Banquet is one of the mainstays of the freezer aisle at any major grocery store, though the brand has mostly stayed in our blind spot over the course of our four-plus-year history as a frozen food review site. We’ve been trying to address this recently by tossing more of Banquet’s meals into our review rotation.
Today, we’re diving headfirst (not literally) into the Banquet Chicken Fajita Mega Bowl. While we’ve tried a few Mega Bowl meals already, this one in particular really caught our eye. We’re suckers for good fajita bowls here at Freezer Meal Frenzy, so this seemed right up our alley.
Heating this is simple: Toss it into the microwave for four minutes, give it a quick stir, then toss it back in for another two minutes. Six minutes is a little long for a frozen fajita bowl, but it’s certainly not a difficult process. (To read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out our package scans at the bottom of this frozen food review.)
The very first thing we noticed when we pulled this out of the microwave is how soupy it looks. It looks more like a full-on soup than a fajita bowl Don’t get your undies in a bunch, folks, we are exaggerating a little bit — though just a little bit, as you can see in the image below.
The soupiness really is the worst thing about this meal, and you could probably address that by letting this cool and reheating it again. We didn’t try this, though; we powered through the soupiness and found a meal that’s otherwise decent, though not amazing.
The chicken is alright. It’s a little rubbery (and even gristly in some places), but it tastes pretty good. It also soaks up that soupy, soupy sauce, which tastes pretty dang alright. While it’s certainly not amazing, the chicken might be the best part of this meal.
Aside from that, you’ve got the expected assortment of veggies: bell peppers, corn, black beans, and onions. None of these tastes all that fresh, and the corn is especially mushy (it seems like it came out of a can). We did find the black beans to be the standout here, though they were tragically sparse in our bowl.
So how is the spice level? Well, this is pretty mild. While Banquet’s Spicy chicken Queso Mega Bowl is quite the spicy affair, the Chicken Fajita Bowl plays things a bit safer. This might still be a little too much for true spice-ophobes, but those looking for a seriously spicy dish will want to look elsewhere.
Calorie counters should know this contains 410 calories. That really isn’t bad, but it does put this meal outside the range of what we’d comfortably call a diet-friendly frozen food. Anyone watching out for their sodium levels should really take caution here, as this contains 970 mg of sodium. That’s a lot for a frozen meal, and frozen meals in general are known for having a lot of sodium. So eat this one with caution.
The Banquet Chicken Fajita Mega Bowl is a soupy yet serviceable meal for those looking to satisfy a fajita bowl craving. It’s definitely not perfect, and we’d take anything from the Frontera line over this, but it’s also not a bad meal by any means. We just know that there are better options on the market.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this Banquet Mega Bowl, check out our package scans below.
It was pretty much just rice and chili powder. I think there were 2 beans.