Fish sticks just don’t seem to get a lot of love anymore. When we were kids, we felt like they were all the rage, but as adults of the Twenty-First Century, we sometimes forget they even exist. When we learned that Trader Joe’s has frozen fish sticks in their lineup, we were curious to see what they bring to the table (both figuratively and literally).
Trader Joe’s Reduced Fat Fish Sticks promise to contain 35% less fat than regular fish sticks. We’re not sure how they calculated this number, so we’re just going to have to take their word for it. According to the box, a single serving contains about 220 calories (70 from fat), so that’s not too bad. (According to the box, whoever took the photo has a pretty sweet tablecloth too.)
Of course, that all depends on the size of a serving. The suggested serving size is six fish sticks, and a box is said to contain about 24 of them. Our box had 23.
While these don’t come in individual pouches of six, fish sticks aren’t as hard to separate as, say, a dish of mac and cheese. These aren’t tricky to divvy up by any means. And, as you can see in the picture above, there are definitely enough fish sticks in a package for multiple meals. While six might be a pretty small portion size, we can’t imagine anyone eating 24 of these (or 23) in a single sitting.
We used the oven instructions, which say to preheat to 375 degrees fahrenheit, then place on a cookie sheet and bake for 13-18 minutes. We noticed that these tend to stick to the cookie sheet a bit, so we recommend using a tiny bit of vegetable oil on the cookie sheet rather than just placing dry fish sticks on it.
These come out a little soggy on the bottoms, but if you quickly flip them over before you let them cool, they tend to crisp up pretty quickly.
The fish content in these is Alaska pollock, which isn’t the cod we remember from our childhood but it’s still a good choice — and a pretty common one — for fish sticks. We do feel like it has a slightly fishier taste than we remember, but it’s been so long since we had fish sticks that it’s hard to say for certain.
The breading is lovely. It tastes great and has a nice crisp to it. And, if you flip the fish sticks over like we mentioned earlier, that crisp surrounds the whole unit.
Trader Joe’s Lightly Breaded Fish Sticks are pretty good. While they won’t blow you out of the water (pun intended?) they’ll satisfy a breaded fish craving any day of the week.
Oh, and that mac and cheese and celery that’s pictured on the box? That’s not included, so don’t get your hopes up.
If you want to learn more about the nutrition info or ingredients of these fish sticks, check out our package scans below.
