Stouffer’s Grandma’s Chicken & Vegetable Rice Bake is a frozen meal we’ve been wanting to try for a while now. It just looks so darn tasty. However, we’ve never been able to locate it in a single-serving size (we’re not sure such a thing even exists). Well, we finally decided to pick up a family-sized box of this stuff so we could give it a taste.
Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve reviewed a family-sized item from Stouffer’s. We really enjoyed the Spicy Pomodoro Penne and the Chicken Enchiladas. So we’re willing to check out these mighty items now and again — we just don’t do it that often.
Also, we should point out that this is a genuine family-sized item. While some frozen foods claim to serve several yet really just contain a single large serving, this would be very difficult for one person to eat in a single sitting.
Of course, with such a large size, this is no slouch to cook. If you choose to heat this in the microwave, you’re looking at 18 minutes of cook time. We chose to cook this in the oven, which takes almost an hour and a half. You’ll have to preheat the oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit, then pop this meal into the oven for an hour. After that, you’ll need to remove the plastic covering and put it in for another 25 minutes. You definitely don’t want to cook this if you’re feeling impatient.
After all that time, it comes out piping hot, so you’ll want to let it cool for a bit before you dig in.
This is mostly a warm, sticky blend of rice and cheese. The rice isn’t terribly impressive on its own, but it’s just there to serve as a base for the cheddar blend (which is cheddar cheese and cheddar club cheese). And it’s very, very tasty. This meal also has some peas and shredded carrots in, just to get your veggies taken care of, though there really aren’t that many. If you’re the type who likes to pick out the peas so you don’t have to eat them, that’s not a difficult task with this meal.
We’re pretty impressed by how generous the chicken portion is here. You’ll find several large cubes of it. This is a white meat chicken, so it’s not loaded with flavor, but it’s still pretty good. It’s also especially juicy. We did notice that a few pieces were kind of hard and gristly, which we’re not fans of, but the rest of the pieces were quite good.
And all this comes with a tasty breadcrumb crisp on top, which is the perfect topper to a great meal.
Obviously, there are several servings in one tray of this stuff. The box says there should be four, but we don’t think it’s unrealistic to eat about half of this in a sitting (the image above shows about half a tray in a bowl). We really don’t think you’ll eat the entire thing at once, though.
If you choose to use the box’s serving size, you’ll be consuming 330 calories (130 from fat) and 740 mg of sodium. Of course, if you end up eating half the box, that brings you up to 660 calories (260 from fat) and a whopping 1,480 mg of sodium. That adds up really fast, doesn’t it?
Stouffer’s Grandma’s Chicken & Vegetable Rice Bake is wonderful. It does remind us of something Grandma would bring to a holiday gathering, so we see why the word Grandma is in the title. This family-sized meal serves multiple people, so grab a friend or two and serve them up some delicious chicken-filled, casserole-style meals.
To learn more about the nutrition content or ingredients in this Stouffer’s family-sized meal, check out our package scan below.
Should be called Grandma’s NO chicken and rice bake! This product has changed dramatically. There is such a small amount of chicken in it now. My husband and I each had only two tiny pieces of chicken in the entire box. I will not buy this anymore!