Stouffer’s Chicken à la King Review

Stouffer's Chicken à la King

Chicken à la king is one of those meals that has a tricky origin story. It originated at some time during the late 1800s or the early 1900s, but no one can seem to agree on exactly when or even whose idea it was in the first place. Potential creators include a chef for Delmonico’s named Charles Ranhofer, a Brighton Beach Hotel chef by the name of George Greenwald, and Bellevue Hotel cook William “Bill” King. In fact, it’s even up for debate whether the king part of the title was actually supposed to be King or a bastardized version of Keene.

While Stouffer’s doesn’t have any claim to its origins, the frozen food company does have a Chicken à la King dish in their lineup. We thought we’d give it a whirl and let our readers know what we think of it.

This meal has a pretty long microwave time, at six and a half minutes with a stir break about two thirds of the way through. We’re learning that when it comes to Stouffer’s, longer cook times seem to be the rule rather than the exception to the rule. We also found the film that covers this dish to be a bit flimsy, so it was hard to remove. The glue that holds the film to the tray is stronger than the film itself, so peeling back the film in one neat go is a very difficult trick to pull off.

Stouffer's Chicken à la King

If you’ve never had chicken à la king before, it’s a little difficult to explain the flavor. It has a creamy sauce that we almost want to describe as a cauliflower peanut sauce, though it doesn’t actually have cauliflower or peanuts in it at all. It’s actually a chicken broth base, though that’s not really what it tastes like.

The chicken in this dish is a thick, juicy white meat chicken. When it’s mixed with the sauce, it tastes incredible. In fact, we’d say the chicken is the best part of this whole meal.

There are some mushrooms in the mix, but they’re hardly worth mentioning. We only found three small pieces in this entire meal. They did taste pretty good, so we would have loved to see more of those in here. Sadly, small mushroom portions seem like they’re a trend in frozen food.

The veggie content is pretty sparse as well. There are some peas, celery, and red and green peppers, but not a lot of them. In fact, it seems like they’re only there to add some color to this dish — with green and red dotting the dish, it almost feels like it was visually themed around Christmas.

There is a considerable helping of rice in this dish as well, though this is clearly not meant to be eaten as a side. On its own it’s a bit bland, but it mixes really well with the sauce.

At 380 calories, this isn’t the leanest frozen meal out there, but at least Stouffer’s was honest enough to list the full calorie count on the front of the box rather than just half of it (we’ve called them out for this deceptive practice in the past).

Stouffer’s Chicken à la King is a tasty meal for those looking for some juicy chicken drenched in a great-tasting sauce. It’s not for everyone, but we really enjoyed it.

To learn more about the nutrition content and ingredients in this frozen food, check out our package scans below.

Stouffer's Chicken à la King

Stouffer's Chicken à la King

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