Healthy Choice Max Honey Sriracha Chicken Review

Healthy Choice Max Honey Sriracha Chicken

One of the latest trends in the world of frozen dinners is to release larger-sized meals. This trend is showing up in the places we least expect it, like in the Lean Cuisine line of frozen bowls. Even more unexpected is the Healthy Choice Max subline, which takes a brand that’s mostly known for being light and healthy and creates a hearty portion size for the extra-hungry.

Okay, so regular Freezer Meal Frenzy readers know that for us, Healthy Choice is mostly known for creating meals that start on fire in our microwave. But we assume the rest of the frozen-food-buying scene knows them for their healthy takes on frozen meals. Healthy is in their very name, after all.

Anyway, Healthy Choice’s Max lineup has our curiosity piqued, so we’re going to dig into the Healthy Choice Max Honey Sriracha Chicken today to see what it’s all about.

Cooking this is easy, though it takes a bit longer than your average frozen meal. We’re assuming this is due to the larger size (which the package boasts is 40% larger than whatever meal they’re comparing it against). You’ll simply chuck the meal into the microwave (no need to vent the film) for five and a half to six and a half minutes. Let it cool for at least a minute, and bam! You’re ready to eat! (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)

Healthy Choice Max Honey Sriracha Chicken

First off, let’s talk about the chicken. This meal actually has a pretty generous portion of chicken strips. This is definitely more chicken than we’re used to seeing in a frozen meal, though that’s probably due to the larger overall size. Unfortunately, the chicken isn’t very good. It can be rubbery in places, and it has a subtle fishy flavor that doesn’t work well with the rest of the dish.

The chicken rests atop a bed of brown rice, red rice, red quinoa, and black barley. It’s a great blend, and we’re actually a bit sad that the portion size is kind of small. Usually, rice (or a grain blend) feels like filler; here, it’s a very satisfying component of the meal at large.

There are some veggies in the mix as well, though the carrots are surprisingly bland and the edamame is really dry. The red bell peppers might be the best of this meal’s veggies, and they’re honestly not that great. There’s also a mix of greens (kale, chard, and spinach) and while we appreciate what they were going for, we don’t think Healthy Choice quite pulled it off. Greens can add a fresh, earthy flavor when handled right, but here they taste a little stale.

The best part of this meal for us is the sauce. It’s a pretty tasty sweet-and-spicy blend, starting off sweet and slowly fading into spicy. We wouldn’t say it ever gets super spicy — it’s a pretty mild spice level, all things considered — but it does have just enough heat to make things interesting.

Of course, the larger size comes with a larger calorie count. At 450 calories, this isn’t super diet-friendly, though it’s actually not all that bad. We’ve definitely had far worse in that department. The sodium is actually pretty low, at 570 mg. Believe it or not, this has less sodium content than the average frozen meal.

The Healthy Choice Max Honey Sriracha Chicken starts off pretty decently with a great blend of grains and a tasty sauce. However, it then piles on a whole bunch of mediocre ingredients, and each one of those ingredients only serves to bring down the overall quality of the meal. This frozen food is an example of how bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better.

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

Healthy Choice Max Honey Sriracha Chicken
Healthy Choice Max Honey Sriracha Chicken
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