We’re big fans of the Devour line of frozen foods here at Freezer Meal Frenzy, even though they tend to be a bit higher in calories than your average frozen meal. We’re assuming a lot of other people are Devour fans too, because Stouffer’s has created a new line of products, the Bowl-Fulls line, to directly compete against Devour. (Of course, it’s possible that the folks at Stouffer’s are just huge Freezer Meal Frenzy fans and they want to make food specifically to make us happy… but we find that to be unlikely.)
Now, we’ve found some of the Stouffer’s Bowl-Fulls to be pretty good, though we did find one miss in the bunch so far (the Southwest Style Mac & Cheese just isn’t for us). Today we’re checking out the Stouffer’s Cheesy Chicken Parmesan Bowl-Full to see how it stacks up against the other products in this line.
Like most of Stouffer’s meals, the Bowl-Fulls take a bit longer to cook than your average frozen food. This one takes six minutes in the microwave, which certainly isn’t as bad as Stouffer’s Macaroni & Beef or their Meatloaf with Sweet Chipotle Barbeque Sauce, but it’s still above average. (You can read the full cooking instructions at the bottom of this article.)
Now, Stouffer’s chose to put the word Cheesy in the title of this meal, and we think they really deliver here. It’s hard to tell from the picture above — since we stirred this during the cooking process as recommended by the instructions — but this thing is actually loaded up with stretchy mozzarella. Stouffer’s did not skimp out on the cheese here, and we really appreciate that.
There are also some breaded chicken nuggets in this dish, but they’re not great. The chicken itself is the part we don’t like — it’s kind of hard and rubbery — but the breading actually tastes really good. Especially when it’s covered in sauce and mozzarella cheese. It’s a great combo that would have been even better with some decent-quality chicken.
The sauce is a pretty basic tomato puree, and while it’s nothing special on its own, it’s a good choice for this dish. The pasta comes in a textured spiral elbow shape, which means it features a lot of nooks and crannies for sauce to get jammed into. This causes the sauce to congregate around the pasta instead of getting left at the bottom of the bowl, which is a good quality.
On top of all of this is a bit of parmesan, which doesn’t dominate the flavor profile but enhances it — as parmesan should.
As we suggested earlier, this meal contains quite a few calories — 520 to be exact. It also has 1,110 mg of sodium. That’s a whopper of a meal, so be careful to enjoy this one in moderation.
The Stouffer’s Cheesy Chicken Parmesan Bowl-Full is a pretty tasty though imperfect meal. We enjoyed it well enough, but we think some better chicken would really elevate this to something special. As is, it’s still pretty good, but we’re not sure it’s quite good enough to justify the enormous calorie count.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen pasta dish, check out our package scans below.
