We’re huge fans of Trader Joe’s fried rice here at Freezer Meal Frenzy. We’ve loved every version we’ve tried so far, including the Chicken Fried Rice and the Vegetable Fried Rice, though we’re tempted to say that our current favorite is the Japanese Style Fried Rice. So when we spotted the Trader Joe’s Spicy Thai Shrimp Fried Rice in the freezer aisle at our local Trader Joe’s, we knew we had to give it a try.
This is pretty easy to prepare. Simply warm a large saucepan with some oil in it, toss in just the shrimp portion, and cook them until they start turning pink. Then, mix the rest of the contents of the bag into the saucepan and heat for an additional three to five minutes.
In our preliminary research (we do that sometimes, though certainly not all the time), we found people complaining that this dish does not contain a very generous portion of shrimp. Those people are not wrong — our bag only had a total of nine shrimp in it. We think that’s a one-person amount of shrimp for sure. This is certainly not enough for the four servings this package claims to contain.
And that’s too bad because the shrimp is by far the best part of this meal. They’re juicy and succulent, and they have that perfect shrimpy flavor — seafoody, but not too seafoody.
The rice has an overly pine-needly taste, which we assume is due to the excessive amounts of basil in the dish. Seriously, that’s pretty much all we could taste in here.
This was also drier than we expected. We know this isn’t our fault, because we used considerably more oil than the package instructed us to, and we still ended up with rice that sucked the moisture out of our mouths. If you look at the ingredients list, you’ll see a lot of powders in it — vegetable powder, rice powder, garlic powder, onion powder — and we can’t help but wonder if there’s just a bit too much powder in this dish.
So how about that spice level? Well, it’s pretty spicy, but it’s not mouth-burning by any means. This is the type of spicy that you feel more in your chest than in your mouth. You’ll want to avoid this rice if you suffer from acid reflux — this rice is a major reflux trigger.
One serving, according to the package, only has 210 calories (80 from fat) and 320 mg of sodium. Now, that doesn’t seem bad at all until you realize that, unless you’re serving this as the side to a much larger meal, a full package is really just a single serving. That pumps the calorie count up to 840 (240 from fat), and the sodium up to 1,280 mg. This is no diet-friendly food. Yikes!
Trader Joe’s Spicy Thai Shrimp Fried Rice is probably our least favorite fried rice from Trader Joe’s. If you want something slightly seafoody and you don’t need a protein, check out Trader Joe’s Japanese Style Fried Rice instead. (You could always add your own shrimp to that dish as well, and you’d end up with something pretty darn tasty.)
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this Trader Joe’s fried rice, check out our package scans below.
You were dead on this review on the TJs shrimp fried rice. Worst food item I gave eaten in such a long time. We had to throw this away. It had way too much basil and I love basil. The taste was too hard to explain but it did feel like we were eating pine needles.
I wish I had kept the receipt for a refund. It was that bad. Whoever thought this is a good product to sell, should think of a new career choice. Disgusting product, the worst one in years.
Wow! My entire family and I LOVE this rice. The rice grains seemed very short compared to what I’m used to finding in fried rice but we did not find it to have too much basil at all. For an out of the bag and into pan FAST side dish, this is one of our favorites (and I have made many authentic Thai dishes). I make a Thai Basil Chicken Fried Rice from Thaifoodtonight . com that has far more basil than TJ’s and it’s excellent. As for the portion sizes, I believe four servings is a stretch but likely intended to be a side dish; not a main course.
VERY poor frozen option. Spice, while something that should enhance rice and shrimp flavors, simply over-powers the essential food ingredients. Rice is dry and unpalatable. Shrimp is “skimpy” (only five tiny shrimp pieces in my packet). Vegetables are barely existent with two green leaves of something (but I don’t know what!). Trader Joe’s should be ashamed of putting this frozen food item in its stores. It will be the last time I shop there.
I have to say I couldn’t disagree with you more! This is by far families all-time favorite!. It’s anything but dry so I’m not sure what it is you’re doing wrong.. In terms of the amount of shrimp it’s pretty typical with these type of dishes. Also it’s very filling one to two servings easily could be a meal. I almost think we’re eating two different things because this is incredibly tasty and it always out at our store. Our family can’t get enough of this. So if you’re considering giving it a try I would definitely recommend it.
I used to love this Thai Shrimp Fried Rice. I stop having this for awhile. Came back for it today. Found it way way way way too salty and so very sad and disappointed. I throw in the organic shredded cabbage and a whole tomato every time without adding any extra seasoning. It’s still way too salty. Then I looked it up and the sodium content is so high, 13% each serving. Total serving is 4. I feel very guilty serving these to my children. I think I will skip this from now on.
I agree. This dish is disgusting. The flavor profile is way off. The basil is excessive and the spicy left my tongue feeling raw and I love spicy food. It wasn’t a good heat it was just strange. Other than basil it had no flavor. It required a lot of additional ingredients to make it edible. I bought it accidentally and never will again.