While we love a good orange chicken, a bad one can be a real bummer. Obviously, we were hoping for a good one when we picked up Smart Made’s Orange Sesame Chicken Bowl. We’ve had good experiences with Smart Made in the past, so we were feeling positive about this frozen meal before we dug in.
But that positivity didn’t last long.
The orange flavor is intense. This isn’t just a mildly orangy sauce; this sauce commits 100% to its orange-ness, with orange juice concentrate as one of the primary ingredients. Personally, it’s a bit too much for us. It’s not as bad as some other orange chicken dishes we’ve had, but we did find its reliance on the “orange” part of this equation to be a bit off-putting.
Plus, it seeps into every last element in this dish. The broccoli tastes like orange. The snap peas taste like orange. The bell peppers taste like orange. And, while we love the use of quinoa instead of rice here, the quinoa also tastes like orange. You cannot avoid the orange taste when you eat this meal.
The chicken comes in large chunks, which we really appreciate. It has a grilled flavor, though we found it to be a bit too dry. Oh, and it also tastes like it was doused in orange juice.
With the orange tuned down maybe 25% or so, we might have really enjoyed this meal. It has some great ingredients in it. But Smart Made’s Orange Sesame Chicken is clearly a meal for people obsessed with oranges. If you spend an inordinate amount of your day thinking about oranges, this dish might be for you. For anyone else, however, it might be a little much.
To learn more about the nutrition and ingredients in this frozen meal, check out our package scans below.
