Trader Joe’s has a surprisingly robust selection of microwavable curry dishes in their freezer section, and some of them are fantastic. We’re especially fond of the Korma Fish Curry with Basmati Rice. So we’re always up for trying more of the stuff. That makes today a happy day, as we’re reviewing the Trader Joe’s Fiery Chicken Curry.
This is easy enough to heat up in the microwave. You can, of course, cook it in the oven if you’d like, but we didn’t find that to be necessary. We cooked ours in the microwave for the sake of this review, as we think that’s the option a vast majority of people are going to choose. (If you want to see the full cooking instructions, see the package scan at the bottom of this review.)
The word Fiery in the title is this dish’s most controversial element. It is there to scare off spice-ophobes while attracting those looking for the spiciest meal possible. So does this dish live up to the name? We think so, but it really depends on what your expectations are. This is certainly the spiciest of the meals we’ve tried from this line. It has that quality where the heat sort of builds up over time, and by the end of the meal, you’ll be really feeling the heat.
On the other hand, we know people who just can’t get enough spice in their lives, and this might be yet another instance where those people will feel let down. For everyone else, though, we really think this has a good amount of heat.
The chicken here is of an exceptionally high quality. It’s rich and juicy, and it has a lovely texture. Because it soaks in the sauce as it cooks, it absorbs a ton of flavor, and it ends up with a consistency that remains firm on your fork but falls apart once you bite into it. This is truly some top-notch stuff.
The sauce here is a tomato-based affair that’s filled with coconut and curry, and it’s absolutely delicious. It’s a little bit watery, but we really didn’t find that to be a substantial problem here.
The side dish is tumeric rice, and while there’s nothing really wrong with it, it’s just not very exciting on its own. Thankfully, there’s plenty of sauce to mix it into, and once these two components are combined you’ve got something really tasty to dig into. There’s not quite enough sauce for all of the rice, but we managed to mix about 2/3 of our rice into the sauce.
This isn’t a super diet-friendly meal, with 360 calories and 620 mg of sodium, but it’s really not that bad. The calorie count is just slightly above average for a frozen meal of this size, while the sodium level is slightly below average. We think you can probably justify eating this, even if you’re counting calories.
The Trader Joe’s Fiery Chicken Curry is a tasty dish that will tingle your tongue and clear out your sinuses. While we still prefer the Korma Fish Curry to this, we definitely think spice-loving thrillseekers will find something here to love.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Trader Joe’s curry dish, check out our package scan below.
I thought the fiery chicken curry was awful to the point of inedible! It was like someone took a bottle of cheap, HOT, acidic, Mexican salsa, and poured it into the curry.
I couldn’t even eat the chicken, The rice burnt my mouth and left me with heartburn…
and I Love Spicy food.
I often order Thai curry “Thai Hot!
I will never buy this again!
It’s your fault if you burned your mouth with the rice though. It also doesn’t make sense that this stuff is giving heartburn if you can eat real That hot curry, unless you’re eating at an Americanized Thai establishment/a place that’s catering to non-Thai people. Imo
This review makes no sense, to the point that I wonder if you’re describing a different product. The sauce the chicken’s in is flavorful, and it’s at most a “medium” or 3/5 spice level at an Indian or Thai place. The rice itself isn’t spicy at all, so if it burned your mouth, then the temperature would be to blame. Wait for it to cool down a little next time.