Ah, chicken dinner. It’s the all-American family meal, and a longstanding staple of the frozen food world. A good batch of chicken with a warm and tasty side of mashed potatoes can really hit the spot. However, frozen food versions tend to be… less than ideal a lot of the time.
Don’t get us wrong here; we’ve actually found quite a few options that will satisfy this particular craving. But we do tend to go into these meals with more skepticism than high hopes. It’s just the way we do things around here.
Anyway, today we’re curious about the Banquet Mega Meats Cowboy Chicken with Homestyle Mashed Potatoes, so we’re going to cook up a batch and give it a little taste test. This does look pretty tasty, but we’re trying to not get our hopes too high because we don’t want them dashed upon the perilous rocks of mediocrity.
Cooking this is simple, but it takes a bit of time. You’ll pop the thing into the microwave for four minutes, then stir the potato portion, then pop it back in for three and a half to four and a half minutes. Yes, that’s about eight minutes of cook time! (If you want to read the full cooking instructions straight off the back of the box, check out the package scans at the bottom of this review.)
The main course here is two pieces of herb-roasted chicken. You’ve got one thigh and one drumstick. And we have to say, these are delicious. The meat itself is packed with flavor. We honestly weren’t expecting this chicken to be so flavorful, but here we are. It almost tastes like it’s chicken that was also soaked in chicken broth for an extra chicken-y touch. It also seems to have a glaze of some sort on it, which really serves it well. This is super tasty chicken; just be careful of those bones!
Now let’s talk about those potatoes… Po-tay-toes! Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew! These mashed potatoes are described by the box as “homestyle,” so we’d be pretty disappointed if they ended up being that highly processed stuff that’s made from a powder. That certainly ain’t how Mom makes ’em!
We’re going to be honest here: The potatoes aren’t great. They’re not horrible, but they taste kind of fake and the consistency is a bit gravelly. It’s a good thing the chicken is so good, because these potatoes didn’t disappoint us as much as they would have otherwise.
So how about those calories? Well, at 450 calories, we wouldn’t exactly call this a diet food. And considering this also has 1,300 mg of sodium, we’d be hesitant to recommend this to those trying to reduce their sodium intake. Then again, this is a relatively filling frozen meal.
The Banquet Mega Meats Cowboy Chicken with Homestyle Mashed Potatoes pairs some absolutely amazing chicken with some less-than-perfect potatoes. We definitely recommend this, with the caveat that the potatoes aren’t great. But the chicken is way better than we would have expected, which makes this whole meal worth it, in our book.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen meal, check out our package scans below.
This is a favorite of mine. The chicken tastes almost as good as a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store but just smaller pieces. I add a bit of butter to the mashed potatoes but they are still not so good but not terrible.