Sometimes, a simple, lean dish is the perfect thing for a quick lunch. This is the idea behind Stouffer’s Baked Chicken, which is part of their Classics line. This meal is just a chicken breast with gravy and mashed potatoes. So can a dish this simple truly satisfy? That’s what we’re interested in finding out.
Unlike so many of Stouffer’s dishes, this one has a fairly short cook time. Just plunk it into the microwave for four and a half minutes and it’s good to go.
Now, the picture on the cover seems to imply that this meal keeps the mashed potatoes and chicken separated from one another, but this isn’t the case. We expected to see a divider of some sort built into the tray, but there is none. This meal is clearly meant to be enjoyed in one mixed-up batch rather than as an entree with a separate side.
The lack of barrier here is actually a strange choice, because the gravy is far more watery than we expected. This means it spills over to the mashed potatoes and gets them soggy before you even start eating anything. The mashed potatoes aren’t great either — we’d say they’re on par with school cafeteria mashed potatoes — so the extra sogginess doesn’t do them any favors.
Then again, the gravy actually tastes quite good. Yes, it’s runny, but it has a wonderful chicken broth flavor that suits this dish well. Even with the sogginess we mentioned earlier, the gravy really does take the mashed potatoes to the next level.
The chicken breast is pretty bad. The consistency is great — this is a soft, juicy piece of white meat chicken — but the flavor is way off. In fact, we were taken aback by how bad this is. It has a plastic-like flavor at first, which fades into fishy undertones that just don’t work with a piece of chicken. The gravy helps cover the plastic flavor a little bit, but it doesn’t do anything for that fishy aftertaste. You’ll find yourself rushing for a cool glass of milk to wash the taste out of your mouth.
The calorie count here is nice and low at 230 (70 from fat), making this a diet-friendly meal. Of course, the sodium level is pretty high — 790 mg of sodium is nothing to scoff at.
Stouffer’s Baked Chicken is low in calories, but it doesn’t taste very good. This is unfortunate, because the gravy has a great flavor that completely salvages the mediocre mashed potatoes — it just can’t save the chicken portion from being awful. With a better-tasting chicken breast, we would have actually really liked this meal, but as is, we cannot recommend it.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this frozen chicken dinner, check out our package scans below.
