When Target replaced the Archer Farms brand with Good & Gather, some things got left behind, some got considerable recipe changes, and some just got new packaging. As far as we can tell, the Good & Gather Buffalo-Style Chicken Bites fall into that last camp, as these are mostly look like a repackaged version of the Archer Farms Buffalo-Style Chicken Bites.
But we really can’t be certain until we try them, right? So today we’re going to fire up the oven and give these the Freezer Meal Frenzy welcome. That means we’ll be introducing these chicken bites to the insides of our mouths… We hope they get along with each other!
You can cook these in the microwave if you want to, but we went with the oven. It’s simple enough: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, place some chicken bites on a baking sheet, then cook them for 15 to 20 minutes. (If you want to read the full cooking instructions for both methods, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
Now, while these were in the oven, we did a little bit of investigating. We compared the back of the bag with that of the Archer Farms version. As it turns out, these really are the exact same product in a different bag, right down to the ingredients list and the nutrition content. But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to eat these again!
By the time we actually got to eat these, we knew we were going to like them. And they’re just as good as they used to be. The chicken itself is nice and soft, and while the flavor is mostly hidden by the breading and the buffalo sauce, it certainly does the job it set out to do: This serves as a base for the buffalo flavor.
And that flavor is quite good. This it a little bit muted, but not in a bad way. We think it will satisfy anyone with a craving for buffalo sauce. It’s also spicier than we remember it being. We did mention that it has some heat to it the last time, but we weren’t expecting it to clear out our sinuses after pretty much the first bite, which it did!
When we tried the Archer Farms version, we said that a little bit of ranch dressing really brings out the flavor. So of course we made sure we had some ranch on hand before we cooked these up. We definitely agree with the past versions of ourselves — a little bit of ranch really turns these into something special.
The Good & Gather Buffalo-Style Chicken Bites are really just the Archer Farms version in a new package. However, we still really like these chicken bites, and we’re glad to have tried them a second time.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions in this frozen buffalo chicken, check out our package scans below.
