The Freezer Meal Frenzy staff has recently embarked on a chicken-eating adventure. Well, it’s not really an adventure in the usual sense, as we haven’t gone anywhere (unless you consider Flavortown a place, in which case…) More accurately, we have been sampling quite a bit of chicken nuggets and wings and such — so you should maybe forget that we used the word adventure at all.
Anyway, we recently tasted a few of Tyson’s chicken offerings (such as the Fully Cooked Chicken Nuggets and the Buffalo Style Boneless Chicken Bites). We also dipped into chicken-nugget-like food from other brands, such as the Trader Joe’s Chicken Drumellas and the Archer Farms Whole Grain Dinosaur Shaped Nuggets. Clearly, we’re big fans of chicken nuggets (and wings, etc.)
Today, we’re continuing this trend with an exploration into the Tyson Any’tizers Popcorn Chicken.
You can cook this breaded chicken in the microwave or oven, and we chose the oven. In our experience, the oven just produces better chicken than the microwave ever could. (If you want to see the full cooking instructions for both methods, check out our package scan at the bottom of this review.)
Tyson’s chicken tends to be quite good, and this is no exception. The meat portion is tender, juicy, and surprisingly flavorful. There’s a reason why Tyson’s frozen food products are so popular — they have really high standards for their chicken.
With this particular batch of chicken, however, we’re a bit iffy on the breading. Don’t get us wrong, it tastes fantastic. However, it has a rubbery consistency that we find a little off-putting. In fact, this breading is even hard in some places. While we appreciate a little bit of crunchiness, the “crunchy” parts of this breading are a bit too hard for us. Some people will probably really enjoy that; we just wish it were a little softer. (And no, we didn’t overcook this — in fact, we took ours out of the oven after about 13 minutes, even though the package calls for 15-20. Perhaps we should have used the microwave after all.)
We tried this popcorn chicken without any sauces at first, but we later tried it with our favorite dipping sauce combo: BBQ sauce and ranch dressing. This pairing works exceptionally well with this chicken. In fact, this chicken seems like it was specifically designed for dipping!
According to the nutrition facts on the back of the package, 3 oz. of chicken is a serving. How much is that? About 1/8 of the bag, apparently. If you eat that much, you’ll be consuming 170 calories (60 from fat) and 600 mg of sodium. While that doesn’t seem all that bad, we have a feeling you’ll probably end up eating about twice that much, which means you’ll want to double those numbers. Plus, you’ll need to take into consideration whichever sauces you decide to you. Some sauces (like our beloved ranch dressing) can really add a lot of calories. Despite what a quick glance at the package might tell you, this is no diet food.
The Tyson Any’tizers Popcorn Chicken tastes great, but the breading is a bit too crunchy for our tastes. While those looking for a really crunchy batch of breaded chicken will definitely find that here, we think the hardness is a little much for our preferences.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Tyson popcorn chicken, check out our package scan below.