Frozen food is some of the fastest food around, so it makes sense to combine fast food with frozen food, creating dishes like the Smart Ones Chicken Stips & Fries. At first glance, this looks like something you might order at an all-American diner in the Midwest rather than something you’d spend time making at home.
Smart Ones works to keep their calorie counts low, and this meal is no exception. This has just 310 calories (140 from fat), which is much, much lower than its fast-food counterparts. As a Weight Watchers product, this also lists the SmartPoints value on the side of the box — this meal is worth 9 SmartPoints.
This meal has some unusual heating instructions: you’ll want to open the box carefully and save it for the cooking process, as it contains a crisping tray and a crisping cover, both of which you’ll need for cooking this.
Once you assemble the whole deal, simply cook this in the microwave on high for three minutes and 15 seconds. That’s some seriously fast food!
Now, there’s a secret to making this such a low-calorie meal, and you’ve probably already guessed at what it is. Here, Smart Ones has reduced the portion size to two very small pieces of chicken and just a handful of fries. This is probably not going to fill you up if you’re hungry.
The chicken strips taste fine, though this is really due to the breading and seasoning here. Those two things really cover up the taste of the chicken itself, and that’s probably a good thing. The chicken is chewy and dry — a rather unappealing combo for chicken strips.
The fries come out surprisingly crispy for a microwavable snack, which is due to the crisping tray on the box. However, the flavor is dull and lifeless, and the inner texture feels dry and crumbly. You’ll want to douse these in a sauce of some kind, because it’s very difficult to eat them bare. They’re just really, really low-quality fries.
The Smart Ones Chicken Strips and Fries are kind of a bummer. There are so many better low-calorie frozen foods on the market right now, so there’s really no excuse to suffer through something this bland.
To learn more about the nutrition info or ingredients in this frozen dish, check out our package scans below.
