We’re never sure what we’re going to find when we explore the freezer aisle at our local Trader Joe’s, but on our most recent trip, we were quite thrilled to find the Trader Joe’s Hatch Chile Chicken Wraps. These are relatively new, and far too often new products sell out at our local TJ’s before we have a chance to find them. (This isn’t always the case, of course. In fact, we were recently able to pick up the Trader Joe’s Roasted Garlic & Pesto Pizza, which was a delight.)
You can cook these in the microwave if you’d like, but we went straight for the oven. Despite being particularly hungry before writing this review, we were willing to wait in order to get a less soggy product.
These are easy to cook, though they take a bit longer than we expected. You’ll need to preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, then pop in the chicken wraps for 10 to 12 minutes. Once that’s done, you’ll flip the suckers over and given them another 10 to 12 minutes in the cooker. That’s a total cook time of 20 to 24 minutes. That seems pretty long for these wraps, which aren’t all that big. Honestly, we took ours out a little bit early and they turned out just fine. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scan at the bottom of this review.)
First off, we should point out that these are a bit shell-heavy. This is an inevitable result of the way the shell is folded, but we thought it worth pointing out. Of course, that shell is pretty tasty. It has a nice crunch to it (we assume it probably doesn’t if it’s cooked in the microwave) and there’s a little bit of a crackery taste to it.
But it’s the filling that really makes these wraps shine. There’s a creamy cheese sauce, filled with white meat chicken and hatch green chile peppers. To complete the flavor profile (and add some texture), there are some black beans inside as well. This is an absolutely wonderful flavor combo.
We’re tempted to say these wraps are really just frozen burritos with a different shape — and we love frozen burritos (we also love fun shapes), so this is definitely meant as a compliment.
These are spicier than we expected. In fact, we’re used to eating frozen foods that claim to be spicy yet barely even have any heat to them. These wraps cleared our sinuses and got our mouths tingling.
You might be surprised to learn just how calorie-loaded these little guys are. Just one wrap contains 540 calories and 780 mg of sodium. If you’re hankering to eat both wraps (each package contains two wraps), well, then you’re really piling on those calories, and your sodium level will go through the roof. We should point out here that these are more filling than we expected them to be, so two wraps might be a bit much for one person.
The Trader Joe’s Hatch Chile Chicken Wraps are an excellent twist on your simple frozen burritos. They may be rich in calories, but they’re also rich in flavor, and the spice level should satisfy medium-level spice-seekers (those looking for some volcano-style heat might still find these less spicy than they’d like). We really enjoy these, and if they weren’t so high in calories, we could see ourselves eating them pretty regularly. Still, we’ll probably enjoy these more often than we should.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, and cooking instructions in these chicken wraps, check out our package scan below.
