Longtime Freezer Meal Frenzy readers might have noticed that we recently redesigned our site menu. We did this so we could continue to add new frozen food brands to our repertoire without overcrowding the site’s menu bar. While the menu is still a work in progress, we definitely think it’s cleaner than it was before. Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
One of the brands we’ve been itching to review for a very long time is Michelina’s. Now that the menu redesign is (mostly) finished, we can add them to our review mix without crowding the menu bar even more than it already was. Whew! So today we’re pretty excited to dig into the Michelina’s Chicken Fried Rice. We do love chicken fried rice, so we figured this would be a great place to start with the Michelina’s brand.
This is simple to cook. Peel back the corner and pop the whole thing into the microwave for two minutes. Give it a quick stir, then pop it back in for another minute and a half. We should point out that there’s no outer carton here; the outer box is also the food tray. That makes it closer in concept to a So Right frozen meal than a Lean Cuisine one.
Overall, the flavor here is pretty respectable. The rice is a little oily and tastes strongly of soy sauce, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. We’ve certainly tasted much, much worse!
The chicken is cut into cubes that aren’t super big, and that’s probably a good thing because it’s a little dry and rubbery. In small chunks, it doesn’t impact the overall quality of the meal as much as it would if there were larger cuts of the stuff. Still, this is a pretty mediocre chicken, and while the chunks are small, they’re also more plentiful than we were expecting them to be.
Aside from that, you’ve also got peas, carrots, and the occasional piece of red bell pepper. Don’t expect much from the bell peppers, as you’ll hardly find any here. The peas are sparse but decent, and the carrots are cut into tiny little slivers that makes their presence hardly noticeable. None of these things adds a lot; this is mostly just fried rice.
And unfortunately, there are no scrambled eggs here.
Now, even though you could add some protein to this, such as a General Tso’s chicken or even a faux meat of some kind, this is billed as an entrée. And since it already contains 410 calories and 890 mg of sodium, you might hesitate to add anything to the mix. That’s a pretty hefty heap of calories, and an even heftier heap of sodium.
The Michelina’s Chicken Fried Rice is a surprisingly okay batch of frozen rice. No, this isn’t a gourmet food, but it’s a fairly cheap way to enjoy a relatively tasty batch of fried rice. All things considered, it ain’t half bad!
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen fried rice, check out our package scan below.
Very bland.. Would prefer if fried in peanut or sesame oil. A little .more salt or soy sauce would improve taste a lot. But for the price, who can complain.
Michelinas are a good starting point but better to add some healthier options to. I like to split these meals in two and add other veggies like beans, spinach and add a bit more of the beans and season with whatever is appropriate. Convenience and more nutrition, win/win. Canned veggies are fine as well, just warm up the meal you are making in a frypan.