We love reviewing Michelina’s frozen food here at Freezer Meal Frenzy. No, these aren’t made for anyone craving a gourmet meal, but they’re super easy and, more importantly, super cheap. We usually pick these up on sale for a buck a piece, which is an incredibly low price point. And no, not every meal we try is good, but we’ve found some real standouts in their line, and we hope to find more of them. Every new Michelina’s meal is like a treasure hunt for us.
So today we’re happy to be digging into the Michelina’s Pasta with White Chicken, Peas & Carrots, which we got during a recent sale at our local grocery store.
Cooking this is super easy (which we mentioned in our opening paragraph). Pop this into the microwave for two and a half minutes, give it a quick stir, and then put it back in for another 90 seconds or so. That’s four minutes of total cooking time, and basically no hassle at all. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the back of the box, check out the package scan at the bottom of this review.)
One thing we always point out when we review these meals is that Michelina’s keeps their costs down by skipping any kind of inner tray. The outer box serves as the tray here. That means these aren’t going to last as long in your freezer as, say, a Lean Cuisine meal. You should definitely make sure to heat and eat any of these meals long before their expiration date.
There are cubes of chicken in this mix, and they’re not great. When you were a kid, did you ever chew on an eraser? If so, the consistency of this chicken will be immediately familiar. It also has a really fake taste to it — this tastes more like chicken broth than actual chicken, and it’s weirdly salty. Thankfully, there’s not a ton of chicken here, so it won’t be a huge problem.
The pasta tastes overly starchy. We’re not sure if this is a result of the sauce just not being potent enough, or that it’s just how this pasta is. Either way, it’s not great. And speaking of the sauce, it has a weak, sort-of-garlicy flavor with an almost plastic-like aftertaste.
The biggest surprise here is that the peas and carrots are actually good. The carrots retain a bit of their pre-cooked crunch, and they have a somewhat fresh flavor to them. We expected the peas to be mushy and gross (which wouldn’t be off-brand for Michelina’s), but they’re actually pretty decent, as far as frozen peas go. Unfortunately, the portion sizes for both veggies are super tiny, so you won’t get to enjoy them for long.
Now, we’ve been focusing on the flaws of this meal — of which there are many — but somehow, all of this comes together to make something that kind of works. No, it’s not great. Yes, there’s a lot wrong with it. But for a budget-priced meal, there’s nothing truly horrible about any of this. Even the chicken, which is the worst part of the meal, is mostly okay considering the price point.
Like most of Michelina’s meals, this one is low in calories. At just 270 calories per box, you can eat this without feeling super guilty about wrecking your diet. So how about the sodium? Well, this contains 680 mg of sodium, which is slightly below average for a frozen meal, but it’s admittedly still a bit high for anyone who’s trying to cut their sodium intake.
The Michelina’s Pasta with White Chicken, Peas & Carrots is a flawed frozen meal that somehow works despite everything it does wrong. Of course, all of this takes into consideration that this is a one-dollar meal — we’d judge it a bit more harshly if we’d paid three or four times more than that. As a value-priced meal, it’s mostly okay.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen pasta, check out our package scans below.
