Lean Cuisine’s frozen meals can be a mixed bag. Some of the Lean Cuisine dishes we’ve tried have been serviceable at best, some are pretty good, and others we’d rather never eat again. The Craveable Chicken Club Panini is a meal that surprised us in a good way.
Typically, a panini is not something we’d stick into the microwave, but the package instructions tell us it’s okay in this case. This is due to the included Revolutionary Grilling Tray, which Lean Cuisine believes to be so innovative that they registered the trademark.
Our doubts were erased when the panini came out of the microwave after two and a half minutes looking like a genuine movie star.
The cheese was melty with a crisp crust over the top of it, and the bread wasn’t the slightest bit soggy. The portions of chicken and bacon were pretty decent, and they provided some good color contrast for a nice aesthetic.
But enough about looks, we folded this sucker, sliced it down the middle, and took a gigantic bite.
The toasted bread was just as crisp as it looked, though it did get just a little soggy by the end due to moisture condensing on the plate beneath it. The chicken also had a good consistency — moist but not stringy like some other frozen chicken meals we’ve had. The tomatoes lent just a little bit of ripe sweetness that contrasted nicely with the rest of the ingredients. The cheddar cheese complimented the flavor quite well, though the bacon got a little lost in the mix of everything else.
All in all, Lean Cuisine’s Chicken Club Panini is a win. It’s not easy to get a frozen panini to turn out okay, but Lean Cuisine has discovered the secret.
For full nutrition info and ingredients, check out our package scans below.
