Tai Pei Orange Chicken Review

We’ve had a bit of trouble finding items from the Tai Pei brand locally for some reason. While we have reviewed a few of their microwavable meals, there are several more that we’ve simply been unable to locate. So you can imagine our surprise when we spotted the Tai Pei Orange Chicken at our local Super Target. We didn’t realize that Target carried this brand, and we were especially surprised to see them stocking options we hadn’t tried before.

So we did what any reasonable Freezer Meal Frenzy staffer would do: We tossed this into our cart, paid for it, and brought it into the office as quickly as we could for a full review. So today we’re finally checking out the Tai Pei Orange Chicken!

This is simple enough to cook. Just bust open the plastic seal, then put the whole package into the microwave for four and a half minutes. Let it sit in the microwave for about two extra minutes after it’s done cooking, then dig in. (You can read the full cooking instructions straight off the box by checking out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)

Similar to the Michelina’s brand, Tai Pei doesn’t have any sort of inner container. Tai Pei expects that you’ll heat and eat straight from the cup here. Or, you can do what we did and dump it into a serving dish. We mainly did this to show our readers what this really looks like, because when you stare into the carton, all you really see is a bunch of veggies and a few pieces of chicken. Once you pour it into a serving dish and give it a stir, it looks more like you’d expect it to.

Now, we’ve tried some really, really bad orange chicken in our day, and we’ve also tried some really, really good orange chicken. This is somewhere in the middle. It’s certainly not horrendous, but it’s not amazing either. The chicken has a great flavor on its own, but the consistency can be a little mushy and there were a few chunks of breading that somehow ended up rock hard, despite the fact that everything else was mushy. We’re not sure what was going on with that, but flavor-wise, this is pretty good.

And the orange sauce is actually quite competent. It’s not amazing, but it’s better than a vast majority of the orange sauces we’ve tasted here at Freezer Meal Frenzy. It’s super sweet, and not overwhelmingly orange-peel-y.

There’s a selection of veggies in the mix. You’ve got some broccoli, which is a bit soggy, and the earthy broccoli flavor clashes with the sweetness of the sauce. The carrots have a great flavor, but they’re too soft, especially when compared to the water chestnuts, which are crunchy but mostly flavorless. Rounding out the mix, you’ve got some red bell pepper pieces, which are honestly not great here (though we admire the attempt, we suppose).

And all of this rests on a bed of fried rice, which mostly just soaks up the orange sauce. You’ll end up with sticky, super-sweet clumps of fried rice, which we’re honestly not complaining about.

Now, this unfortunately has more calories than it seems is necessary. With 470 calories (80 from fat), you’re not going to want to make this a regular meal. As for sodium, this contains 730 mg, which is just a teensy bit above average for a frozen meal.

The Tai Pei Orange Chicken is far from perfect, but we’re so used to microwavable orange chicken being terrible that we actually really appreciate this one. It’s nowhere near the Trader Joe’s Mandarin Orange Chicken, but for a fast, cheap option, you could certainly do worse than this Tai Pei offering.

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