn’t perfect, but it’s also not terrible. At only 190 calories, we could certainly do much worse. Of course, a few tweaks — like reducing the amount of tomato and increasing the amount of zucchini — would have really made this shine. As is, this meal is just alright, though we appreciate how diet-friendly it is.
To learn more about the nutrition and ingredients in this frozen meal, check out our package scans below.
