Old things are becoming new again.
When we spotted the Marie Callender’s Fried Chicken Buffalo Style Mac & Cheese Bowl, we swore we’d reviewed it before. And we were sort of correct, but not really. See, we reviewed something a while back called the Spicy Buffalo Style Chicken Mac & Cheese Bowl. It’s an entirely different name for what seems like a very similar meal. In fact, we’re starting to feel like we switched into an alternate dimension where things have slightly different names…
Mandela-Effect existential spirals aside, it looks like what happened is as simple as Marie Callender’s deciding to change the name of the meal. Since we love buffalo chicken mac and cheese, we decided to give this a fresh look.
This is easy to heat, though it takes a little longer than the average frozen meal. The total cook time is about five and a half minutes if you choose to use the microwave. If you decide on using the oven, plan on spending 45 minutes cooking this thing. We weren’t feeling patient when we pulled this out of the freezer, so we went with the ol’ trusty microwave. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions, check out our package scans at the bottom of this review.)
The last time we reviewed this (back when it had its old title), we thought the macaroni portion was delicious while the chicken was a bit underwhelming. We think that opinion has really stood the test of time, as we feel pretty much exactly the same now.
The sauce here is what makes this meal tick. It’s a creamy cheddar and colby blend, with buffalo sauce mixed in and a little bit of bleu cheese on top. It’s a flavor combo that fans of buffalo chicken mac and cheese will go nuts for.
Marie Callender’s decide to take the word Spicy out of the title, and that’s probably a good call since this is not spicy at all. We almost forgot this was even supposed to be a spicy meal.
We were hoping Marie Callender’s would assess the chicken sog factor and maybe update it here, but it doesn’t seem like any changes were made. This chicken is still soggy, with a strange, unappealing aftertaste. In fact, this meal would be much improved by removing the chicken entirely.
The noodles are a bit mushy too. This isn’t the biggest sin this meal commits, but better macaroni noodles would certainly improve this dish.
This is kind of a calorie powerhouse, which is to be expected from buffalo mac and cheese. At 540 calories, this dish is for those who are more serious about eating mac and cheese than about dieting. And the 1,000 mg of sodium is nothing to scoff at either.
The Marie Callender’s Fried Chicken Buffalo Style Mac & Cheese Bowl takes an absolutely fantastic sauce and uses it to cover up a mediocre batch of chicken and noodles. This is a fixable situation, but since these flaws survived a name change, we’re not sure Marie Callender’s has any intentions of fixing them. We would absolutely recommend the Devour Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese over this one, but if you can’t find Devour meals, the Marie Callender’s version makes for a decent substitute.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen mac and cheese bowl, check out our package scans below.
