Trader Joe’s BBQ Chicken Teriyaki Review

Trader Joe's BBQ Chicken Teriyaki

Trader Joe’s has a pretty robust line of frozen chicken products, and we’re becoming big fans. Their Mandarin Orange Chicken is a real barnstormer, and the Jerk Chicken Thigh Skewers are some of the best frozen chicken morsels we’ve ever had. So we were pretty excited to try out the Trader Joe’s BBQ Chicken Teriyaki.

The Trader Joe’s website has an article that talks up the “shiny” quality of this chicken. While it sounds a little silly, it did spark our curiosity. “My, how shiny it looks in the picture on the bag,” we said to ourselves. “Could this be the shiny chicken the Trader Joe’s chefs were hoping for?” Well, let’s find out.

Now, if you look at the package, you’ll realize there’s only one set of cooking instructions for this chicken — microwave instructions. We have to admit, this made us a bit nervous. Frozen chicken in the microwave? What sort of barbarians does Trader Joe’s take us for?

Trader Joe's BBQ Chicken Teriyaki

But we were left with no other choice. To the microwave we flew.

You’ll want to pop the chicken into a microwave-safe bowl and heat, covered, for five minutes. After that, dump the teriyaki packets into a bowl and heat for about a minute. Then mix it all together, and if it’s not quite cooked yet, give it another couple minutes. We actually found that last step unnecessary.

We have to admit, all of our nervousness about how this would turn out in the microwave vanished the second we popped a piece of this chicken into our mouth. This chicken is the stuff of legends.

This is a dark meat chicken rather than a white meat, and that means it’s rich, dense, gristly, and juicy. And Trader Joe’s didn’t mess around with medium-quality meat here; this is the real deal. We did try some of this before we doused it in sauce, and we were tempted to just eat the chicken without the teriyaki sauce because it’s so darn good.

Trader Joe's BBQ Chicken Teriyaki

But the sauce is heavenly, so it would be a pity to simply toss it aside. This is a sweet BBQ teriyaki sauce with a hint of soy. It’s a restaurant-quality sauce that we’re sure you’ll be pleased with. It is a little watery, so you’ll definitely want to use a bowl rather than a plate for this stuff, but it tastes unbelievably good.

You could pair this with a fried rice — and the Trader Joe’s Chicken Fried Rice would do nicely — but it’s so darn tasty on its own that you’ll probably just want to eat this straight from the bowl.

So is it shiny? Why yes, it’s a little bit shiny (though not nearly as shiny as the package might have you believe).

The serving size for this chicken is about one cup, and there should be about three and a half servings in a bag. We’re going to be honest here: we’re certainly not going to be putting this chicken in a measuring cup.

One serving contains 150 calories (30 from fat) and 570 mg of sodium. We got out our calculator to figure out how much a whole bag contains — it’s 525 calories (105 from fat) and 1,995 mg of sodium. We doubt you’ll eat a full bag in one sitting, but in case you do, now you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Trader Joe’s BBQ Chicken Teriyaki is monstrously good. You won’t be able to tell this is a microwave-only food; in fact, you’ll swear it’s takeout. This is some seriously tasty chicken, and we can’t recommend it highly enough.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s teriyaki chicken, check out our package scan below.

Trader Joe's BBQ Chicken Teriyaki
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BRIAN YAPKO
BRIAN YAPKO
2 years ago

With all due respect, this was the singularly worst chicken teriyaki I’ve ever had in my life. Gristly and gross. The sauce was ok but the chicken was just dreadful.

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