Smart Ones Teriyaki Chicken & Vegetables Review

Smart Ones Teriyaki Chicken & Vegetables

We’re always on the hunt for a good teriyaki chicken here at Freezer Meal Frenzy, and that means we’re willing to sample just about anything. We’ve tried Teriyaki dishes from Amy’s Kitchen, Evol, InnovAsian, and even Marie Calendar’s (who make a startlingly good Sweet & Sour Chicken) — and all of these have their own pros and cons.

Because we often find the best teriyaki chicken in the strangest places, it means we have to keep our minds open when we seek new options. So today, we’re going into the Smart Ones Teriyaki Chicken & Vegetables without our preconceptions (which is a little tricky, because we have a tendency to not care for Smart Ones dishes). So let’s see if we can do this!

First off, the cooking. This takes about four minutes total in an 1,100-watt microwave (like ours), though it will take you longer than that with lower-powered microwaves. The process is your typical frozen meal cooking routine — pop it into the microwave, give it a quick stir, then pop it back in. There’s very little effort involved. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the back of the box, check out our package scans at the bottom of this review.)

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The chicken here is better than we expected. It’s not amazing, but it has a nice flavor to it. The consistency is perhaps a little rubbery, but it’s not hard, dry, or gristly, which tend to be the most common problems with microwaved chicken dishes. We appreciate the attention to detail here.

The teriyaki sauce is the main event, of course, and that’s halfway decent. It’s a little muted and has a bit of a burnt aftertaste, but aside from that we think this is a pretty good sauce. It tastes pretty much perfect with the chicken, though the rest of the meal doesn’t fare quite as well.

The broccoli is actually surprisingly good here, with a nice crunch and a really great flavor. However, that good earthy broccoli flavor doesn’t seem like a good match for the sweeter sauce. We’d actually love to try this broccoli in a different meal, perhaps with a soy sauce rather than a teriyaki.

The brown rice isn’t anything special, and we think it’s probably where that burnt aftertaste really comes through the strongest. This rice is also a bit mushy, and there are way too many carrots here. Seriously, this whole meal is orange with carrots! What’s going on here?

You lookin’ for a low calorie count? Well, you got it, bub! This meal only contains 270 calories. It does have 730 mg of sodium, however, which is about average for a frozen meal, though it’s a bit high compared to a normal meal you’d prepare at home (and, as one of our readers recently pointed out, you’ll probably consume this much sodium if you eat at a restaurant).

The Smart Ones Teriyaki Chicken & Vegetables is a halfway decent frozen meal. While it’s certainly flawed, we have to commend the folks at Smart Ones for not compromising on the chicken portion. That goes a long way in making this a decent meal instead of a mediocre or a bad one. All that said, the best feature here is probably the calorie count.

To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen meal, check out our package scans below.

Smart Ones Teriyaki Chicken & Vegetables
Smart Ones Teriyaki Chicken & Vegetables
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