InnovAsian Cuisine makes a mean General Tso’s chicken. In fact, they make some of the best frozen General Tso’s we’ve had here at Freezer Meal Frenzy. So when we spotted the InnovAsian General Tso’s Chicken Breast Rice Bowl, we knew we had to give it a try.
Now, InnovAsian’s usual niche is frozen components, such as fried rice, sauced-up chicken, or egg rolls. So it’s nice to see them venturing into the world of microwavable full, single-serving meals, in the tradition of Healthy Choice or Smart Ones.
While some of InnovAsian’s other dishes take a bit of work to prepare, this rice bowl is simple — just pop it into the microwave for three and a half minutes. That’s really all there is to it.
Now, it seems InnovAsian is showing their newness to the whole frozen single-serve meal thing, as this bowl just isn’t mixed right. The sauce is all in one edge of the bowl, while the chicken is on the other. And the chicken here doesn’t look much like chicken at all — it comes in a flat patty that looks more like a fish fillet than a chunk of chicken.
However, mixing everything together really does this meal a world of good. It’s the sauce that steals the show. This sauce is fantastic. It’s incredibly sweet — in fact, this might be the sweetest Tso’s sauce we’ve tried — yet it also has a spicy kick to it.
The chicken is so-so. It’s designed to be soaked in the sauce, so you’ll be fine if you stir everything really well, but if you taste the chicken on it’s own, it’s surprisingly low-quality. It has a really strange texture, and there’s also an odd aftertaste that we can’t quite place. We’ll say this again — stir this meal pretty good before you start to eat it.
The broccoli tastes super fresh, though you might not even notice because the sauce has so much flavor. There are also a few bits of red bell pepper, but they don’t add too much in the grand scheme of things.
InnovAsian isn’t known for their low-calorie meals, and this rice bowl is no slouch in the calorie department. This little bowl contains 410 calories (though only 35 of those are from fat). And, like pretty much any frozen Asian meal, this has a decent amount of sodium in it — 740 mg. That’s actually not as bad as some of the meals we’ve had, but it’s slightly above average for a frozen food.
The InnovAsian General Tso’s Chicken Breast Rice Bowl is halfway decent, but we think we’d probably rather just cook up some of their General Tso’s Chicken and Vegetable Fried Rice and mix them together. It’s a bit more work, but it’s well worth it, as this bowl isn’t nearly as good as many of InnovAsian’s other items.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or microwave instructions for this InnovAsian rice bowl, check out our package scan below.