We have a history with Stouffer’s Baked Chicken. We reviewed it a while back, and we did not have kind things to say about it. In fact, we were pretty horrified at the mess Stouffer’s had created with this particular meal (especially since so much of their other frozen food is so good).
So we were a bit surprised to find it at our local grocery store with a big “New Improved Recipe” icon on the box. Of course we wondered what changed, and we hoped Stouffer’s has addressed some of the concerns we had with the meal the last time we tried it.
If you look closely at the icon that we mentioned, it says “creamier mashed potatoes” on it. The potatoes in the previous version of this dish definitely weren’t great. In our review, we said “they’re on par with school cafeteria mashed potatoes.” So improved potatoes is definitely something this meal needed. When we look at the ingredients listed on the box, however, very little seems to have changed besides the adjustment of the portioning out of the very specific ingredients (this version seems to have reduced carrageenan, for example).
So let’s dig into this meal and see how much of an improvement it actually is.
After cooking it up, you can see that not a whole lot has changed. The potatoes still sort of dissolve into the gravy, though not as badly as before. They taste a little bit better, with a slightly buttery flavor that’s kind of alright. These are still not high-quality potatoes by any means. Our batch also had a hard, burnt chunk in it, which we pulled out and set aside because it was virtually inedible. Yuck.
The chicken isn’t great, though it might be slightly better than the old stuff. We complained about a plastic-y flavor the last time we reviewed this, and we didn’t notice that with the new batch. However, the chicken tastes like it was boiled rather than baked, so it has a weak, almost-fishy flavor.
The gravy isn’t anything to get excited about. It’s there, and it makes the boiled-tasting chicken a little better, so that’s something. We seemed to have thought the gravy was the best part of the meal last time, so that is perhaps an indicator that the potatoes really have improved — they taste better than the gravy now, but that was always a pretty low bar.
The upgraded version of this meal does not come without a cost in the calorie department. The old version weighed in at about 230 calories, while this one has 270. This is still a diet-friendly meal, but it’s gone up by 40 calories. The sodium is higher too, at 880 mg instead of 790 mg. This also is not all that filling. We were a little hungry when we started eating this, and exactly the same amount of hungry when we finished.
The improved version of the Stouffer’s Baked Chicken is definitely not worth going out of your way for. While it was improved a bit, it still needs a lot of work before it meets the quality of Stouffer’s better meals (like their lasagnas or their fettuccini alfredo).
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Stouffer’s chicken dinner, check out our package scans below.
