Ever since we tried the amazing Trader Joe’s Korma Fish Curry with Basmati Rice, we’ve been scouring the aisles of our local Trader Joe’s for another Indian-inspired frozen meal that’s as good as that. So far, the Yellow Jackfruit Curry with Jasmine Rice is the only thing we’ve found that can hold a candle to it.
So when we picked up the Trader Joe’s Paneer Tikka Masala, we hoped we’d found another true winner. (We should point out that the Vegan Tikka Masala really let us down, so we’re looking for something quite a bit better than that.)
First off, the chunks you see in the picture here are paneer. The paneer is soft enough to melt in your mouth, and it has a nice flavor with a curdled texture. It’s a good choice here, but we wish there were more of it. Trader Joe’s definitely isn’t as generous with the paneer portion size in this dish as they are with the fish in the Korma Fish Curry. The picture on the box shows at least double the amount of paneer that you should expect to find in this dish.
The curry sauce is incredible. This is a tomato-based curry sauce, so it has a bit of sweetness to it. That also makes it similar to the curry sauce used in the Korma Fish Curry (which we can’t stop talking about), though you won’t find any coconut milk in this version of the sauce.
The rice isn’t as bland as a simple jasmine rice or a basic white rice, since it has spinach added in. Still, it’s much, much better when it’s mixed into the sauce. Thankfully, there is a ton of sauce here, so you won’t run out before you finish your rice.
This meal contains 430 calories (210 from fat), so it’s not exactly a diet-friendly meal. It also has 730 mg of sodium, which is pretty average for a frozen meal, though it’s quite high in general. So this meal isn’t the healthiest thing to eat, but it does beat a lot of other frozen foods.
Trader Joe’s Paneer Tikka Masala is an incredible frozen meal. We would have loved some more paneer, but that’s our only nitpick, and we don’t think the meal suffers for it. The sauce is just so good that it’s really hard to complain.
To learn more about the nutrition content, cooking instructions, or ingredients in this Trader Joe’s tikka masala, check out our package scan below.
Tikka Masala has its origins – so it is claimed – in either Glasgow or Birmingham. The story goes that a curry house customer complained that his chicken tikka was too dry. The chef whipped up a sauce for it and tikka masala was born. However, I did have a similar dish in the Punjab back in the 1970s so who knows the real origins. No matter. TJ’s version is good.